Markus Kaltenborn and Markus Krajewski discuss their book Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights
Tell us a bit about your book Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights?
The book attempts to combine two different perspectives on the SDGs. The 2030 Agenda is often seen as a primary development and environmental policy document and therefore interpreted and developed from the perspective of the respective sciences. At the same time, however, it can be clearly seen that the formulation of the SDGs and the other parts of the agenda is based on a human rights approach. This distinguishes the agenda from its predecessor document, the MDG declaration. The book therefore focusses on the human rights perspective of the SDG. Authors with a background in development politics and polices and authors with a human rights background explore the similarities, but also the areas of tension between human rights and development goals.
How do you hope your research will impact the future?
The relevance of human rights for development policy is beyond question today. Most actors in this political field follow a human rights based approach. Nevertheless, many questions with regard to the implementation of such an approach are still unsolved. Moreover, new problems (e.g. human rights issues of climate change, extraterritorial obligations of donor countries etc) are debated both in practice and academia. The book will provide the basis for a more in-depth discussion with detailed questions of these topics.
Why is the book part of the Series "Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Rights"?
The series recognizes the growing importance and necessity of interdisciplinary research in human rights. The books in the series address human rights research from different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Our book also brings together authors from different disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives. It therefore seems to fit very well in this series.
