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Denmarks work with Human Rights and Sustainable Development Goals · Diplomacy and International Relations

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  OK, let's unpack this. Have you ever wondered how a
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  country's commitment to human rights is actually measured?
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  Or how those domestic efforts connect to a much larger global
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  picture? It's a huge question, really,
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  and often reveals surprising complexities, you know, even
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  under the most sterling reputations.
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  Today, we're taking a deep dive into Denmark's human rights
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  record and its role, its pivotal role in the global Sustainable
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  Development Goals, or SDG's. It's a fascinating look at how a
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  nation's internal policies, its challenges, its successes, how
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  they inevitably ripple out into international efforts.
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  Yeah, absolutely. And the guide is through this,
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  we've pulled together a pretty powerful stack of sources.
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  We're looking at an in depth report from the UN Committee
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  against Torture, which gives a critical review of Denmark's
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  actions. We also have a comprehensive
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  document for the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
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  It's called Human Rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
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  Development. And crucially, Denmark's own
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  strategic road map. The world we share.
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  Development strategy lots get into.
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  Right, quite the reading list. Yeah.
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  So our mission here is to sift through these, to extract not
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  just the facts, but the the really important Nuggets of
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  insight, the things that connect the dots between what happens at
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  home, you know, domestic policy and these big international
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  goals. Ultimately, we want to help you
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  understand why these intricate legal and political frameworks
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  are so important, why they matter to your world, maybe more
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  directly than you might think. Exactly.
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  And what you'll gain from this deep dive is, well, hopefully a
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  shortcut to being genuinely well informed on a critical topic.
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  You'll get some surprising facts, maybe some real aha
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  moments and practical insights that cut through the jargon.
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  So yeah, let's unpack this. OK, so Denmark often seen as a
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  global leader in human rights, right?
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  Consistently ranking high on various international indices.
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  But what happens when international experts like the
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  UN Committee Against Torture take a really deep look at their
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  domestic practices? What do they actually find?
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  That's a great starting point, and it's important to say the
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  Committee Against Torture doesn't just jump on the
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  negatives. They actually start by
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  acknowledging Denmark's positive global efforts, things that are
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  really commendable, OK. Like what specifically?
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  Well, they welcomed Denmark's active role in combating torture
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  internationally, you know, promoting the Convention against
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  Torture and ratifying other key international instruments like
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  the one protecting people from enforced disappearance.
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  Plus, on the legislative front, Denmark has made some pretty
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  significant strides. For instance, introducing a new
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  definition of rape back in 2021 that criminalizes non consensual
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  acts. That was a big step and
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  increasing the minimum marriage aged to 18 and 2017.
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  They've even set up an expert committee specifically to look
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  at criminalizing torture as a distinct crime in their own
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  laws. So they're active on the world
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  stage, updating laws. Exactly.
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  It really sets the stage showing a nation committed to these
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  principles globally. Those are definitely significant
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  reforms painting that picture of strong global engagement.
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  But even with these positive steps, when the focus shifts
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  inward to domestic practices, what were some of the more maybe
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  surprising or unexpected challenges the committee found
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  inside Denmark itself? Right.
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  And that's where it gets really interesting and frankly, quite
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  insightful. One significant area of concern
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  is the use of coercive measures in psychiatric institutions.
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  Coercive measures like physical restraints.
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  Yes, exactly. Including things like
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  restraining belts. The committee highlighted A
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  worrying increase in these measures since 2015.
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  But here's the really stark point.
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  This increase has also impacted children.
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  Children. Yeah, rise in child coercion
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  since 2011, and adding to that concern about a lack of clear
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  ways for those children to actually submit complaints.
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  That's yeah, that's tough to hear.
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  It challenges that image of a progressive child centered
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  system. It absolutely does.
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  It highlights a real human rights issue and a significant
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  area needing reform. Now Denmark has responded.
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  They've got a 10 year action plan for psychiatric care and
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  they're negotiating exploring less intrusive options.
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  The goal is to reduce these measures by 2030.
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  OK, so there's a plan in motion, but clearly a serious concern
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  flag there. That's a powerful insight into
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  mental health care, often overlooked.
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  Shifting gears a bit now, another critical area the
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  committee mentioned was pretrial detention.
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  What's the story there? Indeed.
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  And here's another striking point that often, you know,
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  flies under the radar. Almost 40%, four, 0% of the
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  prison population in Denmark consists of individuals in
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  pretrial detention. 40% That seems incredibly high.
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  These are people not yet convicted.
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  Exactly not convicted, and in 2022 the average time spent in
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  pretrial detention was five months.
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  Five months. Wow.
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  Yeah. And while courts are supposed to
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  reassess these detentions regularly, that high percentage,
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  well, it suggests immense pressure on their judicial
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  system. Combine that with reported poor
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  conditions, overcrowding, lack of staff, it raises questions
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  about efficiency and, you know, the presumption of innocence.
