Methodology used

This Declaration has been selected for it includes a core set of rights and fundamental freedoms essential for securing a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders. The Declaration is not legally binding to states, but it reaffirms rights and freedoms enshrined in legally binding international instruments. 

This resource provides examples of the linkages between the core issues in the Declaration, related SDG targets, and binding human rights instruments. The methodology applied in this resource includes the following considerations:

• The links to the SDG targets are made between a fundamental aspect of the target and an Article in the Declaration. At times, it might not address all the components of the target.
• The principle of non-discrimination is to be applied to all articles of the Declaration and in the implementation of the entire set of SDG targets. For didactical purposes, this paper singles out some of the most explicit links on non-discrimination in the SDGs and in the Declaration
• The links to other human rights instruments are non-exhaustive. They are presented to demonstrate examples of the basis of the Declaration in other human rights instruments. It includes both legally binding (e.g. Conventions, Covenants and Agreements) and non-legally binding instruments (Declarations).
• There are several regional instruments which could have been linked in this work. For practical reasons, only the Escazú Agreement was included in the examples due to the direct correspondence between its subject and its ground- breaking nature as a legally-binding treaty for the protection of environmental human rights defenders. Visit the Human Rights Guide to the SDGs to see all of the links between the SDG targets and other human rights instruments, including regional ones.
• The entire content of the Declaration is linked to and acts as an enabler for SDG 16.10. For the purpose of this paper, a selection of articles was made to highlight explicit links to the fundamental freedoms of association, assembly and expression.

Who can use it and how?

The resource provides information for a range of actors, including States, local authorities, civil society organisations, national human rights institutions and human rights defenders. The linkages between specific SDG targets and the human rights and fundamental freedoms necessary for securing a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders can be used to: 

• Enable a human rights-based approach to the securing of a safe and conducive environment for the work of human rights defenders, building on both the 2030 Agenda and states’ human rights obligations. 
• Facilitate integrated monitoring and reporting on an enabling environment for human rights defenders using both legally binding human rights obligations and related political commitments in the 2030 Agenda to build forward better from the Covid-19 pandemic. 
• Guide the identification of additional human rights-based indicators to complement the monitoring of SDG 16.10 (access to information and fundamental freedoms) for a comprehensive monitoring of the enabling environment for human rights defenders at national level.

Limitations

Human rights are indivisible and interdependent. It is therefore important that the linkages shown in this resource do not lead to a simplistic, narrow or compartmentalised interpretation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms necessary for human rights defenders.