Sustainable Development Goals and the right to health

September 23, 2015

Topics: right to health , sdgs

From 25 to 27 September 2015, the United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda will be held in New York. During this high-level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly, the Millennium Development Goals will be replaced with 17 new, broadly discussed, global goals. 

Leading up to the summit, the Health and Human Rights Journal published a daily blog, written by experts from various fields and writing from various perspectives, on the links between the SDGs and health and human rights.

Topics discussed include accountability, the concept of Universal Health Coverage, child health, climate change, tuberculosis and many more. For health professionals who are new to the topic, there is recent Lancet article explaining what the SDGs are and how they are related to health. 

SDG Series blogs:

• Introduction: What might SDGs mean for human rights and health? by Carmel Williams and Alison Blaiklock

• Accountability for SDGs by Paul Hunt

• Universal Health Coverage and the Right to Health by Audrey Chapman

• The Slippery Target for Child Survival and SDGs by Elizabeth Gibbons

• SDGs and the Health Impacts of Climate Change by Cecilia Sorensen and Jay Lemery

• Leaving no one behind in Sexual and Reproductive Health by Rebecca Brown

• SDG Treatment of TB is woefully inadequate by Brian Citro

• SDG on Decent Work: Human Right or Business as Usual? by Gillian MacNaughton and Diane Frey

• SDGs Adopting a Rights-bsaed Approach to Human Trafficking by Angela Duger

• SDGs vs Trade Agreements: Not a Fair Fight by Fran Quigley

• SDGs in the Face of a Global Refugee Crisis: Leaving millions behind? by Lena Kähler and Maria Kristiansen

• Transforming our World: Reflections on the Sustainable Development Goal for Peace by Donna Perry, Christian Guillermet Fernández, David Fernández Puyana

• Are SDGs the Vehicle to End AIDS by 2030? Only if Driven by Human Rights by Allan Maleche

• The World’s Poor are Being Denied the Right to Share in Scientific Advancement by Gavin Yamey

• Opportunities for Realizing the Child’s Right to Health Under the SDGs by Jennifer Rasanathan, Benjamin Mason Meier, Kumanan Rasanathan

• The Access to Medicine Index and Accountability of Pharmaceutical Companies by Damiano de Felice and Danny Edwards

• Progress on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene through SDG 6? Only if the Focus Shifts to Eliminating Inequalities by Inga Winkler and Virginia Roaf

Lancet article

UN set to change the world with new development goals John Maurice, The Lancet , Volume 386 , Issue 9999, 2015, pp. 1121-1124