COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS OPENS FORTY-THIRD SESSION

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this morning opened its forty-third session, hearing an address by Ibrahim Salama, Chief of the Human Rights and Treaty Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and adopting its agenda and programme of work for the current session.

Mr. Salama, in an opening statement, informed the Committee about the six thematic priorities that had been identified by OHCHR for the next biennium. He also noted that just about a month and a half ago, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had been opened for signature and ratification and that 30 signatures had since been submitted. This was extremely significant for the Committee’s work. Turning to the Committee’s request for an additional session per year during the 2010-2011 period, he informed the Committee that this was not taken up for action by any of the Member States in the form of a draft decision or resolution during the last Economic and Social Council session. The Committee would thus have to decide on whether or not it would renew this request.

In the ensuing discussion, Committee Experts welcomed the six thematic priorities that had been identified by OHCHR for the next biennium. They wondered whether OHCHR planned to conduct a campaign to invite countries to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Covenant; and further wondered why their request for an additional session had not been acted upon. This was a serious matter and now it looked like this issue would not be acted upon before 2011.

During its three-week session, from 2 to 20 November 2009, the Committee will examine measures taken by Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Poland and the Republic of Korea to comply with the standards of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The next public meeting of the Committee will be this afternoon at 3 p.m. when it will meet with other United Nations organs and bodies and with civil society representatives to discuss substantive issues.

Statement

IBRAHIM SALAMA, Chief of the Human Rights and Treaty Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in an opening statement, brought to the Committee’s attention a number of developments that had taken place since its last session. He informed the Committee that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had been engaged over the last couple of months in elaborating its strategic priorities for the next biennium (2010/2011). The six priorities identified were of direct relevance to the issues that lay at the core of treaty bodies’ work: ensuring the realization of human rights in the context of migration; eliminating discrimination; protection of human rights in situations of armed conflict, violence and insecurity; combating impunity and strengthening accountability, the rule of law, and democratic societies; protecting economic, social and cultural rights, particularly in the context of the economic, food and climate crises; and strengthening international human rights mechanisms and the progressive development of international law.

Mr. Salama noted that the Human Rights Council had held its twelfth session from 14 September to 2 October and that the High Commissioner had, in her opening speech, underscored the importance of treaty bodies, both through their reporting and individual complaints mechanisms, as well as through the Universal Periodic Review process. She had also stressed the greater demand posed on the treaty bodies and on the Office and had invited all stakeholders to initiate a process of reflection on how to streamline and strengthen the treaty body system.

In her statement to the Council, the High Commissioner had also stressed that developments over the past year had put in sharp focus the need to promote and protect human rights more effectively, said Mr. Salama. She had particularly referred to the effects of the economic crisis, the persistence of armed conflicts as well as continuing discrimination and violence against women, minorities, migrants and other vulnerable groups, issues which were all of great relevance to the Committee’s work.

Mr. Salama said the Committee’s role in enhancing the entire human rights treaty body system was of crucial importance. The tenth Inter-Committee meeting would take place at the end of November and would be devoted to a discussion of follow-up to concluding observations and views and decisions of treaty bodies in order to, inter alia, identify best practices in respect of follow-up and consider possible areas of harmonization.

Turning to the Universal Periodic Review, Mr. Salama said that the fifth session had taken place in May and that three of the countries that had already been reviewed would be considered during the Committee’s current session. Also, several other countries, for which the Committee would adopt lists of issues, had already been considered under the Universal Periodic Review. All documents had been made available to the Committee.

Turning to the developments related to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its Optional Protocol, Mr. Salama said that just about a month and a half ago, the Optional Protocol had been opened for signature and ratification and 30 signatures had since been submitted. This was extremely significant for the Committee’s work. Further, with the departure of Committee Member Yuri Kolosov from the Committee, a process was underway to fill the ad-hoc vacancy and an election would be held before the end of the year. General elections would also be held for nine seats at the Economic and Social Council’s April 2010 session.

Turning to the Committee’s request for an additional session per year during the 2010-2011 period, Mr. Salama informed the Committee that this was not taken up for action by any of the Member States in the form of a draft decision or resolution, during the last Economic and Social Council session. The Committee would thus have to decide on whether or not it would renew this request.

Mr. Salama also highlighted the fact that a difficult issue for the Secretariat was the editing and translation of documents, as the respective section of the United Nations Office at Geneva lacked the capacity to edit and translate the increasing number of documents the Committee needed to fulfil its mandate and that the Inter-Committee meeting would offer an opportunity to discuss this matter.


Discussion

In the ensuing discussion, Committee Experts welcomed the six thematic priorities that had been identified by OHCHR for the next biennium.

Experts wondered whether the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights planned to conduct a campaign to invite countries to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.


The Experts further wondered why their request for an additional session had not been acted upon. With the entry into force of the Optional Protocol, the Committee would have to look at its working methods. Additionally to that, it would need time to consider the many reports that had been received; the number of reports to consider was increasing. Several Experts expressed concern about this crucial need of additional time. This was a serious matter and now it looked like this issue would not be acted upon before 2011.

Mr. Salama, answering these questions and others, said that the Optional Protocol was a very important development for the Committee and human rights in general. He also thought that a campaign was needed to get more signatures and ratifications. This issue was on the top of the agenda of the High Commissioner, but the Committee could also give its own opinions and ideas on how to conduct such a campaign.

The Optional Protocol was a fitting and very progressive achievement; it reaffirmed the indivisibility of all human rights, said Mr. Salama.

Concerning the question on why the request for additional sessions had not been acted upon, Mr. Salama said that he was not sure about the reasons and that it was probably a matter of communications between various Secretariats. Also the request may not have been done in the best possible way, as it was included in a report.


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