A Legal Assessment of the Protection of the Human Rights of Women and Children under the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Light of Some Selected Human Rights Instruments

Abstract

The violations and abuses of the rights of women and children has been a source of global concern for decades. The United Nations (UN) has made several international efforts to protect the rights and freedoms of women and children starting with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHRs) by its General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948, which sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be internationally safeguarded. Other efforts which the UN has made to protect the rights of women include the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others 1949, Equal Remuneration Convention 1951, Convention on the Political Rights of Women 1952, Convention on the Nationality of Married Women 1957, Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 1958, Convention against Discrimination in Education 1960, Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages 1962, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) 1979. Similarly, efforts which the UN has made to protect the rights of children include the UN General Assembly Declaration of the Rights of the Child 1959, the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules) 1985, the Declaration on Social and Legal Principles relating to the Protection and Welfare of Children 1986, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime 2003. However, despite these global efforts made by the UN to protect the rights of women and children, there still exist rampant cases of the violations of the rights of women and children globally. Therefore, the UN, in 2015, made further efforts to protect the rights of women and children through its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article, which adopted the doctrinal research methodology, assesses the protection of the human rights of women and children under the United Nations 2030 Agenda for SDGs in the light of some selected human rights instruments.