A/72/139 proxy measure, indicate that an estimated 21 million persons suffer from such abject exploitation. 3 16. As referenced above, the Millennium Development Goals were time -bound goals, agreed upon by the international community at the turn of the millennium and formally endorsed by the General Assembly in 2005. 4 The Goals addressed many issues relating to development, including hunger and extreme poverty, education, gender equality, maternal health and child mortality, communicable diseases, t he environment and partnerships for achieving development. They received a high level of political commitment and were measured against a limited number of quantitative targets. For example, Goal 2, on achieving universal primary education, was measured against the target that, by 2015, all children everywhere, boys and girls alike, would be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. The Goals and targets, and the political commitment to them, led to significant resource mobilization and hence some successful results were achieved. For example, it is estimated that the population in the developing world living on less than $1.25 a day fell from nearly 50 to 14 per cent in 2015 and the primary school net enrolment rate in developing countries increased by 8 per cent from 83 per cent in 2000 to 91 per cent in 2015. Furthermore, the global under-5 mortality rate fell from 90 to 43 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2015 and the maternal mortality ratio declined by 45 per cent worldwide over the same period. 5 17. While such progress and the political consensus that formed around the Millennium Development Goals are commendable, the Millennium Development Goals framework had many weaknesses in its capacity to support efforts to eradicate slavery. First and foremost, the framework made no reference to contemporary forms of slavery, including forms affecting children, such as the worst forms of child labour. As both a cause and a consequence of underdevelopment, the omission of contemporary forms of slavery and related forms of exploitation was a serious weakness, resulting in measures to eradicate slavery often being excluded from mainstream development programmes. 6 18. Despite the exclusion of explicit references to contemporary forms of slavery, the Millennium Development Goals still had the potential to tackle such phenomena. The Goals addressed many issues relevant to the root causes and consequences of contemporary forms of slavery, including extreme poverty, gender inequality, education and global partnerships for development. Broader weaknesses, however, had a serious impact. As has been criticized by many stakeholders, human rights dimensions were largely excluded from the development, implementation and monitoring of the Goals. 7 The Goals had a narrow focus in relation to development, which excluded the role of civil and political rights in ach ieving development, and were characterized by technocratic targets to monitor and measure implementation. The Goals and targets did not take into account the fundamental human rights of all citizens by measuring equality or equity of development outcomes o r mapping __________________ 3 4 5 6 7 6/21 International Labour Office (ILO), Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour, ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labour: Results and methodology (Geneva, 2012). Available from www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---declaration/documents/publication/ wcms_182004.pdf. Claiming the Millennium Development Goals: A Human Rights Approach (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.08.XIV.6). United Nations, “The Millennium Development Goals report 2015: summary”, 2015. Available from www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20Summary% 20web_english.pdf. Aidan McQuade, “We can’t ignore slavery in the bid to lift millions out of poverty”, Guardian, 3 April 2013. Available from www.theguardian.com/global -development/povertymatters/2013/apr/03/we-cannot-ignore-slavery-poverty. Claiming the Millennium Development Goals (United Nations publication). 17-11988