COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS OPENS SIXTY-FIFTH SESSION IN GENEVA

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this morning opened its sixty-fifth session in Geneva, hearing a statement by Maja Andrijasevic Boko, Acting Chief of the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Section of the Human Rights Treaties Branch at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; electing a new bureau after new Committee Experts made the solemn declaration; and adopting its agenda and programme of work for the session.

In her opening statement, Ms. Andrijasevic Boko reminded that the time available for consultation on and input to the 2020 review of the treaty body system was quickly passing. Accordingly, it was important to make use of every possible opportunity during the first half of the year to reflect on the questions that arose in the context of the review and exchange information with other committees. She also recalled that the General Assembly in its resolution 73/162 adopted in December 2018 had requested the Secretary-General to submit the next biennial report on the status of the treaty body system in January 2020 in advance of the review. With input from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Secretary-General would need to finalize the report by September 2019, developing its contours by the end of June. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had shared a note verbale requesting input from States and other stakeholders on the implementation of General Assembly resolution 68/268 and on the 2020 review more generally. The current deadline to receive information was 1 March 2019.

The report of the Secretary-General would no doubt highlight some of the lessons learned from the implementation of resolution 68/268, among others, that past trends may not be the best predictor of the future. That was the case for the resources allocated to the Committee for the consideration of individual communications, which under resolution 68/268 were based on the average number of communications received in previous years. It was difficult to address such a sudden surge in the number of communications experienced in 2018. The Secretary-General’s report may also address some of the procedures for which resources were not sufficiently provided for in resolution 68/268, such as individual and inter-State communications, inquiries, requests for urgent action, follow-up procedures, and transitioning to the simplified reporting procedure, among others.

Turning to the Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals, Ms. Andrijasevic Boko said that the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in July 2019 was high on the agenda of the international community. With the theme “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”, it would review the implementation of the six Sustainable Development Goals (on quality education, decent work and economic growth, reduced inequalities, climate action, peace, justice and strong institutions, and on global partnerships), and it would address many issues very closely related to the work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had deployed significant efforts to achieve closer alignment of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets with human rights. Now Governments and numerous other stakeholders looked to treaty bodies for authoritative guidance and how the programmes carried out on the ground could contribute to the realization of human rights, Ms. Andrijasevic Boko noted.

Ms. Andrijasevic Boko expressed appreciation for the work of Committee Members of the outgoing bureau: Ms. Lydia Ravenberg as the Rapporteur, and the three Vice-Chairs, Mr. Mohamed Abdel-Moneim, Mr. Zdzislaw Kedzia, and Ms. Heisoo Shin. The mandate of the former Chair, Ms. Maria Virginia Bras Gomes, ended in 2018.

She then invited the new members of the Committee - Mr. Asraf Ally Caunhye (Mauritius), Mr. Peters Sunday Omologbe Emuze (Nigeria), Ms. Karla Vanessa Lemus de Vásquez (El Salvador), and Ms. Preeti Saran (India) – to make their solemn declaration.

The Committee elected by consensus Mr. Renato Zerbini Ribeiro Leão of Brazil as the Chairperson. It also elected Ms. Sandra Liebenberg (South Africa), Ms. Laura-Maria Craciunean-Tatu (Romania), and Mr. Shiqiu Chen (China) as Vice-Chairs of the Committee, and Mr. Olivier de Schutter (Belgium) as the Rapporteur.

The Committee then adopted the agenda and programme of work for the sixty-fifth session, which is taking place at the Palais Wilson from 18 February to 8 March 2019. During the session, the Committee will review the reports of Estonia, Cameroon, Bulgaria, Mauritius and Kazakhstan. All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found at the session’s webpage.

The Committee will next meet in public today at 3 p.m. to hold a meeting with national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations with respect to Estonia, Cameroon and Bulgaria, whose reports will be considered this week.



For use of the information media; not an official record

CESCR/19/001E