The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) says in a new report that the UN’s post-2030 development agenda should place human rights and democracy at its core and replace voluntary self-reporting with independent review. These recommendations coincide with observations made by other groups such as CIVICUS and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) which point to weak participation and limited scrutiny as the UN and governments pursue the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The UN’s 2026 assessment reports that 15% of SDG targets are on track, 21% show moderate progress, 49% are advancing too slowly and 15% have regressed below their 2015 baseline. According to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), none of the 17 SDGs will be achieved by 2030 based on current rates of progress.
An “important weakness” of the current SDG system according to HRF is the fact that human rights and democracy are “not directly named as separate Goals”, although sustainable development relies on both. SDG16 only includes indirect elements that touch on them such as “building peaceful and inclusive societies supported by effective and accountable institutions”, HRF notes. This perspective was reflected in the 2026 civil society declaration on SDG16+ published in June, which describes peace, justice, accountable institutions and inclusion as both an “outcome and an enabler” of the entire 2030 Agenda.
The SDGs are misused for regime preservation
In its report, HRF examines how “autocrats’ engagement with the SDGs consistently serves regime preservation rather than sustainable development.” The assessment finds that authoritarian governments use SDG language to promote selected achievements, control information, co-opt civic groups and deflect criticism of repression and rights abuses. The report argues that technical measurements alone can create a misleading picture if they do not reflect whether people can participate freely, obtain independent information and hold public authorities to account.
HRF calls for a post-2030 framework to establish a standalone goal on human rights and democracy and to use related rights and governance indicators across all goals. “Any post-2030 global development framework that succeeds the SDGs must place human rights and democratic governance at its core,” the report states. It further recommends mandatory reporting that is independently reviewed and verified.
CIVICUS researchers noted in a recent commentary that the official progress tracking primarily involves self-assessments provided by governments. At this year’s High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development that was convened by the UN in New York, 36 countries presented their “voluntary national reviews”. “But the process asks nothing of states beyond showing up”, the commentary highlights. CIVICUS argues in particular that the process does not require consultation with civil society. On the opposite, the authors stress that raising concerns can be dangerous and may lead to reprisals. 17 of the 36 countries that provided a self-assessment this year, for example, are rated by CIVICUS as having a repressed or closed civic space, the piece says.
A UN Parliamentary Assembly in a post-2030 framework
National parliaments are also mostly missing from scrutinizing the SDG process. The IPU’s President reported in 2025 that only one third of parliaments were meaningfully involved in national SDG progress reports. A guide published by the IPU suggests that parliaments are supposed to “hold governments to account for the implementation of the SDGs.”
But parliaments more generally are often faced with obstacles. International IDEA’s latest assessment of the state of democracy worldwide, for instance, notes that between 2020 and 2025, “nearly one in five countries experienced a decline in Effective Parliament, signaling problems with legislatures’ capacity or willingness to exercise their powers.”
When the SDGs were adopted in 2015, the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly proposed that such a body should complement the High level Political Forum and strengthen oversight of implementation. It was argued that a distinct parliamentary body could critically accompany the 2030 Agenda.
Given the lessons of the SDG process and its apparent weaknesses, the creation of a UN Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) should be considered as part of a more solid post-2030 framework. In fact, this year’s SDG16+ declaration called for consideration of a parliamentary body at the UN as part of reforms to make the organisation more representative, participatory and democratic. SDSN’s SDG report two years ago embraced the idea, too, as did hundreds of groups thus far.
Andreas Bummel is Executive Director of Democracy Without Borders and co-authored the book "A World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century"
