The Central Asian Regional Consultation on Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Integration of Human Rights Recommendations into SDG Implementation Mechanisms in Central Asia

Members of the Working Group of the Interdepartmental Commission on Ensuring the Implementation of Turkmenistan’s International Obligations on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law and the Working Group on the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Turkmenistan took part in this event and shared experience and best practices with partners from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the format of a teleconference. The event brought together over 70 representatives from various Government agencies and civil society from five Central Asian countries representing national institutions responsible for monitoring and reporting on SDGs and human rights and collecting and analyzing SDG and human rights data. In addition, the international human rights experts from UNDP, OHCHR and the Danish Institute for Human Rights also participated in the event.

The goal of the consultations was to provide a platform for all Central Asian participants to share experiences in linking human rights recommendations to the SDGs and their implementation practices in national monitoring, implementation, and oversight processes towards the achievement of the SDGs. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda are transformative frameworks for development because they are based on human rights. More than 90 percent of the SDGs and targets are aligned with human rights commitments.

The international expert, Thomas Baranovas, conducted an Analysis “Mapping of Integrating Human Rights into the SDG Planning & Reporting Processes in Central Asian Countries”, and presented this analysis to the participants of the event for further discussions in the country groups. Mr. Baranovas noted that the next step is a closer relationship between these two processes on the basis of mutual benefit. A good example of this is the inclusion of a separate section on Sustainable Development Goals into the National Action Plan for Human Rights in Turkmenistan for 2021-2025.

The participants were also introduced to the online tools of OHCHR and the Danish Institute for Human Rights that assist countries in establishing the links between human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and enabling rapid examination of recommendations by international human rights monitoring bodies concerning the implementation of the SDGs in specific countries. The meeting participants expressed their interest in the continued regional exchange through this platform, providing know-how and capacity building to respective institutions working on integrating human rights into national SDG mechanisms in Central Asian countries.