A/HRC/31/37 development agenda a reality, such as gender equality, respect for the environment and intergenerational solidarity. 19. Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 5, “Achieve gender equality and empower women and girls”, sets out a number of particularly relevant commitments to help achieve gender equality within the family. Target 5.4 commits States to recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family. Also relevant are the specific targets to address equal rights to economic resources (target 5.a), elimination of discrimination and violence against women and girls (targets 5.1-5.3) and access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, which is expressly linked to the recommendations of previous world conferences (target 5.6). 20. Under the heading, “Promote just, peaceful, and inclusive societies”, Goal 16 sets out a number of commitments that are relevant for the protection of family members, such as target 16.1 on ending all forms of violence; target 16.2 on ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence against children; target 16.9 on providing legal identity and birth registration for all; and target 16.b on non-discrimination. 21. In a recent report, the Secretary-General underscored that adding families to the sustainable development agenda would represent a step in the direction of empowerment and reduction of inequality and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals (see A/69/61-E/2014/4, para. 68). In order to better reflect the role of families in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, consideration needs to be given to human rights principles and standards as the foundation of the agenda, in particular those pertaining directly to family life. III. Provisions of international human rights law pertaining to the family 22. International human rights instruments have long recognized that the family is the fundamental unit of society and that it performs valuable functions for its members and for the community as a whole. For those reasons, States bear the primary obligation to provide protection and assistance to the family so that it can fully assume those functions. At the same time, international standards do not prescribe a specific concept of family, which varies depending on the concrete historical, social, cultural and economic make-up of the community and of the life circumstances of family members. 23. Moreover, as the following review of international law and practice clearly shows, protection of the family in international law is indissolubly linked to the principle of equality, including gender equality, and to the protection of its individual members against all kinds of discrimination, violence or abuse within the family setting. A. Definition of the family 24. There is no definition of the family under international human rights law. The Human Rights Committee notes that the concept of family may differ in some respects from State to State, and even from region to region within a State, and that is therefore not possible to give the concept a standard definition. 21 Similarly, the Committee on Economic, 21 See Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 19 (1990) on the family, para. 2. 7