GI-ESCR contributes to UN CESCR's General Comment on Sustainable Development

GI-ESCR contributed with an oral statement to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Right’s (CESCR) Working Group’s European regional consultation to develop its General Comment on Sustainable Development. Within the statement, we highlighted the need to recognise State Parties’ obligations under the Covenant to promote a just and gender-sensitive energy transition and to balance economic needs with social justice and environmental protection.

The consultation lasted five hours, with four thematic sessions and an open forum at the end. GI-ESCR participated in the session which focused on the impact of climate change and environmental degradation/biodiversity loss on the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights in the context of sustainable development.

The consultation is part of the wider effort of the CESCR to include civil society voices and to receive inputs from civil society about the situation on the ground. GI-ESCR has previously participated in the regional consultation for the Americas in September 2021 in an effort to strengthen language around renewable energy and sustainable development.

The Committee has announced its plans to hold its first consultation with children and youth for this general comment in April, then aiming to publish the first formal draft in Spring 2023. Civil society who would like to make first inputs on the general comments are invited to send their submissions to the German Institute on Human Rights by 28 February 2022.