As the UN Secretary-General has highlighted, ‘the 2030 Agenda, underpinned by human rights, provides a comprehensive blueprint for sustainable recovery from the pandemic’.
The Sustainable Recovery Lab, which took place on 14th January 2021, discussed how to operationalise this blueprint for Sustainable Recovery.
Speakers from government, civil society, businesses, UN agencies and human rights institutions and mechanisms as well as lab participants highlighted the following key messages:
- The pandemic has put pressure on the full range of human rights and democratic structures, increased poverty and exposed and exacerbated vulnerabilities and inequalities with devastating impact across the globe.
- Prior to the pandemic, the world was not on track to achieve the SDGs. The silver lining is that the pandemic has illustrated how resilience is linked to human rights and sustainable development and how interdependent we are across the globe. It therefore provides an opportunity to address systemic injustices and rethink the path ahead at a global scale.
- To meet the challenges and build just and resilient societies, Sustainable Recovery must be transformational, holistic and inclusive, and address long overdue obligations under the human rights framework as well as long overdue commitments under the 2030 Agenda.
