SDG 16a – Promote Peaceful and Inclusive Societies for Sustainable Development, Provide Access to Justice for All and Build Effective, Accountable and Inclusive Institutions at All Levels

Overview

There is a widespread consensus among academics and activists that we collectively face three interlinked fundamental challenges: Climate crisis and biodiversity loss; Authoritarianism and discrimination; and Growing Inequality. These interlinked crises have major influences on the lives, livelihoods and felt futures of the majority of people across the world.

The corresponding challenges, and their expression in political and economic decision-making processes at local and national levels, have significant influences on the limited or regressive progress towards tourism and travel’s contributions to achieving the SDGs, including SDG16, “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” Disturbingly, all of these challenges have become more acute and pronounced since 2015.

The fundamental changes required in tourism and travel are put forward in A Just-Green Deal for Tourism (see Rutherford, 2019), which lays out the foundations for just, equal, inclusive and environmentally respectful tourism and travel.

Introduction

At local and national levels, there is a significant democratic deficit with respect to participatory planning and consultation on travel and tourism. There is rich documentation of planning decisions prioritising the interests of large and medium-sized companies at the expense of citizens and the environment globally. As such, citizens and communities are excluded from key decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods. Both corruption related to planning and infrastructure development and myopia of agreed environmental and health standards remain widespread (e.g. Das & Dirienzo, 2010). Overall, there is a dearth of community-based, reliable, appropriate, democratically accountable planning and monitoring processes related to travel and tourism.

The overall conclusion “that the success of the 2030 Agenda will depend on our ability to sustain stable, secure and inclusive societies governed by states that are essentially trustworthy, responsive to constituents, free of corruption and committed to eliminating violence” (Zuber, 2016) is extremely pertinent to tourism and travel.

Core reflections - Overview of trends since 2015 and their effects on progress towards SDG16

There is a widespread consensus among academics and activists that we collectively face three interlinked fundamental challenges: Climate crisis and biodiversity loss; Authoritarianism and discrimination; and Growing Inequality. These interlinked crises have major influences on the lives, livelihoods and felt futures of the majority of people across the world.

These challenges, and how they express themselves in political and economic decision-making processes at local and national levels, have significant influences on the limited or regressive progress towards tourism and travel’s contributions to achieving the SDGs, including SDG16. Disturbingly, all of these changes have become more acute and pronounced since 2015.

Covid-19 has dramatically highlighted the need for just, equal and inclusive social and economic initiatives, alternative policies and practices. These need to be sincerely implemented, supported by law and applied to an increasing number of communities and countries. We have a fundamental need for more just, equal and inclusive societies that respect and protect the social, economic and political rights of all. Special attention must be paid to marginalized groups.

Our conclusions from 2017 remain disturbingly pressing

Tourism requires significant reforms in order to contribute positively to the building of just and inclusive societies that are based on

1. respect for human rights (including the right to development);
2. effective rule of law and good governance at all levels; and
3. transparent, effective and accountable institutions.

With these objectives in mind, the reforms must repurpose the relationships between large and medium-sized businesses, political and legal planning processes at both local and national levels, and citizens in ‘host’ communities.

Reforming the relationship between business stakeholders and local decision-making

Citizens and workers in the host communities have the biggest stake in ensuring a form of tourism that protects their cultural and natural environment and contributes to fulfilling their social and economic rights.

Many of today’s challenges can be addressed if functioning relationships are built between communities and local tourist operators, working through local and national participatory and accountable decision-making, planning and monitoring processes, rooted in more inclusive democracies. This is a complex and challenging task, but an essential one (Mason, 2016).

Integrated participatory planning

Approaches to sustainable development must be co-ordinated nationally and locally. There are some examples of this type of planning within tourism. They show that it is possible to promote diversified forms of tourism to ease concentration and allow for alternative ways to flourish, encouraging more socially just and environmentally respectful activities. However, to be viable and sustainable, they all depend on citizen/community/public control and participation.

Guidelines for Sustainable Tourism

Planners and government officers at both the local and national level, as well as representatives of trade unions, tourist operators, travel agents, and ‘host’ communities must be equipped with guidelines and ‘best practices’ for sustainable tourism. Such guidelines must aim to bridge the large gap between rhetoric and reality (Biosphere, n. d.). These guidelines must be generated through a network of “Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism”.

One step forward is to put in place regulations and legislation that effectively protect local citizens and communities from harmful tourism as well as mechanisms that require travel and tourism businesses to compensate for losses and repair the damage they have created, especially if operators end their activities in an area.

Clear, transparent, and accessible mechanisms of accountability

Accountability mechanisms are needed to empower people(s) to monitor and hold governments, financial institutions, development agencies and the private sector in tourism accountable for their actions.

At the transnational level, an international legally binding instrument on transnational corporations with respect to human rights is required. This should contain clear and strong provisions prohibiting the interference of corporations in the process of forming and implementing laws and policies, as well as administering justice, at all national and international levels (TNI, 2015).

Local communities and indigenous peoples must have a central position in the new models of sustainable tourism, understanding them as a means of enhancing the quality of life and wellbeing of local populations, including mainstreaming gender considerations in sustainable development.

There is a growing number of community-based initiatives enabling host communities to have a stronger voice in the development and monitoring of travel and tourism. Many of these come from associations and not-for-profits that build on participatory development approaches to community development. Each provides some key contributions to more sustainable and just travel and tourism.

Core questions to assess trends since 2015 and their effects on progress of tourisms contributions towards SDG16

• Are national and international institutions more effective, inclusive and transparent than before?
  
