Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Seventy-sixth session
Summary record (partial)* of the 59th meeting**
Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Friday, 27 September 2024, at 3 p.m.
Chair:Ms. Crăciunean-Tatu
Contents
Substantive issues arising from the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Consideration of reports (continued)
(a)Reports submitted by States parties under articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant (continued)
Closure of the session
The meeting was called to order at 3.30 p.m.
Substantive issues arising from the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The Chair, reviewing the activities and meetings that had taken place during the seventy-sixth session, said that the Committee had considered the reports of seven States parties, namely Albania, Cyprus, Honduras, Iceland, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi and Poland. It had also adopted assessments of the follow-up reports of Azerbaijan and the Plurinational State ofBolivia. It urged other States parties to submit, at their earliest convenience, follow-up reports that were due or overdue.
During the session, the Committee had continued its work on the consideration of individual communications submitted under the Optional Protocol, finding violations of the Covenant in two cases concerning the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Finland and deciding to discontinue the consideration of 24 individual communications concerning the right to housing. It had also found a violation of the right to housing in a lead case concerning Spain, a decision which, it was hoped, would enable the Committee to institute a fast-track procedure for similar cases and reduce the backlog of 188 pending cases.
The Committee had adopted its draft general comment on economic, social and cultural rights and the environmental dimension of sustainable development, which would be circulated publicly in October 2024. States parties, national human rights institutions, non‑governmental organizations and other stakeholders were encouraged to provide input. The scope of two further general comments, on drugs policies and on armed conflict, both of them in relation to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, had been discussed.
The Committee continued to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, whose contributions to its work were greatly appreciated. Outside of its official meeting time, the Committee had held informal meetings with, inter alia, special procedure mandate holders and civil society and regretted that it was currently not possible to arrange hybrid meetings during formal meeting time. The Committee wished to again underline that no one should be subjected to reprisals for having cooperated with it or for having sought to do so.
The seventy-fifth session of the pre-sessional working group, which had been scheduled for the following week, had had to be cancelled owing to the liquidity crisis affecting the United Nations. The work that had been envisaged for that session would be postponed until 2025.
Owing to a lack of resources, it was not yet possible for the Committee to implement the simplified reporting procedure and the eight-year predictable review cycle. In that connection, the Committee was pleased that A Pact for the Future contained a reference to the adequate, predictable, increased and sustainable financing of the United Nations human rights mechanisms. She wished to encourage States parties to submit reports, including any that were long overdue, under the regular reporting procedure. In total, 53 reports were overdue, at least 16 of them by more than 10 years, and 25 States parties had yet to submit their initial reports. In that regard, the capacity-building programme of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was able to provide technical assistance to any State party that required it.
At its seventy-seventh session, the Committee would review the periodic reports of Croatia, Kenya, Peru, the Philippines, Rwanda and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It would also adopt lists of issues regarding the reports of Cabo Verde, North Macedonia and Turkmenistan and consider the follow-up reports of Serbia and Uzbekistan.
Consideration of reports (continued)
(a)Reports submitted by States parties under articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant (continued)
The Chair said that, if there were no objections, she would take it that the Committee wished to adopt its concluding observations on the reports of Albania (E/C.12/ALB/CO/4), Cyprus (E/C.12/CYP/CO/7), Honduras (E/C.12/HND/CO/3), Iceland (E/C.12/ISL/CO/5), Kyrgyzstan (E/C.12/KGZ/CO/4), Malawi (E/C.12/MWI/CO/1) and Poland (E/C.12/POL/CO/7).
It was so decided.
Closure of the session
The Chair said that she wished to thank those Committee members whose terms would come to an end in December 2024 for their hard work and dedication. She declared closed the seventy-sixth session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The discussion covered in the summary record ended at 3.15 p.m.