66th session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (October 2019)

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From 30th of September to 18th of October 2019, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) held its 66th session in Geneva.

The session was marred by the sad news of the passing of current Committee member Mr Waleed Sadi (Jordan) who had served on the Committee for 21 years. The Committee paid tribute to their colleague and former Chair.

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State Reporting Procedure

During the session, the Committee considered the State reports of Switzerland, Israel, Ecuador, Senegal, Denmark and Slovakia on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). 

The Committee held meetings with civil society representatives from Switzerland, Israel, Ecuador, Denmark and Slovakia, who briefed the Committee on the human rights situation in their countries.

Following the session, the Committee published its Concluding Observations on Switzerland, Israel, Ecuador, Senegal, Denmark and Slovakia, accessible HERE.

Pre-session
The Committee’s pre-sessional Working Group met from 21st of October to 25th of October 2019, and adopted:

  • Lists of Issues in respect of Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latvia, Nicaragua, Serbia; and

  • List of Issues Prior to Reporting for Mongolia.

The Lists of Issues and List of Issues Prior to Reporting are available HERE.

Communications under the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR

During the 66th session, the Committee examined three communications of which two were found inadmissible and one was found to amount to a violation of the right to adequate housing (art 11).

The Committee found a violation in the case of Maribel Viviana López Albán v Spain Nº37/2018. A summary of that decision is HERE.

Since the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR, the CESCR has received and registered a total of 162 communications (as at 17th October 2019). Of those registered communications the Committee:

  • adopted Views on the merits in 6 cases – finding a violation in 5 cases and no violation in 1 case;

  • declared 16 communications inadmissible;

  • discontinued or withdrew 18 communications; and

  • has 122 communications currently pending. The list of pending cases is available HERE.

During the 66th session, the Committee examined three communications of which two were found inadmissible and one was found to amount to a violation of the right to adequate housing (art 11).  In two of those communications, the Committee ordered interim measures which the State failed to comply with, in violation of the Optional Protocol. The Committee also decided to discontinue the examination of 12 individual communications.

The case in which the Committee found a violation was Maribel Viviana López Albán v Spain Nº37/2018. A summary of that decision is HERE.

Thematic work and Proposed General Comments

The Committee continues to work towards the elaboration of general comments on: the right to science; land and the ICESR; and sustainable development and the ICESCR.

This session it held a Day of Discussion on land, adopted a Joint Statement with four other Human Rights Treaty Bodies on climate change and human rights and adopted a Joint Statement with the Human Rights Committee on trade union rights.

CESCR Day of Discussion on land and the ICESCR

CESCR Day of Discussion on land and the ICESCR

Day of Discussion on land

On 14th of October 2019, as part of its process to elaborate a new General Comment on Land, the CESCR held a day of general discussion on the obligations of States under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights related to land. The purpose of the day was to provide the opportunity for all stakeholders, States, civil society, academic institutions, UN agencies and others, to provide inputs into the process for drafting the new General Comment.  

The Day of Discussion was well attended by over 90 participants including at least 19 States.  Five panel discussions were held: (i) Pressures on land and speculation (ii) Protection of security of tenure, including gender dimensions (iii) Concerns related to land by indigenous peoples, traditional groups and other vulnerable groups (iv) Land rights and conflicts (v) Land under changing environmental conditions and climate change.

The Rapporteurs for the General Comment, Mr Windfuhr, Mr Uprimny and Mr De Schutter introduced and moderated the various panel discussions. Speakers and participants raised a range of important issues, including:

  • The connection between business activities, land and the enjoyment of ESC rights;

  • The recognition of the linkages between gender equality and access to and control of land and the importance of recognising women’s equal rights to land;

  • The special relationship with the land of indigenous peoples and other local communities and their knowledge and expertise in ensuring sustainable land use;

  • Some participants called for the recognition of a right to land and highlighted the recently adopted Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other Persons livng and working in rural areas;

  • The importance of the democratisation of land processes which would ensure that those impacted are consulted and can participate in decision-making concerning land;

  • The financialisation of land and how land speculation has led to the impoverishment of rural and urban communities living on or nearby the land;

  • The concept of ‘social forestry’ in Indonesia which provides access to land for community needs and a legislative body in Uruguay which is responsible for protecting family farming from land speculation, through long term leases;

  • The close link between land and the climate crisis;

  • How the financialisation of nature and the industrial extractive growth economy is causing the collapse of the natural world on which we depend;

  • How prominent negative emissions technology, which are increasingly seen as essential for avoiding a climate crisis, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, require massive land use.

