After long negotiations, including a marathon session that continued until lunch time of Saturday 19 July, the General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) adopted by acclamation the outcome document with its proposals for the goals and targets for the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
While it would be true to say that no government got exactly what it wanted and that there were serious concerns with the text, there was general agreement not to open up the final version of the text and to adopt it without any amendments.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights in the outcome document
Although there is no specific reference to sexual and reproductive health and rights in the document, there is language under both goals 3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages and goal 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. There is also a reference to the “Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the key actions for the further implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences in the introduction.
Target 3.7 “by 2030 ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes” is based on, but extends paragraph 145 of the outcome document of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio + 20), The Future We Want.
Target 5.6 “ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the ICPD and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences” is based on the Agreed conclusions of the 58th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
For complete text of the outcome document see: http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/focussdgs.html
Next steps
In accordance with the agreement as included in The Future We Want, paragraph 248, the report of the Open Working Group will be submitted to the 68th session of the UNGA, by which it will be considered for “appropriate action.” In addition, it will be reflected as part of the full range of inputs in the synthesis report of the UN Secretary-General to be presented before the end of 2014.