Under a cloudy sky, students, faculty and staff at the University of Connecticut gathered on Friday, April 9th to hear a human rights advocate’s perspective on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Members of the UConn community congregated at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center to attend the event, A Human Rights Advocate’s Guide to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Photo by Annie Belanger.
The goals address a wide range of issues, including poverty reduction, economic growth, access to energy, conservation, social rights and climate change.
However, many human rights advocates have criticized these goals for not properly addressing the needs of indigenous peoples.
James Anaya, Professor of Human Rights Law and Policy at James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona, traveled to UConn to offer insights about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and how to approach them from a human rights perspective.
Professor James Anaya. Photo courtesy of jamesanaya.org.
Anaya, a graduate from Harvard Law School, served as the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from 2008 to 2014.
After traveling to Nicaragua in the 1980s as a tourist, he saw the injustices and conflicts indigenous peoples faced and decided to devote his career to promoting human rights around the world.
He later represented a group of indigenous peoples in Nicaragua as they fought against the government for the right to their own land in the Case of the Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community vs. Nicaragua. In 2001, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that Nicaragua violated the right to their territory.
Anaya shared a photo of him celebrating with members of the Awas Tingni community in Nicaragua. Photo by Annie Belanger.
Since then, he has dedicated his work to protecting the rights of indigenous peoples.
During his presentation, Anaya cited articles from the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that explicitly reference indigenous peoples. He explained that “if read in isolation, the sustainable development agenda and it’s goals may seem to fall short” in addressing human rights.
However, while the direct references of indigenous peoples may seem few and far between, Anaya argues that the agenda offers an “invitation to dialogue.”
The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in September. According to Anaya, the agenda reflects an “effort to better integrate social and human rights in sustainable development goals.”
When discussing the UN’s specific goals, he said we must allow “for an interpretation that is conducive to human rights.”
Stakeholders include not only indigenous people, but also women, children and youth, non-governmental organizations, local authorities, workers and trade unions, businesses and industries, the scientific and technological community and farmers.
“The participation of these various non-state actors makes for the possibility of an inclusive dialogue,” Anaya said. “At the very least, these voices have a chance to be heard, and their voices in turn can be amplified by the human rights framework that is included in the sustainable development goals.”
While Anaya acknowledges that the goals could certainly be improved and made more inclusive, he argues that the invitation to dialogue is a positive step forward for oppressed groups, including indigenous peoples.
He said, “I can’t help but celebrate the stated intention that animates sustainable development goals and the inclusion of human rights in the agenda.”
As we engage in a dialogue about these issues, Anaya says that we must make sure to include indigenous peoples in the conversation.
According to Anaya, criticism of the UN’s goals can be productive as long as it’s focused on promoting a constructive dialogue. This starts, he said, with “inserting the group itself into the dialogue.”
“Sustainable development goals make for a glass half full,” Anaya said. “Do we fill the glass, or do we let the evaporative forces of the apathy and pessimism set in? I say, let’s fill it.”