Seventh Intersessional Meeting on human rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – 11 February 2025
Date/Time: Tuesday 11 February 2025, 10:00 – 17:00 CET
Venue: Room XX, Palais des Nations, Geneva
The 2025 Intersessional Meeting is the seventh in a series of intersessional meetings of the Human Rights Council on human rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The meeting was mandated by Human Rights Council resolution A/HRC/RES/52/14 of April 2023.
The Intersessional Meeting “Leaving no one behind: the role of human rights in reforming the sovereign debt architecture and going beyond GDP” will base its discussions on the theme of the 2025 July High-level Political Forum (HLPF): “Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals for leaving no one behind”.
This Intersessional Meeting will build on on the outcomes of the SDG Summit and the Summit of the Future. The meeting’s two sessions will focus on SDG 17 and SDG 5 – which are among the SDGs to be reviewed in-depth at the HLPF in 2025 - and the central promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Leave No One Behind (LNOB). They aim to discuss how human rights norms and standards can guide the global debt architecture review called for in The Pact for the Future (Action 50); and secondly to discuss integration of human rights and gender equality in the development of a framework on measures of progress on sustainable development to complement and go beyond gross domestic product (Action 53).
The SDGs to be reviewed in-depth by the HLPF in July 2025 are SDG 3 (health and well-being), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 8 (sustainable economic growth and decent work), SDG 14 (ocean conservation) and SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals).
Statements and speeches
Opening
Speakers
- H.E. Mr. Jürg Lauber, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations Office at Geneva, President of the Human Rights Council (video message)
- H.E. Mr. Bob Rae, President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) (video message)
- Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (video message)
Keynote address
- H.E. Ms. Alicia Bárcena, Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Mexico (video message)
Keynote remarks
- Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda (video message)
Session 1: Reforming the global debt architecture to accelerate progress on human rights and the SDGs
Panellists
- H.E. Ms. Patricia Ann Hermanns, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva
- Moderator: Mr. Luiz Vieira, Coordinator, The Bretton Woods Project
Session 2: Applying a human rights lens to going beyond GDP
- Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, Economist and Public Policy Analyst, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka, Bangladesh and member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP)
- Ms. Ana Isabel Arenas, Feminist Economist and Activist, member and co-founder of the Feminist Economy Table of Bogotá and the Intersectoral Table of Care Economy
- Ms. Myrah Nerine Butt, Oxfam in Asia, Gender Justice Policy and Advocacy Manager
Member States
- Azerbaijan
- Bolivia (session 1 and session 2)
- Cabo Verde
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Egypt
- Honduras
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Nepal
- Portugal
- Spain
- Thailand
- Togo (session 1 and session 2)
- Türkiye
Regional Organisations
NHRIs
NGOs
- Associazione Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII (session 1 and session 2)
- Oxfam International
- Human Rights Watch
Written statements
Documentation
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council in April 2023:
A/HRC/RES/52/14 – Promotion and protection of human rights and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.