COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS CONCLUDES FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights today concluded its fifty-eighth session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Angola, Burkina Faso, France, Honduras, Sweden, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the United Kingdom.

The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the reports will be available on the webpage of the session on Monday, 27 June at 6 p.m.

In closing remarks, Waleed Sadi, the Committee Chairperson, stated that this was the second year with the additional time granted to the Committee in the context of the treaty body strengthening process. The session had been busy, with State party reviews, consideration of communications as well as with a considerable number of informal meetings with key stakeholders. Numerous meetings had also been organised by civil society stakeholders, including with human rights defenders. Mr. Sadi reminded that 2016 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the two International Covenants, which were being celebrating throughout the year, reflecting certainly on the many challenges that lay ahead.

Mr. Sadi said that the Committee had also proceeded with its work related to the Optional Protocol to the Covenant. It had examined three communications under the Optional Protocol and declared them inadmissible; those decisions would be notified to the parties and made public shortly. Work was pursued on the General Comments, with the first reading of the draft General Comment on Business and Human Rights. The rapporteurs of that General Comment would now begin to consult other stakeholders as well, as they prepared the draft for a second reading in the Committee. The Committee had also adopted the statement on public debt, austerity measures and the Covenant. In addition, the Committee had discussed its working methods and other issues related to the treaty body strengthening process, and notably issues discussed at the meeting of the chairs, among others. The Committee had tried to organise its work in conducting dialogues, through task forces led by a country rapporteur, and had decided to generalise that practice at the sessions to come.

On 23 June, the Committee held a joint meeting with the Human Rights Committee to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The two Committees reaffirmed the universality, interdependence and indivisibility of human rights and expressed readiness to hold joint sessions more regularly. More information on the year-long campaign entitled “Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always" is available at the following link: www.ohchr.org/2covenants.

The Committee’s fifty-ninth session will take place in Geneva from 19 September to 7 October 2016, for which the tentative programme has been adopted. During the session, the Committee will consider reports of Costa Rica, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, the Philippines, Poland, Tunisia and Yemen.


For use of the information media; not an official record

ESC16/019E