A/HRC/50/60
reporting, while racial and ethnic inequality is rarely mentioned.102 The Special Rapporteur
has heard that many States have reported on migration status, which she welcomes as an
important step to challenging discrimination on the grounds of national origin.
60.
The 2030 Agenda completely ignores caste and descent-based discrimination. As the
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination states in its general comment No. 29
(2002), “discrimination based on ‘descent’ includes discrimination against members of
communities based on forms of social stratification such as caste and analogous systems of
inherited status which nullify or impair their equal enjoyment of human rights”. Such
discrimination is prohibited under the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination. As noted in one submission, the absence of descent and
work discrimination from the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, as well as the
global indicators, are clear evidence that there is less to no recognition of descent and work
discrimination in the global agenda of development.103 This exclusion represents a major
barrier to the eradication of poverty and also has significant gender equality implications.104
61.
The Special Rapporteur received other submissions highlighting racial and ethnic
inequality in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
62.
In 2021, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, based in the United States
of America, released “In the Red”, a publication detailing inequalities in levels of attainment
between racial groups in the United States. The report found that delivery on the Goals is
highly unequal in the United States in that, on average, “white communities receive resources
and services at a rate approximately three times higher than the racial community [in a given
State]”.105 The results indicate that without significant progress to eliminate racial inequality,
the Goals will not be achieved in the country.106 This innovative study suggests that, even
with all its wealth, the United States has failed to take adequate action to guarantee racial and
ethnic minorities equal access to basic human rights and ensure the achievement of the Goals.
63.
Oxfam Germany and its coalition reported xenophobia and racism against migrant
workers in the global food value-chains, along with economic exploitation enabled by
unequal development and international inequality, showing failures to tackle inequality in
the global economy through the Sustainable Development Goals.107
64.
In its submission, Provivienda noted that Spain has experienced three major housing
crises within the last two decades, with pronounced impacts on migrant communities and the
general population. This is due, in large part, to extensive housing discrimination, which
Provivienda identifies as a failure to fulfil international human rights prohibitions against
direct and indirect discrimination and the country’s commitments under Sustainable
Development Goals 10 and 11.108
65.
The Special Rapporteur observes that sustainable development is incompatible with
armed conflict, foreign domination, annexation and occupation 109 and that humanitarian
crises perpetuate gross violations of human rights and exacerbate racial inequality. She
recalls that institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories entails systemic violation of the rights of Palestinians to self-determination, and
that, as a result, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are denied avenues of sustainable
development under the 2030 Agenda.110
66.
In its submission, the Action on Smoking and Health coalition reported that the
targeted marketing of especially addictive and toxic brands of tobacco cigarettes to racially
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, expert statement, 15 March 2022, ST/ESA/2021/CDP/52 and
ST/ESA/2019/CDP/49.
Submission by the Asia Dalit Rights Forum.
Submission by International Dalit Solidarity Network.
A. Lynch, H. Bond and J. Sachs, In the Red: The US Failure to Deliver on a Promise of Racial
Equality (New York, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, 2021), p. 9.
Ibid., p. 17.
Submission by Oxfam Germany.
Submission by Provivienda.
Submission by Association of Reintegration of Crimea.
A/HRC/41/54, para. 37.
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