ON WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2025
A global coalition of development experts, research institutions, civil society networks, and higher education leaders is calling for urgent reforms to the United Nations system and national governments to accelerate human rights and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) achievements by 2035.
The coalition warns that with all North and South countries off-track on the SDGs, the world is facing the largest human rights shortfall in modern history — affecting more than 5 billion people living with hunger, poverty, exclusion, insecurity, and climate impacts.
“Our systems were built for 1945, not 2025,” said Lanre Rotimi, Director-General of the Network for Effective Development and Cooperation. “If we want to protect human rights, we must redesign the way the UN, governments, and institutions work. Business as usual guarantees failure, and cannot deliver the transformation needed for capitalism and global health to be sustainable. Business unusual can deliver transformation for World Sustainable Development.”
The group released a new framework titled “Rewiring Global Systems to Achieve Human Rights and SDGs in All Countries by 2035.”
The proposal calls for:-
A shift from slow diplomacy to mission-driven local, national, contental and global action.
Real-time data systems for tracking human rights and SDG progress
A global Rapid Finance Lane to fund solutions within weeks.
Elevating universities, cities, companies, cooperatives, and communities as equal and active partners.
Support for national reforms to modernize governance in both developed and developing countries.
Piloting a One Worldwide Approach to Ending Hunger, Malnutrition and Poverty in 20 countries (10 North, 10 South) beginning in 2026.
The proposal builds on lessons from Conference of Parties, COP30, the Sevilla Commitment, the 2030 Effective Development Cooperation Pact, and decades of underutilized global development knowledge.
“Human rights are not declarations. They are outcomes,” Rotimi added. “If governments and the UN adopt new thinking and new systems, we can still deliver the SDGs — maybe not by 2030, but by 2035.”
The coalition is urging UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNDESA, UN Higher Education Sustainability Initiative, HESI, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, GPEDC, Group of 20 Countries G20, and Member States to adopt the reforms and integrate them into UN-led platforms.
Media Contact:
Network for Effective Development and Cooperation / Integrated Visions for Achieving SDGs in North and South Countries, IVASNS Initiative
Email: [email protected]
Website www.ivasns.org
Or
Chuck Woolery, Former Chair United Nations Association and Council of Organizations
Email [email protected]