A/HRC/27/27 indigenous peoples, traditional farmers, pastoralists, herders, coastal communities and people living in small island States in the face of natural disasters, desertification and global climate change. 30. The new agenda must also address inequalities between countries. In the wake of global financial, food, climate and energy crises – and the self-evident failures of global governance to prevent and mitigate their effects – the post-2015 agenda must address the pressing need for reforms at the international level. This includes human rights-based reforms of the institutions, processes and policies of global governance. It also includes democratizing the institutions of global governance, to give real voice and participation to all countries in global decision-making and to ensure greater fairness and equity in the shaping of the rules of global governance. This is essential in, for example, the field of trade, where rules on agricultural subsidies and intellectual property are still skewed in favour of the more powerful countries, in ways that often undermine the rights to food and health of people in developing countries. Meaningful reforms of trade, finance, investment, intellectual property, climate and other regimes are also needed to ensure that international rules and policies are consistent with, and do not undercut, the minimum standards set by human rights. All States must have the policy space to protect the human rights of their people, and must be held accountable for doing so. 31. The new agenda must also include a strong accountability framework, including accountability of the private sector. Millennium Development Goal 8, on global partnerships, included some useful indicators on aid, trade, debt and technology transfer, as well as on the need for special and differential treatment for least developed countries, including land-locked and small island developing States. No measurable targets, however, were set, and progress was not effectively monitored. The new agenda must build strong accountability mechanisms so that all States are accountable for honouring the commitments that they make. Other powerful actors, including private actors (such as transnational corporations), should also be held to account, to ensure responsible business practices. The exercise of due diligence, the use of human rights impact assessments, and the full application of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights must all be ensured. 32. Lastly, it is vital that the new agenda be universally applicable. In the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, entitled “The future we want”, States established that sustainable development goals must be universally applicable to all countries, while taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development. “Common but differentiated responsibilities” is a well-known concept in environmental law. International human rights law also takes account of States’ different levels and stages of development through concepts of “progressive realization”, “maximum available resources” and the duties of international assistance and cooperation. The right to development sets out the duty to create an enabling international environment. In the current debate over universality and differentiation, the universally agreed –and – universally applicable – normative framework of human rights thus seems more relevant than ever. D. Mainstreaming the right to development 33. OHCHR is mandated to mainstream the right to development into United Nations policies, operational activities, guidelines and tools on development programming. To that end, OHCHR continued to chair and substantively lead the work of the United Nations Development Group human rights mainstreaming mechanism. 10

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