  Disturbingly not. The growing trend towards authoritarianism has weakened spaces for citizen-government engagement, which in turn had a negative effect on international and multi-national institutions. While some regions, such as the EU, are continuing to strengthen options for citizen engagement, this too is beginning to be challenged.

• Is decision-making at all levels becoming more responsive, inclusive, participatory, and representative?
  
  Disturbingly not. Since 2015, the respective UN Special Rapporteurs have consistently shared concerns about growing pressures and limitations on public access to information, protection of fundamental freedoms and the promotion of non-discriminatory law. Policies for sustainable development have evolved in the contested context of national responses to the ‘climate emergency’, with some important and exemplary progress countered by a majority of inadequate trends and contradictory responses.

• Does current tourism practice enable local, national and international institutions to be more transparent, accountable, inclusive and effective? Does tourism contribute to economically and socially just and inclusive societies?
  
  On a government level, a lack of strategic planning and policy commitment to sustainable tourism continues. With respect to travel, there has been some significant progress in terms of monitoring CO² emissions and communicating emissions data to travellers to encourage tourists to make ‘greener’ travel choices. This has led to increased transparency on emissions. However, there are rising concerns of ‘green-washing’ in many so-called CO² offsetting schemes, with doubts as to whether actual company practice has significantly and adequately changed (see also the articles on SDGs 12 and 13).
  
  There is a widespread view that commercial and corporate led tourism is not contributing to economically and socially just and inclusive societies as per the expectations and aspirations of the internationally agreed SDGs.

• Are there community-based, reliable, appropriate, and democratically accountable planning and monitoring processes and systems related to tourism and travel?
  
  Disturbingly not. The growing trend of authoritarianism in an increasing number of countries has expressed itself in limiting, co-opting, controlling, truncating and simply closing down community-based, reliable, appropriate, democratically accountable planning and monitoring processes and systems.

• Has the knowledge about sustainable tourism indicators, tools and mechanisms in the tourism industry improved?
  
  There have been significant developments with respect to monitoring CO² emissions (also see the article on SDG 13), sometimes across supply chains. Additionally, there has been a trend to a less ‘visible’ use of some plastics. This has tended to be ‘public facing’ and not reflected across supply chains. There has been a growing trend to marketing and promoting tourism products as ‘eco’, ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ (World Tourism Organization, n. d.), which has shifted expectations of some travellers.
  
  In addition, there has been a continuing development of community-based, environmentally respectful tourism initiatives (SASANE, n. d.). These are recognised by awards, such as the TO DO award (ITB, 2022), yet some initiatives have struggled with the costs and processes of certification.

• Has government level strategic planning and policy commitment to sustainable tourism improved?
  
  Generally not, with some notable exceptions. Some countries, including Costa Rica and Bhutan, have embraced sustainable tourism. Few, such as Bhutan, have consistently linked this to limiting numbers of tourists (Rai, 2023) in the clear context of overall sustainability.

• Is there systematic environmental, social and economic monitoring of the effects of tourism and travel on people’s social and economic rights as well as on the rights of marginalised and indigenous peoples?
  
  This remains absent overall. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (OHCHR, n. d.-a) requires all states that have signed and ratified CEDAW to report on their progress and adopted measures relating to the rights described in the convention. In addition, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) involves a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States (OHCHR, n. d.-b). These mechanisms, however, do not require systematic monitoring of the effects of tourism and travel on vulnerable groups. It remains vital that human rights defenders, trade unionists, women’s rights activists and others record and share the lived experiences of communities affected by aggressive and unsustainable tourism and travel developments. As shared in Transforming Tourism events, this can be challenging and even life threatening (TTI, n. d.-a).

• Does corporate impunity remain a significant issue and do its effects still cascade down, negatively affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people?
  
  Disturbingly, yes, but with some potential for future progress. Notwithstanding efforts from some national governments and coalitions of civil society organisations, progress of the UN’s Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group (OEIGWG) with the mandate “to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises” (TNI, 2018) has been stalled.
  
  Meanwhile, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework claims to be the global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse impacts on human rights involving business activity. They provide the internationally accepted framework for enhancing standards and practices with regards to business and human rights (OHCHR, 2012).
  
  On a positive note, in 2023 the European Parliament adopted the directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD) (European Parliament, 2023). The CSDDD requires in-scope companies to conduct due diligence on, and take responsibility for, human rights abuses as well as environmental harm throughout their global value chains (see also the article on SDG 12).

• On a global level, has there been an increase in networks and partnerships working on sustainable tourism at different scales? In addition, have participatory planning processes and shared learning among industry stakeholders increased?
  
  The Transforming Tourism Initiative (TTI, n. d.-b), building on the consensus developed in the Berlin Declaration (TTI, 2017), emerged in response to the realisation that global collaboration on sustainable tourism is lacking. The work of TTI continues, with a clear interest to invite people and organisations to join the collaboration.
  
  As a whole, the tourism and travel sector would greatly benefit from integrating and networking with civil society networks and movements working for more inclusive as well as environmentally and socially just tourism and travel.

Conclusions

In summary, tourism and travel face fundamental, interlinked challenges that require priority responses. In times of growing authoritarianism, inequalities, climate-related disasters, and biodiversity loss, there are growing imperatives to strengthen and link civil society with parliamentarians and corporate players, whose decisions dramatically influence the current and future lives and livelihoods of people globally. Finally, the Just-Green Deal for Tourism (see Rutherford, 2019), which was jointly developed by civil society members in 2019, provides an important framework for how to move forward.