COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS CONCLUDES ITS SIXTY-FOURTH SESSION

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon closed its sixty-fourth session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Germany, Mali, Argentina, Turkmenistan, South Africa and Cabo Verde.

The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations will be available on the Committee’s webpage on Monday, 15 October in the afternoon.

In her concluding remarks, Maria Virginia Bras Gomes, Committee Chairperson, said they had had a busy schedule this session with the consideration of the reports of six countries, including two initial reports. The Committee had also reviewed one communication under the Optional Protocol, which was found to be inadmissible. They had held a day of general discussion on article 15 of the Covenant on the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications and on other provisions of article 15 on the relationship between science and economic, social and cultural rights. The Chair said she hoped that the Committee would soon be ready to draft a general comment on article 15.

Committee Experts praised the work of Ms. Bras Gomes, whose term as Chair and Committee Expert ends on 31 December 2018. They said she had contributed to the work of the Committee in a remarkable way and would be greatly missed. They underlined the way Ms. Bras Gomes had guided the Committee’s work for the past two years as Chair, saying that she had shown everyone that women were very capable when holding leadership positions.

Ms. Bras Gomes said it had been a privilege to be a member of the Committee and its Chair for the past two years. She left the Committee a better professional and a better person because she had learned so much from her colleagues.

All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage. Meeting summaries of all public meetings held during the sixty-fourth session can be found here, and meeting webcasts here.

The sixty-fifth session of the Committee will be held from 18 February to 8 March 2019, during which the reports of Bulgaria, Cameroon, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, and Slovakia would be reviewed.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CESCR18/022E