Sustainable Development Goal 16 is to Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies, often abbreviated as SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. The aims of this goal are broad and far-reaching, covering everything from ending abuse, exploitation and trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children to reducing illicit financial and arms flows; from reducing all forms of violence and related deaths everywhere to ensuring public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, from promoting and enforcing non-discriminatory laws and policies to providing legal identity for all. Many of the targets of SDG 16 are relevant to the lives and well-being of people with diverse SOGIESC, especially media representation, violence reduction, availability of legal identity documents and the enforcement of non-discrimination policies.
SDG 16 is a diverse SOGIESC issue because people with diverse SOGIESC face high levels of discrimination, violence, misrepresentation and victimisation by the media, and are subjected to legal discrimination in many countries around the world. For instance, media representations of people with diverse SOGIESC often perpetuate negative stereotypes and biases against the diverse SOGIESC community; these representations fuel anti-diverse SOGIESC rhetoric and substantiate discriminatory policies. Using development interventions to counteract these harmful realities is a global imperative.
The resources available under SDG 16 cover a wide range of issues including: media representation of people with diverse SOGIE; social justice activism among diverse SOGIE communities; broad development agendas and recommendations for sexual and gender minorities; and the work of feminist and LBQ+ activist movements.
These resources have been compiled to enable development practitioners to better consider the ways in which institutions, can protect, represent and meet the needs of people with diverse SOGIESC, and to empower practitioners with the information they need to better meet the targets of SDG 16.
