Criticism on SDGs and presentation of the principle of integration as an international law instrument to contribute to sustainable development
| Autor | Nitish Monebhurrun |
| Ocupação do Autor | Phd Fellow at the Doctoral School of International and European Law, School of Law of Sorbonne, Paris-1. |
| Páginas | 155-172 |
C) INSTRUMENTOS DO DIREITO INTERNACIONAL
1) PRINCÍPIOS
CRITICISM ON SDGS AND PRESENTATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF INTEGRATION
AS AN INTERNATIONAL LAW INSTRUMENT TO CONTRIBUTE TO SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT.
NITISH MONEBHURRUN1
Abstract
Sustainable development goals (SDGs) constitute a dominant leitmotiv of the on-
going Rio+20 debates. However, SDGs are far from being innovative and doubts
can be cast of their use in the present debate. is article criticises the fashionable
reference to SDGs claiming it to be a much ado about nothing. It hereinafter
alternatively presents the principle of integration as an appropriate instrument of
international law to facilitate the consideration of sustainable development, which
is a self-standing goal, in this law eld.
Introduction
e opinion in this paper states that the proposition for upholding sustainable
development goals (hereinafter SDGs) during the Rio+20 preparatory process
is super uous and useless and proposes an alternative by presenting the prin-
ciple of integration.
Methodology from a legal perspective. Before explaining this position,
some methodological imperatives have to be considered. e present context
being a legal one, it is paramount to enlighten and justify the legal perspective
which will be adopted. Normally, jurists study, comment, analyse and inter-
prete existing laws. ey examine and understand the law as it is, that is the
positive law2; they deliver an opinion on a set of existing norms, that is the
objective law3. In the present case, the approach is di erent. e discussion
is not based on established norms but on potentially to-be-adopted ones. It is
a pre-law environment, that of the process of its creation, full of subjectivity.
1 e author is a Phd Fellow at the Doctoral School of International and European Law, School of Law of
Sorbonne, Paris-1.
2 KELSEN (H.), éorie pure du droit, Neuchâtel, Editions de la Baconnière, 1953, pp.42-43.
3 KELSEN (H.), éorie pure du droit, Neuchâtel, Editions de la Baconnière, 1953, pp.94-95.
156 INSTRUMENTOS JURÍDICOS PARA A IMPLEMENTAÇÃO DO DESENVOLVIMENTO SUSTENTÁVEL
And the jurist can also have a role at this level. Legal opinion is paramount to
construe existing laws but also to assess and accompany the drafting of laws,
whether in the national or in the international eld. In this case, the argumen-
tation is therefore geared towards law markers and towards their will to imple-
ment a given policy by enacting an appropriate law. Here, those concerned are
especially, but not only, the States which are presently discussing during the
preparatory meetings in view of the United Nations Rio+20 Conference on
sustainable development due to take place in June this year (2012). It is on
these discussions that a legal comment will be formulated and more speci cally
on what is being presented and accepted as SDGs by discussing members.
Di culties from a legal perspective. In trying to start up the analysis,
another methodological problem, double in nature, comes up. Firstly, de ning
SDGs is in itself a whole conundrum and secondly, in this preliminary cycles
of conferences the available material to study the matter is limited. And it is
with the latter that the former must be enlightened. e raw material which
will be considered and used here is the so-called draft zero of the outcome
document, that is, the draft of the declaration which shall be adopted during
the Rio+20 conference4. e document will be used as a working tool as it is
to date; obviously, it is prone to changes until its nal adoption but this is a
necessary methodological concession when dealing with a draft endowed with
a pre-legal dress. In any case, what this paper seeks to examine is the idea of
SDGs in its principle. e content of SDGs may change in two months but
its principle, which is to x a set of sustainable development goals, has already
been determined. In a section entitled “Accelerating and Measuring Progress”,
the draft reads:
“We recognize that goals, targets and milestones are essential for measuring
and accelerating progress towards sustainable development and agree to launch an
inclusive process to devise by 2015:
a) a set of global Sustainable Development Goals that re ect an integrated
and balanced treatment of the three dimensions of sustainable development, are
consistent with the principles of Agenda 21, and are universal and applicable to all
countries but allowing for di erentiated approaches among countries (...)5”.
Moulding SDGs on MDGs. e year 2015 is of course remindful of the
Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)6 which were and still are the far-fetched
objectives to end poverty in the whole world by 2015. e SDGs are now pre-
4 e Draft is available on: http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?menu=144.
5 See Draft: §105.
6 See: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/reports.shtml
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