HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL RESUMES SIXTH SESSION, CONSIDERS RECTIFYING LEGAL STATUS OF COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

The Human Rights Council today resumed its sixth session and heard a presentation by Philippe Texier, Chairperson of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on rectifying the legal status of the Committee to put in on a par with other treaty monitoring bodies.

Mr. Texier, referring to a draft resolution on the rectification of the legal status of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, said that the Committee in its letter had indicated that in its view, a change of status was not of fundamental importance at this point. But it had thanked the Council for its efforts to align the status of the Committee with all the other human rights treaty bodies.

The Committee fully adhered to the principles of the 1993 Vienna Conference, Mr. Texier said, adding that it had not suffered from the fact that it was a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The annual reports to ECOSOC had never been subjected to any criticism. The Committee had always acted in total independence, like the other treaty bodies.

Mr. Texier noted that some States were asking if this change of status should be the work of the Council at all. However, the current priority was the adoption of the draft Optional Protocol that would give the Committee the possibility to seize itself of individual communications. It was only after the adoption of this Optional Protocol that the question of rectification of status could be asked, as it would be deemed important.

The note by the Secretariat on the rectification of the legal status of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: report of the Committee (A/HRC/6/20), submitted pursuant to Council resolution 4/7, in which the Council decided to initiate a process to rectify the legal status of the Committee to place it on a par with all other treaty monitoring bodies, includes an annexed report in the form of a letter from the Chairperson of the Committee to the President of the Council, in which the Committee notes that the rectification of the status of the Committee is desirable "to grant equal treatment to all monitoring bodies of the United Nations human rights system" and considers this to be a timely and advisable measure, bearing in mind the ongoing process for the drafting of an Optional Protocol. An Optional Protocol would enable the Committee to strengthen and enhance its work in monitoring the implementation of the Covenant, particularly by examining States parties’ reports, through a procedure that would deal with individual and collective communications.

The Human Rights Council will hold a debate on this issue on Tuesday, 11 December, at 9 a.m., after it hears a presentation by the Chairperson of the Working Group on the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. After the debate is concluded, the Council will hear an address by Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which will be followed by a related debate.



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