Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Opens Seventy-Seventh Session
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights opened its seventy-seventh meeting today. The Committee adopted its agenda and work plan at its meeting, during which it plans to review reports from Croatia, Peru, the Philippines, Rwanda and the United Kingdom.
Wan-Hea Lee, the head of the opening meeting, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and emergency operations, branch of the Human Rights Treaty, the Human Rights Commission and the Treaty Mechanism Division, the Office of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, welcomes five new members of the Commission: Lazhari Bouzid (Algeria), Peijie Chen (China), Charafat El Yedri Afailal (Morocco), Giuseppe Palmisano (Italy) and Laura Elisa Perez ( Laura Elisa Pérez (Mexico).
Ms. Lee said that despite the current situation of mobility in the United Nations, the first meeting of all treaty bodies will be held this year, allowing the important work of these bodies to continue. The High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Office of the United Nations are more widely owned and will continue to do their best to ensure that their work can be carried out as much as possible.
Ms. Lee reported that at the upcoming fifty-eighth session of the Human Rights Commission, many key group discussions and interactive dialogues will be held, which have a lot of issues related to economic, social and cultural rights, and the Council will Consider several reports related to the Commission’s mandate, including the Secretary-General’s report on the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, and inter-interpretations on cultural rights and the protection of cultural heritage. She was sure that the work of the committee would guide some of these discussions.
Ms. Li said that in 2024, significant efforts have been made to strengthen indigenous peoples’ participation in human rights procedures. one The second course meeting held in October 2024 Methods to strengthen indigenous peoples’ participation in the United Nations process were explored. The representative of indigenous peoples also served as direct representatives of their communities and organizations for the first time, speaking on the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on Human Rights for the first time in September 2024. Resolution 57/15 October 2024 It will promote participation of indigenous peoples and future treaty bodies. These developments are particularly timely given this year’s celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Ms. Li pointed out that two new addition tools will be stored by the end of this year. St Kitts and Nevis International Economic, Social and Cultural Rights CovenantCôte d’Ivoire became the 30th party to its optional agreement. While welcoming the ongoing march of approval, the Office of the High Commissioner takes note of current affairs and modern challenges that affect the global enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. The High Commissioner noted in a recent statement that The driving force of multilateralism As the conflict continues and reappears, how the challenges faced in 2024 are relaxed.
Ms Lee said the High Commissioner has been urging states to commit themselves to the global pursuit of human rights economy. exist Comment on the October 2024 social forumHe stressed that the country needs to build an inclusive human rights economy and prioritize people and planets. Speech in December last yearthe High Commissioner highlighted the necessary substantial transformations in the economic system to ensure the provision of economic, social and cultural rights to all peoples around the world. He said the world cannot be based on a model of providing health to some people, providing wealth to some people, work to some people, and rights to some people.
Ms. Li said last year was particularly challenging. In addition to chronic resource constraints, the liquidity crisis is also hindering the planning and implementation of the Commission’s work. The office is doing its best to ensure that the treaty bodies can perform their tasks. She said that despite this, all signs indicate that the liquidity situation has continued for the foreseeable future.
Ms. Lee said the physical strengthening process of the treaty remains active. It has reached a critical moment when the General Assembly adopted a biennial resolution of the treaty body system in December. The resolution invites treaty bodies and offices to continue coordination and predictability in the reporting process to achieve a formal timeline of reporting and to increase their efforts to further use of digital technologies. However, the Biennale’s resolutions did not endorse some of the detailed recommendations for chairs and corresponding resources to implement them, such as the predictable eight-year schedule.
Ms. Lee said the High Commissioner’s office will continue to work with Chairs and all treaty body experts to strengthen the treaty’s body system and take advantage of all opportunities to advance this basic work.
In his concluding comment, Ms. Lee said that a heavy plan for the next three weeks was before the committee. She praised the committee for its efforts and preparation for such a long meeting and hoped it would continue to succeed.
Committee Chairman Laura-Maria Craciunean-Tatu thanked the High Commissioner for his confidence in the work of the Commission and its contribution to the sustained and enhanced protection of economic, social and cultural rights around the world, facing today’s increasingly complex challenges and setbacks. The committee also welcomed the participation of Saint Kitts and Nevis to the Covenant and Ivory Coast and obtained an optional agreement. The Chairman said that the review of the periodic report of Kenya, originally scheduled for the current session, had been postponed to a future meeting.
Ms. Craciunean-Tatu said that given the many challenges today, it is clear that the work of the Commission is as important as ever to uphold the human rights framework, a tool for peace and sustainable development. Therefore, the principles of equality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelationship of all human rights, and their feasibility, require continuing guidance on the methods of state parties and other stakeholders to address many of the challenges faced globally.
Ms. Craciunean-Tatu announced that during the meeting, the Committee would conduct a draft general comment on economic, social and cultural rights and environmental aspects of sustainable development. It will also conduct internal discussions in the draft general comment on drug policy and economic, social and cultural rights, the draft general comment on armed conflict and economic, social and cultural rights, and the draft statement on the realization of effective and social taxation economics , social and cultural rights.
Additionally, during the meeting, Ms. Craciunean-Tatu said the committee would adopt a list of issues regarding Cabo Verde, North Macedonia and Turkmenistan. It will also consider issues related to the optional agreement and provide recommendations for follow-up reports from Serbia and Uzbekistan and for personal communications conducted by its working groups. In addition, it will hold informal meetings with states and annual meetings with NGOs. It will also be related to climate change and the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights.
Since the last meeting, Ms. Craciunean-Tatu reported that the Commission had received periodic reports from Canada, Ecuador, Slovakia, Egypt, Estonia, Zambia, Paraguay and Uganda, as well as preliminary reports from Guinea Peso. The Commission’s observations based on considerations of the report and the conclusions of the dialogue held at the meeting will be communicated to the respective states on Friday, February 28 and made public on Monday, March 3.
The seventy-seventh session of the Committee was held until 28 February 2025. Session web page. The webcast of conference meetings can be found herethe conference summary can be found here.
The Committee will next meet in public at 3 pm this afternoon to begin considering the second periodic report of Croatia (E/C.12/HRV/2).
Distributed by Apo Group on behalf of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
