Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Forty-f ifth session

Summary record (partial)* of the 55th meeting**

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Friday, 19 November 2010, at 10 a.m.

Chairperson:Mr. Marchán Romero

Contents

Adoption of the annual report

Closure of the session

The discussion covered in the summary record began at 12.35 p.m.

Adoption of the annual report

The Chairperson invited the Committee to adopt its annual report on its forty-fourth and forty-fifth sessions.

The annual report of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to the Economic and Social Council was adopted.

Closure of the session

The Chairperson summarized the work of the Committee at the current session, which had been opened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and at which the Committee had considered the periodic reports of the Dominican Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Uruguay. It had also adopted concluding observations, which would be communicated to those States parties before being published.

The Committee had also held a day of general discussion. Representatives of civil society had attended that meeting, and their contribution to the discussion and, indeed, to the work of the Committee as a whole throughout the session had been particularly valuable. Such cooperation must be developed further. The day of general discussion would contribute to the drafting of a general comment on the right to sexual and reproductive health, which was a broad issue with considerable implications. The Committee had also discussed the rules of procedure that would govern the application of the Optional Protocol, once it had entered into force, and had adopted a declaration on sanitation.

He paid tribute to the outstanding contribution to the work of the Committee made by Ms. Virginia Bonoan-Dandan, who would be leaving the Committee after a 20-year membership. While she would no longer be a member of the Committee, it would continue to count on her support in future. He also expressed the Committee’s gratitude to Ms. Bras Gomes, who would be taking temporary leave from the Committee for a period of two years.

Following the customary expression of courtesies, he declared the forty-fifth session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights closed.

The meeting rose at 12.55 p.m.