Multistakeholder partnerships, human rights and international law.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals hail multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs) askey actors in achieving sustainable development. MSPs that bring together states, businesses, philanthropy and civil society are increasingly in the frontlines of providing public goods that are human rights such as food, health, education and water. In thesedomains, partnerships are spearheading the continued expansion of multistakeholder governance into international law, includinghuman rights law. This expansion has been taking place without critical appraisal with respect to its effectiveness andconsequences.GENESIS breaks new ground by exploring the normative and operational implications of this shift, both at the systemleveland at the level of specific global partnering initiatives and individual multistakeholder partnerships. GENESIS investigates theinterface of nternational law and multistakeholder governance in the realisation of human rights. It analyses how the paradigms ofmultilateralism and multistakeholderism diverge or converge as they simultaneously govern the domains of food, health, educationand water through human rights law and multistakeholder partnerships, respectively.GENESIS has three main objectives that will generate high research and policy gains. First, GENESIS will uncover and understand how norms that govern human rights through multistakeholder partnerships are made in the post-2015 era in the governance of food(SDG 2), health (SDG 3), education (SDG 4) and water (SDG 6). Second, GENESIS will investigate how multistakeholderpartnerships impact the way human rights are operationalised. Third, GENESIS will identify pathways to an effective uptake of human rights legal standards by multistakeholder partnerships. In doing so, GENESIS will derive insights on whether and how internationallaw and multistakeholder governance can generate common ground when governing public goods that are human rights.

Keywords:MULTILATERALISM, PUBLIC SERVICES, INTERNATIONAL LAW, HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

Disciplines:Human rights law, International law, Globalisation, Institutions and regimes