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A deputy commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Joseph Whittal, has been elected to represent Africa in championing the human rights-centred approach of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He was elected at the 12th International Conference of the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of National Human Rights Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights which took place from October 8 to 10, 2015 in Mexico.
 

The election, Mr Whittal, who is also the commissioner in charge of Legal and Investigations, said in an interview with the Daily Graphic, was proof of the country’s strides made in the attainment of four out of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and its commitment to using the international goals as a national development framework that is evidenced in its national development plans, the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS I), the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) and the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA).

He said the election was also in recognition of the work of CHRAJ nationally and internationally, and commended the government for its commitment to the MDGs that had attracted praise at the forum.

The meeting was organised on the theme, “The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), what role for National Human Rights Institutions?”

SDGs, human rights

Explaining what the new role entailed, Mr Whittal said the MDGs were to achieve certain targets without focusing on ensuring human rights goals and principles.

That had, therefore, given rise to a global campaign by human rights activists for the SDG’s to have a human rights focus.

Thus, instead of countries statistically recording progress in the attainment of the goals as pertained to the MDGs, the SDGs ensured that countries, in meeting their political commitments of eradicating poverty, did so within rights-based context, where no person fell out of interventions because of discrimination.

It also ensured that all interventions in attaining health or gender equality were made within the context of participation.

“Non-discriminatory acts are major human rights principles, as well as participation. Governments, in fulfilling their political commitments in relation to the SDGs, have to ensure that these commitments are met together with their international commitments on human rights,” Mr Whittal explained.

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Mr Whittal, who was elected with a representative each from the other continents, said their key roles included acting as the mouthpiece of the ICC on the human rights-centred SDGs at all international forums and ensuring that all national human rights institutions, national civil society organisations and citizens understood the new focus, which was essentially development within a human rights-based approach.

He said locally, the CHRAJ would engage with the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in the next cycle of planning, programming and budgeting of developmental plans and programmes to ensure the rights-centred outlook of the SDGs.

Other initiatives, he added, would be for advocacy to get all civil society organisations and citizens aware of the new order of development.

Mr Whittal said the human rights focus of the SDGs would also characterise CHRAJ’s reports to Parliament, as well as country reports to the Human Rights Council.

For the Africa region, Mr Whittal said he would work with national human rights institutions to sensitise everyone to the human rights-driven SDGs.

Context

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are new universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their agenda and political policies over the next 15 years.

The SDGs follow and expand the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were agreed by governments in 2001 and are due to expire at the end of this year.