As stated in the Preamble of the United Nations’ Resolution Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ‘The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (…) seek to realize the human rights of all’. The volume Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights ties in with this statement since it aims to analyse the interdependency between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and human rights (p. 1).

The collection of works is the fift h volume of the series Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Rights. As evident from its title, this series emphasises the importance of ‘interdisciplinary research in human rights’ (p. ii), and its authors represent a variety of academic disciplines and backgrounds. In line with this approach, the volume at hand consists of contributions from international authors in the fields of law, medicine and public health, economics, political science as well as philosophy. The book is composed of an introduction on the interrelation between the SDGs and recognised human rights, followed by 12 papers which each address one SDG. The contributions are thematically arranged, roughly according to the SDGs’ order in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The volume thus highlights the existing connections between the SDGs and individual human rights obligations (p. 2). Quoting a survey from the Danish Institute on Human Rights, the editors point out that 156 out of the 169 SDG targets indeed ‘reflect human rights and basic labour standards’ (p. 2). The editors explicitly mention the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as relevant human rights laws in this regard (p. 2). Overall, the 12 papers ‘address each aspect from a more human rights-focused angle and a development-policy angle’ (p. 4) alternately. This approach allows for the analysis of similarities and ‘differences between the two dimensions’ (p. 4). The book thus offers a comprehensive picture of the issues at hand.

The editors’ choice to begin the collection with a contribution on poverty reduction aligns with the topic of SDG one.