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

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this morning opened its forty-seventh session at the Palais Wilson in Geneva, hearing an address by Ibrahim Salama, Director of the Human Rights Treaties Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Committee also adopted its agenda and programme of work.

In his address, Mr. Salama said that the Committee was meeting at a time when the current human rights situation in the world had immense challenges, and the rights in the Covenant were under threat from many angles. He updated the Committee on relevant events that had taken place since the last session, including at the Human Rights Council and a landmark decision made by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. He also spoke about budget reductions for the Secretariat, and the United Nations ‘greening policy’, as well as the Committee’s programme of work.

During its three-week session, from 14 November to 2 December, the Committee will examine measures taken by Estonia, Israel, Turkmenistan, Cameroon and Argentina 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 partners from civil society and the United Nations, and hear submissions by non-governmental organizations.

Statements

IBRAHIM SALAMA, Director of the Human Rights Treaties Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Committee was meeting at a time when the rights in the Covenant were under threat from many angles, and their leadership was crucial. The current situation of human rights in the world had immense challenges. The food emergency in the Horn of Africa was depriving people of a very basic human right, the right to food, and it put the enjoyment of other fundamental human rights, the right to life and freedom from hunger, at risk for so many people. The debt crisis unfolding in Europe and the impact of the economic crisis elsewhere on public resources were bringing a wave of drastic social cuts, which carried the risk of dire repercussions on economic, social and cultural rights – especially in relation to people who were already living in precarious situations. Those crises only highlighted the immediacy of the Committee’s work, as well as its critical role and the relevance of the Covenant in current debates.

Mr. Salama updated the Committee on recent events of importance to its work, starting with the High Commissioner’s 2009 request for different treaty-body stakeholders to provide their views on treaty body strengthening. While the process was still ongoing, a key message of States was clearly one of austerity and self-discipline, particularly in respect of the so-called ‘non-mandated activities’ undertaken by nearly all treaty bodies, such as follow-up procedures and the development of general comments. Furthermore, the dramatic reduction in resources foreseen in the budget of the United Nations Secretariat was a huge challenge that would further impact its ability to service the sessions of treaty bodies, including the translation of documents.

The next Chairpersons meeting, in June 2012, would be held in Africa to allow interaction with the African regional mechanisms and other local actors. In other developments, at the eighteenth session of the Human Rights Council last September, the High Commissioner presented a report on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, which the Committee should take into account in its work on the right to sexual and reproductive health. He noted a landmark decision from the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concerning its first maternal mortality case. The Committee found violations of the right to health and judicial protection, and of the obligation to regulate activities of private health service providers, which resulted in a woman dying from lack of adequate care.

The Committee would be considering the report of Argentina, Cameroon, Estonia, Israel and Turkmenistan during its forty-seventh session, starting with a meeting with partners from the United Nations and civil society, including non-governmental organizations, today. The Committee would have their annual meeting with the International Labour Organization Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, supported by the Friedrich Elbert Foundation, and also with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The Committee would also continue their adoption of the rules of procedure for the Optional Protocol, which should be a priority. Since the last session El Salvador and Argentina had ratified the Optional Protocol of the Convention which brought the number of parties to the Protocol to five.

Mr. Salama referred to the United Nations ‘greening policy’, noting the thousands of pages which had been printed for folders, most of which would be thrown away at the end of the session. The United Nations was gradually reducing its production of hard copy documents, and some Committees had already conducted paperless sessions. He hoped the Committee would consider reducing documentation and conducting ‘green sessions’ in the future. Finally Mr. Salama welcomed the new Chief of the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Section of the Human Rights Treaties Division, Mr. Simon Walker, and thanked his predecessor Ms. Carla Edelenbos for all of her work.

ARIRANGA GOVINDASAMY, Committee Chairperson, then adopted the agenda and programme of work.

For use of information media; not an official record

ESC11/011E