By now, the few of us with an interest in the development game and all its associated intrigues, would have closely monitored the contributions of world leaders (those who cared to turn up) at the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit on Monday and Tuesday and come to a variety of conclusions.
Official lobbying of media to integrate SDG aspirations
into our news agendas has been extensive. Almost everywhere, governments and
inter-governmental institutions have kept asking: “What are you doing to report
on the SDGs?” I hope they know what they are asking for.
The global bodies with which I am associated – the Global
Forum for Media Development (GFMD) and International Freedom of Expression
Exchange (now known simply as IFEX) – have long included the subject as part of
our programmes of work, and media everywhere have, to varying degrees, kept the
subject alive.
To the human rights community, this has been the case since
early lobbying by members of these organisations on provisions of the SDGs
focused heavily on some important dynamics associated with rights – freedom of
expression and access to information among them.
The SDG Summit was thus keenly followed by many of us, not
only as part of our monitoring of the 17 goals, but as people with a special
interest in progress with SDG 16.
This goal speaks about the need to “promote peaceful and
inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for
all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”
This is fancy language on which some organisations lobbied
for specific “indicators” to empirically assess progress. Governments
habitually bypass extensive reporting on this goal, if only because
accompanying indicators tend to be unimpressive.
There were protracted tensions related to the indicators that
measure SDG 16. Current measurements, for example, had to be negotiated and we
were left with three specific “targets” that, on reflection, could have been
more adequately elaborated.
SDG Target 16.10, for instance, sets as a discrete
aspiration, national conditions to “ensure public access to information and
protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and
international agreements.”
In the Caribbean, this is a specific shortcoming. This is
so despite the adoption of the long-forgotten 1997 Caricom Charter of Civil
Society – Article VIII of which speaks about Freedom of Expression and Access
to Information.
Twenty-six years later, under half of the countries of
Caricom have access to information laws (in the case of T&T, the Freedom of
Information Act). And even where such laws exist there are identifiable
shortcomings. For such a reason, the Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC) operates
an Access to Information (ATI) Help Desk and has developed an accompanying Advocacy
Toolkit for journalists and civil society activists.
Under SDG 16.10.1, there is also a requirement to monitor
and report on the “number of verified cases of killing, kidnapping, enforced
disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture of journalists, associated media
personnel, trade unionists and human rights advocates in the previous 12
months.”
Article 19, a leading global free expression organisation, has
registered concern that while 16.10.1 is important it does not capture the full
range of attacks on journalists and activists including strategic litigation,
online harassment, and other forms of abuse. Neither does it seek to record
impunity when such violations occur.
So, while within Caricom (with the exception of Haiti),
murder, kidnapping and torture involving journalists are uncommon, there has
been a growing tendency by states and other players to resort to other forms of
attacks on journalists and journalism.
This is just one sidebar to the SDG story within Caricom.
It is now eight years since its adoption at the United Nations “to end poverty,
protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and
prosperity.”
On Monday, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, solemnly
declared that “only 15 per cent of the targets are on track and many are going
in reverse.” But while he reported positively on a US$500 billion “SDG
Stimulus” to have some programmes executed, there is much that has been left
undone my almost all of us.
The question of accountability and openness in the conduct
of state business requires no considerable financial stimulus. Sadly, it’s not
an area of achievement Caribbean countries were able to impressively report on
in New York earlier this week.
True, there are other urgent priorities that will be fully elaborated
at the UN General Assembly this week, but transparency in the conduct of state
business remains a persistent challenge. World leaders, including ours,
promised much more.
