71st Session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, February - March 2022
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) held its 71st session from 17 February until 4 March 2022.
While representatives of State Parties were meeting in person in Geneva at the UN, other stakeholders, such as civil society, could only join the sessions virtually.
The following update contains information on:
State Reporting Procedure
This hybrid session was not held on WebEx, as previous sessions, but on Zoom, which strongly facilitated participation of all stakeholders with minimal disruption due to the online connection which sometimes caused for delays and cut-off speaking. Nevertheless, the sessions took place in an orderly manner.
Committee members also adopted several new Lists of Issues in respect of reports that it had received from other State parties, and considered five follow-up reports.
State Dialogue
CESCR held dialogues with Bahrain, Belarus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Serbia and Uzbekistan. All States answered the Committee’s questions in three 2-hour sessions at the Palais des Nations or Palais Wilson in Geneva. Other stakeholders, including civil society, were called to join virtually. .
The session was opened by the chair, highlighting the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting increased backlog of the Committee due to the online meeting format.
State representatives were asked to address a number of questions related to their country situations, including climate change, independence of national human rights bodies, and business and human rights, as well as issues under specific articles of the Covenant.
Since then, the Committee has published its concluding observations to each State which can be found on the session page for Bahrain, Belarus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Serbia and Uzbekistan.
Follow-up to Concluding Observations
In 2017 the Committee put in place a ‘follow-up procedure’ to review the implementation of its Concluding Observations to States. The process involves the Committee identifying three Concluding Observations that it considers particularly important and asking the State to report back on its implementation of those Concluding Observations.
During the 71st session, the Committee has followed up with the reports of Bulgaria, Denmark, Ecuador, Slovakia, and Switzerland. The corresponding letters have so far not been published but will be made available in due course here.
Unfortunately, for most of the states insufficient progress was made towards implementing the Committee’s recommendations. The Committee received two NGO submissions for its follow-up on Kazakhstan and four civil society submissions and one NHRI submission for its follow-up on South Africa. As NGO information is essential for the follow-up assessment, the Committee has asked that NGOs check the schedule for the submission of follow-up reports.
List of Issues
The 70th Pre-Sessional Working Group (a sub-group of the Committee) met from 7 - 11 March 2022 and adopted Lists of Issues in relation to reports received from Albania, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, and Kyrgyzstan.
The List of Issues are now available here.
Communications under the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR
The Committee considered six communications submitted under the Optional Protocol.
In keeping with well established trends within the Committee’s jurisprudence, each of the cases concerned an alleged violation of the right to housing.
A protest against evictions takes place in the Spanish city of Zaragoza.
Photo Credit: Juanedc / CC BY 2.0
Out of the five communications examined by the Committee:
Two were found to be inadmissible
One was found to reveal violations of the Covenant
The Committee also decided to discontinue its examination of three communications.
The Committee’s decisions can be found on the session page. Those that have already been published are currently available in Spanish and French respectively only.
A summary of each decision will be made available on GI-ESCR’s CESCR Jurisprudence webpage in the coming weeks.
Forthcoming General Comments
The Committee has been holding the workshops for its General Comment on Sustainable Development and Economic Social and Cultural Rights in Europe. GI-ESCR participated in the consultation. Upcoming workshops, including the Asia-Pacific consultation on 28 April 2022, and the MENA consultation on 19 May 2022, are in planning and civil society interested in participating should reach out to German Institute for Human Right’s focal point Asita Scherrieb. The Committee has announced future possibilities of engagement, including providing written inputs on a zero draft once a draft is ready and made available on the Committee’s webpage.
The latest draft of the General Comment on Land is currently being reviewing by the Committee. A next revised draft will be shared with the public for further input around autumn.
The Next Session and Online Reviews
The CESCR will open its 72nd Session on 26 September 2021.
The CESCR will open its 72nd Session on 26 September 2022. The Committee is proceeding under the assumption that the next session will be held in person and that it will be reviewing El Salvador, Guatemala, Israel, Luxembourg, Senegal, Tajikistan, and Yemen.
Civil society organisations and National Human Rights institutions that wish to submit information for the review of these countries should strive to do so by mid August, six weeks prior to the session. The deadline for submissions is 15 August 2022.
Due to the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic, it is accepted that there is a significant possibility that the order of State reviews can shift. The current schedule should thus be treated with caution, as it is liable to change.
The Committee will also hold its 71st Pre-Sessional Working Group from 17 – 21 October 2022.
The Committee has confirmed that it will adopt Lists of Issues for Cyprus, Honduras, Iceland, Peru, Philippines, and Poland.
Further information, including the State Party reports, may be found on the session page.