In the preparatory stage of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, several UN human rights experts stressed the close link between human rights and development policy objectives: “Human rights norms and standards provide concrete guidance as to how goals and targets for the post-2015 development agenda should be framed. … Grounding development priorities in human rights is not only a legal and moral imperative, but can also enhance effectiveness and accountability.” (Statement by 17 Special Procedures mandate-holders of the Human Rights Council on the Post-2015 development agenda, 21 May 2013).

The question arises as to what significance the strong emphasis on the human rights approach has for the actual implementation of the document. The present volume takes the interconnectedness of the 2030 Agenda’s SDGs and international human rights as the starting point for deeper analyses of the various aspects of the interplay of sustainable development and human rights. The contributions to this volume address each aspect from a more human rights-focused angle and a development-policy angle. The book is available as an open access document and can be downloaded at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-30469-0.

The interactions and links between human rights and the UN development agenda are also analyzed in the article “The SDG agenda and human rights” published jointly with Wouter Vandenhole. The article was published in the Research Handbook on the Politics of Human Rights Law edited by Bård A. Andreassen (Edward Elgar 2023, pp. 215-235).

“Housing is an important component of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and an essential driver for achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. Adequate and affordable housing leads to benefits in health, education and economic opportunities. The process of housing improvement is often a ladder out of poverty for families. These changes benefit the larger community, reducing inequality and building resilience against economic and natural disasters.” (Habitat for Humanity, Housing and the Sustainable Development Goals. The transformational impact of housing) –  In her Ph.D. thesis “Accountability Relations in Social Housing Programs. A comparative legal analysis of Brazilian and Chilean case studies” Mariana Vilmondes demonstrates that despite impressive social housing programs in size and goals, the lack of adequate housing particularly affects the most-poor because of weak legal and institutional structures. The comparison of legal accountability relations in the urban social housing ownership models Minha Casa, Minha Vida, from Brazil, and D.S. 49, D.S. 1, and D.S. 19, from Chile, reveal several of those inconsistencies, but also advises on concrete solutions to their accountability relations inspired by the rights-based approach. Policies fall short on the delegation of responsibilities to duty-bearers, whose weak obligations to inform, justify or respond neutralizes concrete chances of enforcing redress or grievance. Victims of discrimination and without access to the minimum existencial, the most-vulnerable remain marginalized by the system that oughts to care for them. The solution is obvious: the respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights must be used as means and goals of those or any other policies and institutional structures.