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et ter
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or ld
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he 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
1
requires all stakeholders, through Sustainable
Development Goal 16, 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.’ Of course, this can
only be achieved if the other SDGs are met, and poverty
(SDG1) and hunger (SDG2) are eradicated, children enjoy
quality education (SDG4), inequalities are reduced (SDG10),
climate action reduced the stress on our planet (SDG13) as
the Goals represent an indivisible agenda.
Why is SDG16 so important?
In recent years violence and armed conflicts have forced more
and more people worldwide to flee their homes,
2
looking for
a safer place within their countries or across international
borders as asylum seekers or refugees – as many as 65 million
are now forcibly displaced and the average length of such
displacement is 17 years. More than 1 million refugees arrived
in Europe across the Mediterranean in 2015, but thousands
taking the same route did not make it, their lives ending
tragically in the search for a better future.
3
Where safety
is routinely under threat, and where people are systemati-
cally excluded from economic and political opportunities, or
denied justice when facing outright violation of their human
rights, it will be impossible to achieve sustainable develop-
ment for all and honor the pledge of leaving no-one behind.
To address these priorities, SDG16 requires specific action
in areas like arms trafficking, corruption and illicit financial
flows, access to justice and legal identity, exploitation and
violence against children, organized crime, participation
and access to public information. The targets of SDG16 are
deliberately ambitious and challenging because a failure to
address one or more of the main drivers of violence, injustice
and exclusion will undermine efforts to overcome others.
Thus, a systematic focus on the targets of SDG16 will help to
make a discernible difference to the lives of the poorest and
most vulnerable people in all countries.
Promoting peaceful, just and inclusive
societies: An essential goal for progress
towards a better world for all
Magdy Martinez- Soliman, UNDP Assistant Secretary General and Director of the Bureau of Policy and
Programme Support (UNDP)
Youth participants of UNDP Sri Lanka’s Twinning Schools Programme caught in action whilst doing a music video for the song ‘Colours’
Image: UNDP Sri Lanka