Closing the circle of implementation: the sustainable development goals, universal periodic review, and the rights-based approach to development

ABSTRACTThe Universal Periodic Review has given UN development agencies an opportunity to further reframe their work as rights-promotion. The UPR consists of regular reviews of state reports on their human rights situations. It is a peer-review process, encouraging states to improve their rights records and making specific suggestions on how to do so. Still, by itself the UPR has no powers to push for compliance other than report-driven mechanisms. However, development agencies such as UNDP, UNICEF, and the rest of the UN Sustainable Development Group are being encouraged to participate in all facets of the UPR process. They can help states prepare reports, help the UPR review those reports, and, crucially, incorporate suggestions from the UPR into national development plans of cooperation. They do this by linking UPR recommendations with the Rights-based Approach to Development. This opens up new ways to promote human rights through a more cooperative model: it moves beyond 'naming and shaming' to a more active process of rights implementation by development agencies, working cooperatively with states. The process is new, and only sporadically followed; however, if fully implemented, it can provide a model for a new phase of rights promotion.KEYWORDS: Developmenthuman rightsspecialised agenciessustainable development goalsUnited NationsUniversal Periodic Review Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Overseas Development Institute, What Can We Do with a Rights-Based Approach to Development? 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Nelson and Ellen Dorsey (2018).101 Stephen Hopgood, The Endtimes of Human Rights (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015).102 Samuel Moyne, Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018).Additional informationNotes on contributorsJoel E. OestreichJoel E. Oestreich is Professor of Politics and Global Studies at Drexel University, in Philadelphia, USA. He has published extensively on the rights-based approach to development, international human rights, and international organisations. His most recent book is Global Institutions in a Time of Power Transition from Edward Elgar Press.