Global Interest
One year after the historic adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), world leaders are convening in New York for the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly to discuss how to turn the ambitious Agenda 2030 into a reality for people around the world.
STATEMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LAW ORGANIZATION
HIGH-LEVEL PLENARY MEETING ON ADDRESSING LARGE MOVEMENTS OF REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
UN Headquarters
September 19, 2016
New York
Delivered by Irene Khan, Director-General, IDLO
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“As a rule, conflict prevention efforts should always pay enough attention to bringing women to the negotiation table, and not just for the picture,” IDLO’s Director-General Irene Khan emphasized during the Security Jam ‘Beyond conventional security challenges’ brainstorming event.
‘Human rights and rule of law have to go hand in hand.
In 100 countries worldwide, women are barred from doing certain work solely because they are women. Over 150 countries have laws that are discriminatory to women, and only 18 countries are free of such laws. In 32 countries, women cannot apply for passports in the same way as men.
Last year Legal Aid South Africa supported nearly 800,000 people who would otherwise have had no recourse to justice because they could not afford legal fees.
IDLO representatives are participating this week in the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, which is said to be the largest conference on any global health or development issue.
World leaders have committed to ending AIDS by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, but stigma and discrimination remain significant obstacles. In particular, police are critical, front-line determinants of risk for many people living with HIV (PLHIV) and members of other key affected populations (KAPs). The negative impact of adverse police behaviors and practices on HIV risk is well documented, and these risks undermine global efforts to end AIDS. Far less well documented, and less common, are attempts to ameliorate this impact by working to change police behaviors.
The rule of law has often been regarded as an abstract concept in development circles, a poor second cousin to the tangible targets set by the eight Millennium Development Goals. But that changed in January 2015, with the adoption by the African Union of Agenda 2063, which included the rule of law as one of its seven ‘Aspirations’ for Africa.
“Overcoming environmental destruction is an act of justice”, said Helene Molinier, IDLO’s Program Manager of Strategic Initiatives, at the opening of Connecting the Dots Across the SDGs: Lessons in Biodiversity Mainstreaming.
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