A/HRC/40/34 79. Ms. Murabit observed that, when talking about partnership, there always seemed to be a reinventing of the wheel or the discussion was without due recognition of the fact that many partnerships already existed. There were many activists, leaders and other people who had been working on the Sustainable Development Goals for their whole lives, and in many of the discussions about partnerships, those local leaders and local voices were being left behind. She emphasized that it would be almost impossible to translate many of the highlevel discussions, like the current one, into change on the ground unless those discussions were expanded to include the people and leaders on the ground doing the work day in, day out. She gave an example of how her own experience in Libya, from 2005 to 2015, had confirmed this. She stressed that if there was to be legitimacy about human rights, about sustainable development and about who or what was being served, then questions needed to be asked about who was not in the room when programme decisions were being made. Voices of local leaders needed to be recognized and amplified. 80. In the interventions from the floor, 15 several speakers welcomed the meeting and expressed appreciation for the information shared about national experiences and online resources. Previous statements about the synergies between human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals were echoed. Other issues raised included partnerships, stakeholder engagement and national initiatives for integrating human rights and Sustainable Development Goal implementation. The importance of gender equality and inclusive highquality education was also highlighted. The national experiences that were mentioned included a Sustainable Development Goal “tracker” to collate and synthesize data on implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals with scope for integrating human rights data and a national coordination council for sustainable development under the leadership of the Deputy Prime Minister and including the national commissioner for human rights. 81. It was affirmed that United Nations technical assistance for Sustainable Development Goal implementation should be informed by international human rights norms, and there was a call for measures to enable joint planning, implementing and reporting for human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. Other speakers emphasized the need to connect the implementation of universal periodic review recommendations with the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals and to include representatives of indigenous peoples in discussions about the 2030 Agenda. E. Bringing the human rights narrative to the high-level political forum on sustainable development 82. In the closing session, Ms. Barthelemy and Ms. Hicks drew out some of the main threads of the day, key messages for bringing the human rights narrative to the high-level political forum on sustainable development, and follow-up to the intersessional meeting. 83. Ms. Barthelemy emphasized the breadth of agreement in the room that the Sustainable Development Goals and human rights were two sides of the same coin. She noted that there was broad agreement that implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals was not on track and that it was worrisome that it was lagging on issues such as climate change, food security and conflict, all of which had long-term impacts. She noted the overall sense that linking efforts to protect and promote human rights with the efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals would be a very powerful way to accelerate progress. 84. Ms. Barthelemy noted the often expressed feeling that there was a gap between the United Nations communities in Geneva and New York. She suggested that the gap that existed between those two communities was a gap between the development and human rights communities that extended beyond the United Nations. When the issue of human rights was raised in New York, there was some hesitation to take it up in the forums that dealt with 15 United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), Cabo Verde, Bangladesh, Greece, Norway, Azerbaijan, Finland, Malta, UPR Info, International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, Mexico and Association of World Citizens. Some of the statements are available at www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SDGS/Pages/HRCIntersessionalMeeting.aspx. 13