With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the international community embarked on the task of realizing 17 crucial goals, called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include targets and indicators that reflect the way humanity aspires to achieve socially valuable goals such as prosperity, social justice, peace and a dignified life, both from an individual and a collective perspective. While countries were already facing challenges in meeting SDG targets, the public health crisis generated by COVID-19 brought significant additional challenges, in addition to exacerbating patterns of vulnerability, inequality and discrimination in Latin America, with a devastating effect on the groups and communities that are most vulnerable.

Human rights and sustainable development are interrelated and mutually reinforcing; therefore, there can be no sustainable development without human rights and without a clear path for their respect and protection.

Together, national regulations and international human rights treaties and the 2030 Agenda comprise a roadmap for an immediate and coordinated long-term crisis response and recovery strategies aimed at achieving fairer, more resilient and sustainable societies. In this regard, human rights and the SDGs must be at the heart of post-COVID-19 responses and recovery strategies. In this context, the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are a bridge and main actor in these efforts.

Under the NHRI-EU Project 1 phase 2, the Network of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Americas (RINDHCA) and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (Danish Institute), with the support of the Global Alliance of NHRIs (GANHRI), the Office of the Ombudsman of Argentina (in its role as vice-chairman of the GANHRI SDG Working Group), and the Office of the Ombudsman of Colombia held, between December 2020 and February 2021, the regional workshop “Drawing on the experiences of NHRIs to strengthen their role in national sustainable
development processes”. This workshop provided an unprecedented opportunity for NHRIs in more than ten Latin American countries to exchange experiences on their role in implementing, evaluating and monitoring the SDGs.

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