COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS OPENS THIRTY-EIGHTH SESSION

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this morning opened its thirty-eighth session, hearing an address from a Representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, electing its Bureau and adopting its agenda and programme of work.

During the Committee’s session, that will conclude on 18 May, it will examine measures taken by Nepal, Hungary, the Netherlands (Antilles), Finland and Latvia to comply with the standards of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Committee will also continue its consideration of draft general comments on paragraph 2 of article 2 of the Covenant (non-discrimination) and on article 9 (the right to social security).

At the beginning of the meeting, the Committee heard three new members make a solemn oath, and elected its Bureau. Elected as the Chairperson of the Committee was Philippe Texier of France. Also elected as Vice-Chairpersons were Rocio Barahona Riera of Costa Rica, Ariranga Govindasamy Pillay of Mauritius, and Waleed M. Sadi of Jordan. Elected as Rapporteur was Andrzej Rzeplinski of Poland.
The three new members of the Committee are Chandrashekhar Dasgupta of India, Barbara Elaine Wilson of Switzerland, and Daode Zhan of China, all of whom made a solemn oath to discharge their duties as a member of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights impartially and conscientiously. The Committee then adopted its agenda and programme of work before discussing follow-up to the consideration of reports, submission of reports by States parties and relations with United Nations organs and other treaty bodies.

In an opening statement, Bacre Waly Ndiaye, Director of the Human Rights Procedures Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said this was an exciting time for the field of human rights, with many developments continuing to take place since the November session, and over the last few months there had been some very interesting developments in areas of direct relevance to the Committee. Among all the changes that were being brought about by the Human Rights Council, the approaches being taken with regard to economic, social and cultural rights revealed the latter to be heading in new directions, and it had been very supportive of the Committee.

This afternoon at 3 p.m., the Committee will hear information from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with respect to the reports that it will review during the current session.


Statement

BACRE WALY NDIAYE, Director, Human Rights Procedures Division, said this was an exciting time for the field of human rights, with many developments continuing to take place since the November session, and over the last few months there had been some very interesting developments in areas of direct relevance to the Committee. For example, the elaboration of an Optional Protocol to the Covenant had advanced to the point where the Open-ended Working Group was now considering a working draft. The human rights treaty system had also been enriched with the adoption of three new instruments.

If it was fair to refer to the “birth” of the Human Rights Council last year, then it was fair to say that the accompanying birth pains were considerable, but natural. Since the last session of the Committee, the Council had continued with the processes of institution-building, establishing rules and procedures and organising its work and agenda. It also dealt with urgent situations in special sessions. The deadline by which the Council was expected to conclude its institution-building processes was now close at hand, and at its fifth session it would focus on the establishment of the Universal Periodic Review mechanism, and the review of all mandates and mechanisms inherited from the former Commission.

Among all the changes that were being brought about by the Council, the approaches being taken with regard to economic, social and cultural rights revealed the Council to be heading in new directions. The Council had been very supportive of the Committee, and it was hoped the Committee would find time to discuss this and how it would wish to continue to promote follow-up through such activities in the future.

On the treaty body system, Mr. Ndiaye said he was pleased to share that the treaty bodies had continued to labour for a stronger, more coherent system. Since the Committee tended to make time to discuss the outcomes of the inter-treaty body processes, there was confidence that it would find time during the session, which promised to be as charged as usual, to sufficiently consider issues raised in working groups, and to take decisions that would enable the forthcoming Sixth Inter-Committee Meeting and Nineteenth Meeting of Chairpersons to serve as the engine of the reform that they were intended to be.

At the present session, the Committee had, as always, a heavy agenda, with the consideration of five reports, continued deliberations on the draft General Comments on articles 2.2 and 9 of the Covenant, continued discussion on the working methods of the Committee and treaty body reform, the Joint Expert Group with the UNESCO Committee on Conventions and Recommendations, and consideration of the resolutions of the Human Rights Council specifically relating to the work of the Committee. It was hoped the Committee would have a most fruitful and successful session.