International Solidarity and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to start by thanking Ambassador Khattab, the President of the National Council for Human Rights for graciously inviting me to this important event.

It is a pleasure and privilege to be here today.

This international conference provides an excellent illustration of the alignment of the global, regional and national agendas. The theme of “International solidarity, the Agenda 2030 and the pivotal importance of SDG16” runs as a common thread linking the three levels.

In my remarks I will share three reflections on the theme of the conference. And as the Chair of the UN Country Team in Egypt I will also outline the UN contributions to delivering on this agenda.

I will start with solidarity. Last year, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres launched his strategic vision for his second mandate with a report titled Our Common Agenda. Our Common Agenda is, above all, an agenda of action designed to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

And the UN Secretary General himself highlighted solidarity as the cornerstone that Our Common Agenda depends on. Solidarity is the principle of working together, recognizing that we are bound to each other, and that no community or country can solve its challenges alone.  And that is why we are gathered here today, looking for solutions together.

Secondly, I am encouraged that the SDGs, and specifically SDG16, are centerstage at this gathering of Arab National Human Rights Institutions.

This is an important reminder that the SDGs and human rights are tied together. To underline this point: all 17 goals, and over 90 percent of the 169 SDG targets are linked to human rights and labor standards.

Implementation of the full spectrum of human rights is at the heart of our capacity to deliver on the SDGs. Civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are mutually reinforcing, indivisible and universal. They constitute essential factors in building more peaceful and inclusive societies.

This is also what SDG16 is all about. Promoting and protecting civic space makes societies stronger and more resilient, building on the right to participate and the freedom of expression, association, and assembly.

In short, making progress on the SDGs is also making progress on human rights obligations. The UN Secretary General makes an important observation in his report and I quote: ‘while upholding human rights is an obligation for all States, beyond that, it is also time to treat rights as problem-solving tools and ways to address grievances, not just for individuals but for communities at large.’

Thirdly, this brings me to Egypt and the country context here. The Egyptian National Strategy for Human Rights, launched in September last year by His Excellency President El-Sisi, is based precisely on this vision.

Egypt’s National Strategy for Human Rights takes a comprehensive and holistic vision of rights – not elevating any group of rights above others. Moreover, the national strategy is based on three pillars: the first two are the Constitutional guarantees and the international human rights commitments of Egypt. The third is the Sustainable Development Strategy, Vision 2030. In this way the strategy links human rights at the national level with the delivery of SDGs.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Where do we come into this picture as the UN in Egypt? Our general strategic framework for cooperation with the Government, the UN Partnership Development Framework from 2018 to 2022, is the blueprint for our contributions to the delivery of the SDGs here. And within that framework we take a human rights-based approach to everything we do.

This is part of our DNA as the UN.

Indeed, you will find that nearly everything we do in terms of programming contributes to human rights, ranging from women's rights, child rights and the rights of youth, to economic and social right such as health rights, the right to food and rights of workers, to the rights of migrants and refugees, and also to civil and political rights, for example through training and capacity building of law enforcement officials.

This human rights-based approach will also guide us as we forge a new strategic cooperation framework with the Government for the period from 2023 to 2027.

Naturally, we also stand ready to engage in a strategic dialogue to support the delivery of the National Strategy for Human Rights.

We can support through capacity building, technical support, specifically where it comes to preparing for and following up on Treaty Body reviews and the UPR.

We are also encouraged that 2022 is the Year of Egyptian Civil Society. In his report the UN Secretary-General invited “all countries to conduct inclusive and meaningful national listening consultations so all citizens have a say in envisioning their countries’ futures.”

We believe the Year of Civil Society offers the perfect opportunity for such consultations and are ready to work together on this.

I thank you for your attention.