…The essence of Sustainable Development Goal 16 and its specific target 16.3 to promote the rule of law and ensure equal access to justice for all is not only a self-evident objective, but it is catalytic to all the Goals. It is clear that the rule of law provides a foundation for preventing conflict, fostering peace and advancing sustainable development.
– Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations
SDG 16 – a bold and ambitious goal
Goal 16 promotes just, peaceful and inclusive societies, which are critical building blocks underpinning sustainable development. SDG 16 is truly ambitious as the uptake of peace and justice requires strong institutions. But institutions themselves pose a significant threat to peace and justice if managed without transparency, inclusivity and public trust. Institutions that fall under this category and wield most of the power will undoubtedly undermine the effectiveness of the implementation of Goal 16.
But what is the current state of justice around the globe? To shed more light on this topic, the World Justice Project organisation, in their Rule of Law Index 2021 report, measured the rule of law adherence in 139 countries. The index sets out to measure the countries’ rule of law performance across eight factors: constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice and criminal justice. In 2021, Denmark holds the first position, closely followed by Norway and Finland. Meanwhile, Venezuela falls last, followed by Cambodia and Congo, Dem. Rep.
What do we mean by the rule of law?
The World Justice Project, defines the rule of law by four universal principles:
- Accountability: Both governments and citizens are accountable under the law.
- Just Law: The law is communicated clearly and is applicable to everyone with no exceptions and guarantees individual rights, including human rights, property, contract, and procedural rights.
- Open Government: The procedures by which the law is approved and enforced is accessible, fair, and efficient.
- Accessible and Impartial Justice: Justice is delivered by independent representatives who are competent, ethical, and accessible.
Justice and Peace – two interlinked entities
It goes without saying that it is imperative to build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions to promote peaceful, just and inclusive societies. But, in this pursuit, another dilemma exists, namely the problem of reconciling both peace and justice. A tension usually exists between peacemakers and justice practitioners when trying to end a conflict. The difficulty they face is on whether to provide aggressors positions and immunity for their crimes in exchange for peace or whether to make aggressors accountable for their actions and risk further violence and deaths only for the sake of justice.
It is no wonder that Goal 16 is ambitious since it treats peace and justice as interdependent entities. In this sense, innovative ways are instrumental for reconciling both entities. In this respect, to realise SDG 16 and its many facets, the United Nations has defined several targets, which include the following:
- Reduce all forms of violence and related deaths globally
- Prevent abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and violence of children.
- Advance the rule of law globally and ensure equal access to justice for everyone
- Fight all forms of organised crime and reduce illegal money and arms circulation.
- Significantly reduce corruption and bribery.
- Promote accountable and transparent institutions and ensure inclusive participation when it comes to decision-making
- Encourage and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance.
- Ensure by 2030; all individuals have a birth certificate.
- Provide individuals access to information and protect their fundamental rights aligned with national law and international agreements.
- Advocate and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies to promote sustainable development
It has been 6 years since the SDGs were adopted. What is the status quo?
By 2020, around 82.4 million people found themselves displaced due to persecution, conflict and crime. Furthermore, 331 human rights defenders from 32 countries lost their lives – a 18% increase from 2019 (Figure 2).
With respect to institutions, only 82 countries have independent national human rights institutions aligned with international standards. Other grave problems such as child labour have risen to 130 million – the first increase in the past two decades. It is also essential to remember that Goal 16 varies from region to region, as exemplified by the United Nations Progress Chart Tracker (Figure 3).
All these issues are further magnified by the pandemic, undermining or even thoroughly devastating many countries’ systems of rights and protection. For instance, the pandemic has put pressure on children to work, owing to job and income losses of their families. Due to this development, an additional 8.9 million children could be forced into child labour by the end of 2022.
Figure 3: © United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Progress Chart 2021
Pandemic’s implication on peace
The relationship between peace and the pandemic is not thoroughly studied. The Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), in their Global Peace Index (GPI), ranks 163 independent states and territories based on their level of peacefulness. The findings for 2021 indicate how conflicts and crises that have dominated the past decade have begun to subside.
Nonetheless, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these are replaced by other tensions and uncertainties. It is too early to decipher the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on peacefulness and its long-term implications. But, figures show over 5,000 pandemic-related violent events registered between January 2020 and April 2021. However, there is no doubt that the deteriorating economic conditions triggered by the pandemic will increase the likelihood of political instability and violent demonstrations.
The Global Peace Index shows us that Iceland has continued to be the most peaceful country globally, closely followed by New Zealand and Denmark for more than ten years. In contrast, Afghanistan is the least peaceful country for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and Iraq. Furthermore, the report highlights how terrorism and conflict have declined over the past six years. However, civil and political unrest has risen by 244 per cent, represented by riots, anti-government protests and general strikes. These developments are quite striking and point towards a trend that will not be receding anytime soon.
tech2impact’s ecosystem and its role in supporting SDG 16…
tech2impact’s ecosystem includes startups whose solutions are very much aligned with Goal 16. Whether the focus is on building just and inclusive institutions, overcoming bureaucratic barriers related to immigration, encouraging citizens to voice their opinions, and stopping the transportation of illicit goods, these solutions are undoubtedly innovative and inspiring.
Promoting inclusiveness and political transparency:
VoteRookie (DE) has created a digital democracy platform, providing young people with the opportunity to engage in civic participation and politics. The emphasis is on inclusion and making marginalised groups heard by enabling access points between policymakers, politicians and citizens. In essence, their digital platform is an effective way to promote inclusive communities, encourage citizen participation, and shape the political landscape.
Civocracy (DE) digital platform today allows administrations to launch five modules of citizen participation, from top-down to bottom-up, to reach out to their stakeholders and get their insights on local issues. They complete this robust set of collective intelligence modules with deep analytics.
Making immigration cheaper, faster and safer
iVan immigration bot (UA) is a legal-tech startup tackling the pain points of immigration, making the process easy, safe, reliable and less expensive. iVan provides an artificial immigration lawyer available 24/7 and free of charge, a database of trusted immigration lawyers, notifications of deadlines and amendments to the law, and many more perks available to see on one’s phone.
Providing legal help in an accessible way
Justice Chatbot (UG) is a SaaS startup helping organisations and communities solve their legal troubles with customised AI-powered chatbots integrated with Facebook. Their technology is one way of providing citizens access to justice in an inexpensive and accessible way. Some of their focus areas include immigration, land, and business procedures. Their innovative solution significantly enables better decision-making regarding the lives and well-being of individuals.
Protecting society from dangerous goods such as drugs, explosives, weapons
Dynaxion (NL) developed a security scanner to determine explosives, drugs, weapons and other threats from parcels and suitcases. They use a combination of neutron and gamma-ray detectors and deep learning algorithms to identify substances at an atomic level in a completely non-invasive and fully automated way.
Interested in joining tech2impact?
SDG 16 is an ambitious goal but, when done right, has a significant impact on catalysing the other Sustainable Development Goals. So, if you are a startup addressing Goal 16 or any other SDGs and interested in accelerating and bringing more capital for your impact tech solutions, make sure to sign up as a member to join tech2impact’s Investor Network.