COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS CLOSES ITS SIXTIETH SESSION

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon closed its sixtieth session. The week-long session focused on substantive issues, including a discussion day on the draft General Comment on business and human rights.

In closing remarks, Virginia Bras Gomes, Chairperson of the Committee, reminded that three new members had joined the Committee at the beginning of the session: Laura-Maria Craciunean-Tatu (Romania), Sandra Liebenberg (South Africa), and Michael Windfuhr (Germany). Virginia Bras Gomes had been elected Chairperson, while Mohammed Abdel Moneim, Zdzislaw Kedzia and Heisoo Shin had been elected as Vice-Chairpersons and Lydia Ravenberg as the Rapporteur. A new working group on communications was also in place.

Ms. Bras Gomes stressed that this had been a unique session in which no reports had been considered. Nine States had participated in the Committee’s meeting with non-reporting States on 23 February. The Committee was going to follow up with the Missions in order to encourage the submission of initial reports within the shortest time possible. During the session, the working group on communications had declared two communications inadmissible.

The highlight of the session was the Day of General Discussion on 21 February related to the draft General Comment on State obligations under the Covenant in the context of business activities. Eleven invited discussants from around the globe had led the discussions, which were attended by over 100 participants, including 19 States and the European Union, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, trade unions, corporate lawyers, human rights lawyers, researchers and academics. A wider audience had been reached through webcasting and social media.

The Committee had also continued its discussion on its draft General Comment related to article 15, on economic, social and cultural rights, development and the environment. A proposal had been submitted for a new General Comment related to land and economic, social and cultural rights. A statement had been adopted on migrants and refugees. Ms. Bras Gomes recapitulated that the Committee had agreed to introduce a procedure on follow-up to concluding observations, from June 2017. Modalities of the procedure would be formally adopted at the beginning of the sixty-first session in June and States parties would be informed by the secretariat prior to the dialogue.

The sixty-first session of the Committee will take place between 29 May and 23 June, when the Committee will consider reports from Australia, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Uruguay.



For use of the information media; not an official record

ESC17/004E