From Political Rhetoric to Concrete Actions – A Human Rights-Based Approach to the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa

In this article, we posit that even if conventional political processes cannot drive the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa, the usefulness of a human rights-based approach should not be overlooked. Our point of analytical departure is that there is no authoritative clarification on how the Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved. We suggest that a human rights-based approach tailored to African realities could be an avenue. Using the UN Common Understanding on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Development Cooperation of 2003 as a conceptual framework of analysis, and based on the foundational principles of participation and inclusion, accountability and the rule of law, and equality and non-discrimination as crucial pillars of engagement, we attempt to demonstrate how the human rights-based approach could be used to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. Concerning implementation, we argue that the human rights-based approach could be specifically tailored to processes of empowerment, forms of advocacy and the proactive use of legal means in defence of the vulnerable segment of African populations who are mostly poor, marginalised and discriminated against and where the ratification of international human rights law seems to provide very little real-life economic, social and political change. Despite controversies about the merits and demerits of this approach, we conclude that there is a need for its robust and high-level engagement in Africa if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved in a way that truly leaves no one behind and gives life-changing lightbulb moments to the impoverished and marginalised Africans.