In 2015, the world committed itself to an ambitious fifteen year programme to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions. Gender equality is a key aspiration, both as a self-standing goal and as an aspect of several other goals. In a crucial step forward, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) make an explicit commitment to protect human rights. The relationship between binding human rights and the SDG agenda, however, remains contentious and underdeveloped. This presentation asks how best the human rights commitment to gender equality can be harnessed to achieve gender equality as a development goal and simultaneously, how the SDGs can be harnessed to advance the fulfilment of gender equality as a human rights guarantee.