Back“We are leaving here with the Merida Declaration which will guide us in the coming years and tell others about the role of national institutions in relation to the implementation of the SDGs”, declared Adv. Mabedle Lourence Mushwana as he closed the Twelfth International Conference of the ICC.
The Twelfth International Conference hosted by the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico (CNDH) and organised in collaboration with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC), took place from 8 to 10 October, in Mérida, Yucatàn, Mexico, and focused on “The Sustainable Development Goals: What Role for National Human Rights Institutions?”
The Conference addressed the following main items:
- The sustainable development goals and the process to date;
- Implementation. Identifying and exploring the key role players;
- Means of implementation, the role of NHRIs, drawing on best practice from the MDGs and other areas of work;
- SDGs, NHRIs, non discrimination & vulnerable groups;
- Follow up and review at national level;
- Follow up and review at regional & international level; and
- Regional working groups were held to consider the role of NHRI in implementing the 2030 Agenda.
Participants from national human rights institutions across all regions, representatives of international and regional organizations, non-governmental organizations as well as State representatives participated.
Entering in a new era with renewed commitments and the pledge to leave no one behind, the Declaration commits NHRIs and the ICC to be actively involved in the monitoring of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The Declaration identifies several functions and actions that NHRIs and the ICC will undertake to move the 2030 Agenda forward, which are not limited and will evolve throughout the years to come.
All ICC regions committed to develop regional action plans that will also identify and address NHRI capacity needs. Regional Chairs are encouraged to report thereon to the ICC General Meeting in March 2016 and to subsequent regional and international meetings of NHRIs.
“NHRIs will be critical partners on the hard work of implementing this transformative new Agenda. With your active involvement, and that of many others human rights constituencies that have seized the opportunities associated with this agenda, I have no doubt that we will succeed”, stated the High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein at the Opening ceremony.
Source: International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC)
