Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Sixty-sixth session

Summary record (partial)* of the 60th meeting**

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Friday, 18 October 2019, at 3 p.m.

Chair:Mr. Zerbini Ribeiro Leão

Contents

Substantive issues arising from the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (continued)

Consideration of reports (continued)

(a)Reports submitted by States parties in accordance with articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant (continued)

Closure of the session

The meeting was called to order at 3.05 p.m.

Substantive issues arising from the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (continued)

1.The Chair, reviewing the activities and meetings that had taken place during the session, said that the Committee had considered the reports of six States parties, namely Denmark, Ecuador, Israel, Senegal, Slovakia and Switzerland. The Committee had examined three communications under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant, two of which it had deemed inadmissible, while finding a violation of the right to adequate housing in the other. In two of the cases considered, the Committee had found violations of the Optional Protocol as a result of the failure to comply with interim measures. The Committee had decided to discontinue the examination of 12 individual communications. It had adopted guidelines on interim measures, which would be duly transmitted to States parties to facilitate the adoption of such measures in the context of individual communications. At its sixty-fifth session, in October 2019, the pre-sessional working group would adopt lists of issues regarding the reports of Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latvia, Nicaragua, the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Serbia, and a list of issues prior to reporting for Mongolia.

2.The Committee had held a day of general discussion in the context of its efforts to prepare a general comment on economic, social and cultural rights and land, and it was hoped that a draft general comment would be issued in 2020, together with an invitation to submit inputs, after the Committee had concluded its work on the draft general comment on article 15 of the Covenant, on the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications. The Bureau of the Committee had met with the Bureau of the Human Rights Committee to share experiences and discuss matters related to working methods and substantive issues of relevance for both Committees. Efforts to share information and enhance cooperation with the Human Rights Council and other treaty bodies would continue. Furthermore, in his capacity as Chair, he had attended the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly and had participated in the deliberations of the Third Committee, in which he had presented the work of the Committee and interacted with the delegates of States parties. Lastly, he recalled the special tribute that had been paid to the Committee member and former Chair, Waleed Sadi, who had sadly passed away in Geneva on 7 October.

Consideration of reports (continued)

(a) Reports submitted by States parties in accordance with articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant (continued)

3.The Chair said that, if there were no objections, he would take it that the Committee wished to adopt its concluding observations on the reports of Denmark (E/C.12/DNK/CO/6), Ecuador (E/C.12/ECU/CO/4), Israel (E/C.12/ISR/CO/4), Senegal (E/C.12/SEN/CO/3), Slovakia (E/C.12/SVK/CO/4) and Switzerland (E/C.12/CHE/CO/4).

4. It was so decided.

Closure of the session

5.Following an exchange of courtesies, the Chair declared closed the sixty-sixth session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The discussion covered in the summary record ended at 3.15 p.m.