Geneva: New Humanity Contributes to Relaunch the UN Agenda on the Right to Development

The seventeenth session of the Working Group on the Right to Development

25 April- 3 May 2016, Palais des Nations

“During the last days, the Intergovenmental Assembly approved many of the proposals presented by New Humanity and the other members of the Catholinc Inspired NGOs Forum in Geneva (CINGO). Consequently, these proposals have been now included among the official texts of the United Nations for the review of the UN Agenda for the Right to Development.” Prof. Davide Bilardi – New Humanity’s delegate for the Right to Development at the UN and at the CINGO Forum – expressed with these worlds his satisfaction at the end of the meeting.

 “Together with the other non gevernative organisations- prof. Bilardi continued-  undoubtedly New Humanity will be called more and more to bring the voice of the civil society – and mainly those who have no voice – at this important international context”. New Humanity seems indeed to have wide possibilites to affect such an important UN policy and to promote its values at this level. Undoubtedly, it is a work that will require more and more interest and professionalities and represent an amazing challenge for the future engagement of New Humanity.

The working Group experienced indeed a period of impasse. However, it recently received a renewed push by the presentation in New York of a new 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The new Agenda get back to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and analised its strenghtness and weakness. Than, it propose 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be reached untill 2030. SDGs, are focused on recognising Development as a fundamental right for each human beings , to be reached trught a path of sustainability.

This document introduced various substantial innovative elements: even if challenges for the Agenda remain almost the same, a new method in order to identify priorities and to reach its goals has been totally renewed.

It has been a wide consultation in order to identfy all the 17 SDGs. It involved the States, but also a long list of relevant stakeholders – mainly in order to identify the real and primary goals.
Another relevant outcome has been the identification of 163 development criteria in order to concretise and clarify the engagement of the whole civil society in order to reach its goals.

Finally, the Working Group recognised that the new impulse produced by the SDGs’s approval positively affected the future perspectives of the working group itself and produced a main acknowledgement of the concept of Sustainable Development among the international community.

More info:

Working Group on the Right to Development
Geneva: New Humanity Participates to the 16th Session of the Working Group on the Right to Development