At the conclusion of the day the Committee explained the next steps for the General Comment process.  The Committee aims to produce a first draft of the General Comment by the next session (March 2019) and after that session they hope to publish the draft and invite comments on the draft from all stakeholders during the summer. The Committee would then aim to refine the draft, hold a second reading of the text and adopt it in the autumn session of 2020.

Joint Statement with 4 other Committees on climate change and human rights

On 16th of September 2019, five UN Human Rights Treaty bodies, issued a joint statement calling on States to consider their binding human rights obligations when setting and implementing their climate change commitments.

The Statement highlights that climate change affects a wide range of human rights protected under several international human rights treaties, including the right to life, the right to food, the right to adequate housing, the right to health, and the right to water. It notes that the rights of vulnerable or marginalised groups are often disproportionally affected by the adverse impacts of climate change. Importantly, the Committees underline that such groups must be recognised as key agents of change to tackle the climate crisis and must be guaranteed effective participation in climate-policy-making.

The Committees caution that “Failure to take measures to prevent foreseeable human rights harm caused by climate change, or to regulate activities contributing to such harm, could constitute a violation of States’ human rights obligations.”

In this context, the Joint Statement calls on States to use their maximum available resources to put in place mitigation and adaptation measures, to phase out fossil fuels and to strengthen international climate assistance and cooperation.

Joint Statement with the Human Rights Committee on the trade union rights (art 8)

The CESCR and the Human Rights Committee issued a joint Statement on article 8 of the ICESCR (the right to form and join trade unions) and article 22 of the ICCPR related to the right to freedom of association and trade union rights. 

The Committees point out that both article 8 ICESCR and article 22 ICCPR reflect the intersection between civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights by recognising the right of each human being to freely associate with others without discrimination. According to the Committees “Freedom of association includes the right of individuals, without distinction, to form and join trade unions for the protection of their interests. The right to form and join trade unions requires that trade unionists be protected from any discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or reprisals.”

In addition, the Statement notes that the right to freedom of association is also closely linked to workers’ rights, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and the right to strike.

Procedural matters

During the session, the Committee discussed the follow-up procedure to Concluding Observations. It decided to extend the deadline for submissions by NGOs and other stakeholders to the date 3 weeks before the start of the session.

Palais Wilson, Geneva

Palais Wilson, Geneva

Membership - Elections

The next elections for the CESCR members have been announced for April 2020 in New York, with nominations of candidates due by 16 December 2019. Half of the current members of the CESCR will finish their terms as Committee members on 31 December 2020. Therefore, there are 9 seats up for election. The seats are distributed between the geographical regions. Accordingly, at this election there are 2 Africa seats, 2 Asia seats, 2 Eastern Europe seats, 2 Western Europe & other seats, and 1 Latin American & Caribbean seat. 

For further details, please see HERE.

In addition, following the passing away of Mr Waleed Sadi, an ad hoc election has been declared for his seat in the Asia Pacific regional group. Nominations for that election are due by 22 December and the election will occur at the same time as the other elections in April 2020.

Next Session

The sixty-seventh session of the Committee will be held from the 17 February to 6 March 2020, the Committee will consider the reports of:

Belarus (to be confirmed), Belgium, Benin, Guinea, Norway and Ukraine.

The deadline for submission of reports by civil society and National Human Rights institutions in respect of the review of these countries is the 24th of January 2020.

The Programme of Work for the 67th session (including dates for the Dialogues) is not yet available but will be posted HERE in the coming weeks. 

The 67th session will be followed by a Pre-Session from 9 to 13 March2020 at which the pre-sessional Working Group of the Committee will prepare;

·      Lists of Issues for Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uzbekistan

·      Lists of Issues Prior to Reporting for Canada, Chile Italy

The deadline for the submission of information by civil society in respect of these Lists of Issues is the 10th January 2020. Further information is HERE.

The Committee will make assessments under its follow-up procedures for Concluding Observations and Views, at the next session.  However, no information is available yet about which countries or Views will be considered under the follow-up procedure, since the Committee is awaiting receipt of States’ follow-up reports.  This information on follow-up will be posted on the Committee’s website closer to the session date.

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