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  So what are they doing about it? Well, Denmark is assessing
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  alternatives, constructing new facilities, trying to improve
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  staff conditions. And then there's that rather
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  unusual agreement to rent prison cells in Kosovo.
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  Renting cells in another country, yeah.
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  But with the very strict condition that those facilities
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  must meet Danish standards and international obligations.
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  Still, it's a notable move. It certainly is.
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  That 40% figure is staggering. OK, so beyond just the number of
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  people in pretrial detention, did the committee look at the
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  broader picture, like safety within the correctional system
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  overall and accountability for police conduct?
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  Those seem crucial. Absolutely crucial.
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  And yes, they did. They noted A concerning trend, a
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  notable increase in violent incidents and threats among
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  inmates that immediately flags safety issues inside prisons.
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  Then on police conduct, take pepper spray use.
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  There were 579 instances reported by police in 2021.
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  Eleven of those required emergency treatment.
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  What's critical here isn't just the number, but the question of
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  necessity and proportionality. Is it being used appropriately,
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  especially since its use has also increased in prisons?
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  And what about oversight? Is there a body looking into
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  complaints? There is the Independent Police
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  Complaints Authority or IPCA. It is independent.
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  And get this from 2014 to 2019, they reviewed 28 cases involving
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  deaths in custody. Six of those were in police
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  detention. OK.
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  And the outcome? Not a single one led to criminal
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  charges against officer. None out of 28 deaths.
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  None. That's a stark finding, isn't
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  it? Yeah, it raises pretty serious
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  questions about accountability and effective oversight.
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  There's also the Parliamentary Ombudsman as a national
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  preventive mechanism providing independent scrutiny that's
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  positive, and they plan to expand its reach to Greenland.
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  That brings us to Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
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  You mentioned Greenland. Given their status as self
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  governing countries within the Kingdom of Denmark, how did
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  these issues play out there? Are they the same or are there
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  unique challenges? They definitely have unique
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  challenges, but also their own efforts.
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  In Greenland, for instance, a lack of dedicated facilities has
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  meant juvenile sometimes being held with adults.
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  That sounds problematic. Very and children from social
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  care homes being placed with kids who've committed crimes,
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  that's a serious concern from a human rights perspective.
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  But Greenland is also clearly committed to human rights.
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  They have their own counsel for human rights and there's a
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  proposed law and equality and non discrimination in the works.
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  And the Pharaoh Islands. The Pharaoh Islands also faces
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  issues like using remand custody in their small detention center,
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  but they have their own local ombudsman and recently amended
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  their rules on coercion in psychiatry just last year in
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  2023. So the key insight really is
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  that while the Kingdom of Denmark provides the overarching
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  framework, the self governing regions have their own specific
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  human rights landscapes. They need tailored solutions and
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  oversight. OK, that makes sense.
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  So these domestic challenges, from psychiatric care to
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  prisons, police conduct, the situation in Greenland and the
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  Pharaohs, they reveal the sort of everyday realities of human
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  rights protection. But how does all this internal
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  stuff weave into Denmark's bigger global picture,
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  especially with these sustainable development goals?
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  The SD GS, I guess that's where they're the world we share.
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  Strategy comes in trying to connect those 2 worlds.
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  Exactly that strategy, the world we share.
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  It leaves out a very clear, very ambitious vision.
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  It talks about a secure, sustainable, poverty free world
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  guided by the UNSD, GS and the Paris Agreement on climate
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  change. And human rights are central to
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  that vision. Absolutely fundamental.
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  The strategy is explicitly built on democratic values and human
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  rights. They call it a human centered
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  approach. And that cross cutting
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  principle? No one must be left behind.
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  It isn't just a catchy phrase, it's a real commitment with a
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  specific focus on women and girls and other marginalized
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  groups. Think indigenous peoples, LGBTI
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  persons, persons with disabilities, those affected by
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  HIV, AIDS. So it's not just about foreign
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  aid money. It's deeper than that.
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  Much deeper, it's rooted in the idea that human rights are the
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  very foundation for sustainable development.
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  You can't really have one without the other.
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  OK, that makes sense conceptually, but it raises that
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  big question, how tightly are human rights and sustainable
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  development really interwoven? Are they sort of two separate
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  tracks running in parallel, or are they genuinely like part of
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  the same Rd. That's a fantastic question.
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  And what's truly fascinating here, according to that Danish
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  Institute report Human Rights in the 2030 Agenda, is that more
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  than 90 percent, 90% of the 169 SDG targets actually reflect
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  core international human rights and Libra standards.
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  Wow, over 90%? That's huge.
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  It really is. It's not just a slight overlap,
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  it's profound mutual reinforcement.
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  The 2030 Agenda itself is explicitly grounded in human
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  rights. It references the Universal
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  Declaration, international treaties.
