SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

If your research contributes to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, Justice, & Strong Institutions add the keyword "SDG 16", "SDG16: Peace, Justice, & Strong Institutions" and/or "Sustainable Development Goals" to your article/book/chapter/conference paper/ dataset and we will automatically add it to this rapidly growing collection of research outputs. See the instructions here. 

Conflict, insecurity, weak institutions and limited access to justice remain a great threat to sustainable development. Millions of people have been deprived of their security, human rights and access to justice. In 2018, the number of people fleeing war, persecution and conflict exceeded 70 million, the highest level recorded by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in nearly 70 years. The pandemic is potentially leading to an increase in social unrest and violence, which would greatly undermine the world’s ability to meet the targets of Goal 16.

The global rate of homicide per 100,000 persons slowly declined, from 6.8 to 5.9 to 5.8 per cent in 2000, 2015 and 2018, respectively, corresponding to approximately 440,000 victims of homicide, 81 per cent of whom were men and 19 per cent of whom were women. Latin America and the Caribbean (33 per cent) and sub-Saharan Africa (36 per cent) accounted for more than two thirds of homicide victims globally.

Violent forms of discipline targeted towards children were widespread. In 69 countries (mostly low- and middle-income ones) with available data from 2012 to 2019, nearly 8 in 10 children 1 to 14 years of age were subjected to some form of psychological aggression and/or physical punishment at home in the previous month.

Sexual violence is one of the most unsettling violations of children’s rights. In slightly more than one in four countries with comparable data from 2012 to 2019 (45 countries), at least 5 per cent of women between 18 and 29 years of age reported experiencing sexual violence in childhood.

Data from 2016 to 2018 show that the proportion of prisoners held in detention without being sentenced for a crime is 31 per cent, the same level as in 2005. Significant increases over the past three years were recorded in Asia and Oceania.

Data from 38 countries over the past decade suggest that high-income countries have the lowest prevalence of bribery (an average of 3.7 per cent), while lower-income countries bear the heaviest bribery burden when accessing public services (22.3 per cent).

Through the implementation of birth registration with proof of legal identity, children’s rights can be protected and universal access to justice and social services can be enabled. However, based on data from 2010 to 2019, the births of around one in four children under 5 years of age were never officially recorded. Fewer than half (44 per cent) of all children in sub-Saharan Africa under 5 years of age had their births registered.

In 2019, the United Nations tracked 357 killings (a decrease from 476 in 2018) and 30 enforced disappearances of human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists in 47 countries.

The number of countries with binding laws and policies giving individuals a right to obtain access to information held by public authorities (the right to information) has continued to rise, reaching 127 in 2019. At least 43 countries have adopted such guarantees in the past 10 years, 40 per cent of them in Africa.

In 2019, 40 per cent of countries had a national human rights institution that had successfully achieved compliance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles). Access to internationally recognized national human rights institutions, however, remains overdue in 78 countries, in particular in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa.

Source: Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, Report of the Secretary-General, https://undocs.org/en/E/2020/57

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If your research contributes to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, Justice, & Strong Institutions add the keyword "SDG16", "SDG16: Peace, Justice, & Strong Institutions" and/or "Sustainable Development Goals" to your article/book/chapter/conference paper/ dataset and we will automatically add it to this rapidly growing collection of research outputs. See the instructions here: 

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