Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Opens Seventy-Sixth Session
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights today opened its seventy-sixth session and adopted its agenda and programme of work for the session, during which it is scheduled to review the reports of Albania, Cyprus, Honduras, Iceland, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi and Poland.
Opening the session, Wan-Hea Lee, Chief, Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Urgent Actions Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Human Rights Council and Treaties Mechanisms Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and representative of the Secretary-General, welcomed that the session and all annual sessions of the treaty bodies could take place despite the current liquidity situation facing the United Nations. It was regrettable that the working groups, both the one-day meeting for individual communications and the week-long meeting for the lists of issues, could not take place. This exceptional measure, which affected the second annual sessions of all the treaty bodies, was a direct result of the liquidity crisis. The Office of the High Commissioner and the United Nations more broadly did their utmost to ensure that the Committee’s important work could proceed to the maximum extent possible.
Ms. Lee congratulated Committee members who were re-elected to serve on the Committee for another term from January 2025, and welcomed the members who were elected to join the Committee from 2025. She looked forward to the Committee’s continued commitment and contribution to the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rig
hts. The multiple challenges that loomed over today’s world, including conflicts and environmental challenges, highlighted the importance of having a strong, productive and independent Committee.
At the fifty-seventh session of the Human Rights Council, which was starting today, panel discussions relevant to the Committee’s work would be held on promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights and on the right to development, and interactive dialogues would be held regarding reports submitted by economic, social and cultural rights mandates, many of whom drew on the work of the Committee. Reports from the United Nations on climate change, the right to development, and promoting international cooperation to support national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up would also be on the agenda.
At the fifty-sixth session of the Council in June, the High Commissioner highlighted the need for an urgent, renewed commitment to prevent the vast, deepening human rights impact of the triple planetary crisis, the biggest threat to existence humanity had ever known. He also noted that loss and damage resulting from climate change was disproportionately affecting people in vulnerable situations and in developing countries. Ms. Lee called on the Committee to provide more guidance regarding sustainable development, the environment and the triple planetary crisis, particularly in the development of its draft general comment on the topic during the current session.
The major event this year at the United Nations was the Summit of the Future, which would take place on 22 and 23 September 2024 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. It would be preceded by two Summit of the Future Action Days on 20 and 21 September 2024. The Office of the High Commissioner would be hosting a side event at the Summit with Member States and civil society on 21 September on the role of human rights in realising the Pact for the Future. The Office would also contribute to side events of the Action Days, including a youth-led afternoon and events on reforms to the global tax and financial architecture for realising human rights; guaranteeing access to health care; and protecting the human rights of future generations.
The Office of the High Commissioner continued to actively support efforts to strengthen the treaty body system, which was the key topic at the thirty-sixth annual meeting of the treaty body Chairpersons in New York in June 2024. The Chairpersons met with the Secretary-General and other senior officials, civil society and Member States. They made marked progress in aligning working methods and advocated together for enlarged support for the implementation of the treaty body strengthening process. At a well-attended meeting with Member States, the Chairs called for resources to implement the predictable review schedule and other key strengthening proposals.
During the Committee’s current heavy session, it would review the reports of Iceland, Poland, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, Cyprus and Malawi, as well as the follow-up reports of Azerbaijan and Bolivia. It would also examine individual communications submitted under the Optional Protocol, develop draft general comments and a draft statement on taxation, and perform considerable other work related to internal working methods. This was the last session for five Committee Members whose terms would come to an end at the end of the 2024. Ms. Lee expressed her deep appreciation to them for their service. She concluded by wishing the Committee a successful and productive session.
Laura-Maria Craciunean-Tatu, Committee Chair, said the Committee’s work would continue to contribute to an enhanced protection of economic, social and cultural rights around the world in these complex and challenging times, marked by multiple and overlapping crises, rising inequalities, and several ongoing conflicts. The Committee’s work was now more important than ever. The principles of equality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights, as well as the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights, including access to remedies for their violation, needed to guide the actions of all States parties and relevant actors, as these were crucial instruments in addressing the challenges.
During the current session, Ms. Craciunean-Tatu said the Committee would work on a draft general comment on economic, social and cultural rights and the environmental dimension of sustainable development in the context of the planetary environmental crises. It would also hold an internal discussion on a draft general comment on drug policies and economic, social and cultural rights, and a draft statement on taxation and effective and socially just taxation for the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights. Further, the Committee would discuss follow-up assessments for Azerbaijan and Bolivia during the session, and engage with colleagues from other treaty bodies, human rights mechanisms and from United Nations funds and programmes to the extent possible.
Since the last session, the Committee had received the reports of the Republic of Moldova, Mauritius, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Austria and Eswatini. There was still a very high number of long overdue reports, which Ms. Craciunean-Tatu called on relevant States to submit.
In the current session, the Committee would also be considering matters related to the Optional Protocol and the Working Group’s proposals regarding individual communications. The Working Group’s meeting scheduled for Friday, 6 September 2024 was cancelled due to the liquidity situation, thus the Working Group would meet during the session to conduct its work.
All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage. Webcasts of the meetings of the session can be found here, and meetings summaries can be found here.
The Committee will next meet in public this afternoon, Monday 9 September at 3 p.m. to begin its consideration of the fifth periodic report of Iceland (E/C.12/ISL/5).
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