UNDP Oslo Governance Centre

Linking Human Rights and MDGs

From April to June 2006, the United Nations knowledge networks, MDGNet and Huritalk held a virtual discussion on the links between human rights and the MDGs in development practice.   The conclusion of the 6 week discussion was that linking human rights and MDGs does matter, and unless it is made more explicit, the spirit and vision of the Millennium Declaration will be lost. Yet to help practitioners make the link more explicit, more practical guidance is needed.  

In September 2006, the Oslo Governance Centre convened a working group to approach how this guidance could best be provided. The working group spent 2 days discussing key issues highlighted by the e-discussion, and potential intitiatives to carry work forward. Subsequent work was then initiated on a primer and a webportal as complementary tools for guiding development practitioners. Together, these two tools provide practical guidance to UNDP practitioners tracing the links between human rights and the MDGs in their work.

Links

• Summary of the E-discussion: How to Effectively Link MDGs and Human Rights in Development? (21 June 2006)
• Summary Report of the Working Group Meeting on Linking MDGs and Human Rights  (18-19 September, 2006)