Eco-Social Contracts for Sustainable and Just Futures

A solid and unconventional publication out 10 February in open access: Eco-Social Contracts for Sustainable and Just Futures (hardback available soon). It discusses economic and social justice within planetary boundaries. The editors @Patrick Huntjens, @Najma Mohamed, @Katja Hujo and @Manisha Desai pulled together 30 authors across many geographies, disciplines and practices, including activists, policy advocates, NGO leaders, former…

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Kickstart? Imaginings towards a beyond-2030 “development” agenda

The 2030 Agenda and recent follow-ups As is well-known, in 2015 the UN General Assembly adopted, by acclamation, an Agenda for sustainable development (2015 to 2030). The 2030 Agenda followed a continuous series of development decades, since 1960 in fact. Since 2015, the UN secretariat itself launched follow-on processes, such as Our Common Agenda which…

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Weltsozialgipfel – ein paar Überlegungen

Einige Überlegungen zum Weltsozialgipfel und wie es weitergehen könnte und sollte: ein Kommentar (auf englisch), und in meiner neuen Rubrik „Podcasts“: Zwei Beiträge zum Weltsozialgipfel: Hier und hier in der Podcastreihe UNhörbar der Deutschen Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen (DGVN) mit Sophie Fasshauer, Studierende und Mitglied des DGVN-Arbeitskreises Nachhaltigkeit und Klimagerechtigkeit. Und hier ein früheres…

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After the World Social Summit: Where are we and what can we do?

“In rich countries, floods mostly destroy property. In poor countries, floods mostly kill people.” (Sham Jaff in her Newsletter #373) Where are we now? We are shocked by the horrifyingly accelerating aggressions against the human rights of the peoples in Afghanistan, Myanmar Iran, Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza, Ukraine, Greenland, Venezuela, Minneapolis,…

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Naveen Gautam: Onwards from the World Summit for Social Development – A CDWD Youth Vision

Author: Naveen Gautam For centuries and ages, Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD) have lived at the harshest edges of social and economic exclusion. Yet across regions, from Dalit and Burakumin communities in South Asia to Roma settlements in Europe, from Haratin groups in Mauritania to Palenque and Quilombola territories in Latin America,  youth…

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Youth at the World Summit for Social Development: Guest blog by Naveen Gautam

How do we move forward, building on the political declaration made at the 2nd World  Summit for Social Development? Honoured to have guest blogger Naveen Gautam, human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist,  Global Focal Point for the UN Major Group of Children and Youth, and representative of the Global Forum  of Communities Discriminated by…

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Global summit watch

2025 saw a series of summits – political leaders’ meetings – in various constellations: BRICS – the so-called emerging economies; G7 – the largest economies; G20 – the most powerful economies globally; and the UN – the community of 193 states. What did such summits come up with in terms of human rights and social…

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SDGs and human rights conventions: interactive lectures at the CIH, LMU, Munich

I had the pleasure to interact with PhD and Diploma students at the Centre of International Health (CIH) at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU). My lecture slides on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, its SDGs, and implications for health and health policies here and on the Socio-economic challenges and the (potential) role of human rights…

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A take on two summits. Doha and Belém.

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Two Summits – two dynamics – social development and climate justice

The city of Doha, its glass skyscrapers rising overwhelmingly, and menacingly, from desert lands, hosted the 2nd World Summit for Social Development (3 to 6 November). Belém, at the mouth of the lush green Amazon river, was the site for the 30th Climate COP (10 to 22/23 November). The venues of the two Summits obviously…

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