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  Think of it this way. The SDGS aren't just about
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  economics or the environment. They are in many ways a
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  practical blueprint for achieving human rights globally.
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  And SCG 16 in particular, the one focused on peace, justice
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  and strong institutions, that's identified as having really
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  significant transformative potential for human rights
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  because it tackles so many core civil and political rights.
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  OK, so they're deeply interwoven in theory and in the goals
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  themselves. But how does a country like
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  Denmark actually do this integration?
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  It sounds like it could be a lot of, you know, bureaucratic box
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  ticking. How do they make that connection
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  practical and meaningful on the ground?
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  How do they integrate efforts and data?
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  Right, good question. And this is where we get some
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  really practical insights from the reports.
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  One of the most effective strategies they talk about is
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  basically recycling human rights reporting for the SDGS.
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  Recycling reporting. What does that mean?
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  It means taking all the information already gathered for
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  existing human rights reviews, like the Universal Periodic
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  Review, the UPR where every UN member gets reviewed.
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  Right, I've heard of the UPR. Yeah, or reports for the treaty
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  bodies, those expert committees monitoring specific conventions
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  like women's rights or children's rights, and
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  strategically using that wealth of information to inform the
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  voluntary national reviews the VNR's which countries submit on
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  their SDG progress. So using the work they're
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  already doing for human rights to also report on the SDG's
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  smart. Exactly.
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  It's about leveraging existing work.
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  It makes things more efficient, more coherent, and boosts
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  accountability. They give examples like Costa
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  Rica integrating reports on women's rights from the C DAG
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  Committee into its VNR on gender equality, which is SDG 5 for
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  Belgium, using recommendations from the UN Committee on the
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  Rights of the Child to develop its own national indicators for
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  children's rights supporting STG 16.2.
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  Got it. So that's about leveraging
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  existing reports. What else?
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  Well, the report also highlights a crucial framework called a
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  Human Rights Based Approach to Data, or HRBAD for short.
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  HRBAD. OK, what's that about?
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  Think of it as ensuring that the very process of collecting data
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  respects and upholds human rights.
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  It's not just what data you collect, but how.
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  How so? It has several components like
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  making sure people can self identify rather than being put
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  in boxes, ensuring participation, people having a
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  say in what data is gathered about them.
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  Crucially, disaggregation breaking down data by group like
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  gender, age, disability, ethnicity, so no one gets left
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  visible in the averages. So you can see if specific
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  groups are being left. Behind precisely and then
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  transparency, accountability and respecting privacy throughout
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  the whole process. It's about data collection that
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  actively champions human dignity.
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  It makes that no one left behind principle truly actionable, not
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  just a slogan. That makes a lot of sense.
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  And that national human rights institutions and Hris, like the
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  Danish institute we mentioned, they play a vital role here too.
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  The ACT is national accountability mechanisms.
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  In fact, the very existence of an effective NHRI is an
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  indicator for SDG 16.81. Yeah.
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  And the ideal scenario involves creating what they call a
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  pluralistic ecosystem of data. That means combining official
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  government statistics with qualitative data and insights
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  from Nhris, from civil society groups, even citizen generated
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  data to get a much richer, more nuanced picture of what's really
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  going on. OK.
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  So as we wrap up our deep dive here, it seems really clear that
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  the path to a well, it's really just a sustainable world isn't
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  paved with separate roads for human rights and development.
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  It's much more intricate, deeply integrated, where domestic
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  challenges like the ones we discussed in Denmark have real
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  global implications and vice versa.
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  It's all connected. Absolutely.
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  If we connect this all back to the bigger picture, it means
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  that say efforts to protect human rights in a psychiatric
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  institution in Denmark, or to ensure a fair trials for those
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  40% in pretrial detention. These aren't just isolated acts
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  happening in one country. They are threads in a much
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  larger global tapestry, one that also includes climate action,
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  economic growth, fighting poverty.
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  These aren't separate issue, they're fundamentally linked
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  because the dignity of the human person, well, that's
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  foundational dual progress, isn't it?
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  That no one must be left behind. Principal from the 2030 Agenda,
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  which is so deeply rooted in human rights values, it really
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  drives this interconnectedness. It reminds us that every local
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  effort contributes to that bigger global vision.
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  So thinking about that connection, what's maybe a
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  provocative thought for you, our listener, to Mull over after
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  this? If the 2030 Agenda aims to leave
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  no one behind and human rights are its very foundation, what
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  innovative local solutions might you uncover by looking at human
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  rights data, maybe in your own community through the lens of a
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  sustainable development goal? Perhaps it's about advocating
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  for better data, that disaggregated data the expert
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  mentioned, so we know who needs help or supporting a local NGO
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  working on these issues. Or maybe it's just, you know,
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  understanding more deeply that these huge global issues always
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  have local roots and often local solutions waiting to be
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  discovered. Thank you for joining us on the
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  Deep Dive. Until next time, keep digging
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  for those insights.