As mandated by the Human Rights Council resolution 49/19, OHCHR presented its report on promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights within the context of addressing inequalities in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic (A/HRC/51/20) in September 2022 at the 51st session of the Human Rights Council. The report contains an overview of the current research activities and projects of the Office on economic, social and cultural rights, and of the efforts and progress OHCHR has made in improving its capacity in this field, including the remaining gaps. Importantly, the report notes that in the context of the socioeconomic crisis generated by the pandemic, the Office has stepped up, within the limited resources, its engagement to combat economic and other inequalities.

The report highlights a growing demand for the engagement of the Office, particularly on economic, social, and cultural rights. However, the limited resources available to the OHCHR result in considerable challenges in delivering the increased work. Therefore, the report calls for additional human and financial resources that would help OHCHR to provide purpose-specific and operationally relevant support to enable States to meet their obligations to progressively realize economic, social, and cultural rights in their respective countries.

OHCHR will convene a three-day workshop on 6-8 February 2023 on promoting and protecting economic, social, and cultural rights within the context of addressing inequalities in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The workshop sessions will encompass focused advocacy on easing economic burdens, vaccine equity, removing structural impediments, and developing technical assistance programs to enhance the capacity-building of States, especially developing and least-developed States.

OHCHR will present the vision of the Office for reinforcing its work in promoting and protecting economic, social, and cultural rights in the form of a report, building on the discussions and proposals from the workshop, for consideration by the Human Rights Council at its fifty-fourth session in September-October 2023.

Scope of the call for inputs and key questions

OHCHR is seeking inputs in line with:

• The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which recognizes that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. OHCHR welcomes submissions from States, civil society organizations, academics, international and inter-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions, private sector and other stakeholders in the areas mentioned below.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the dramatic consequences of chronic underinvestment in public health, social protection, housing, education, water and sanitation, food and other economic, social and cultural rights. It has strengthened a growing global consensus over the urgency to profoundly transform economies to make them greener, fairer and more inclusive. There is a strong need to align state’s human rights obligations and their economic policies in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
• While addressing the questions, please provide examples, challenges, good practices, analysis and recommendations that you consider useful in the context of this questionnaire.

Describe economic policies, legislation, promising practices or strategies and national, regional or local processes that can support States in:

1. achieving inclusive and green economic growth in line with international human rights norms and standards;
2. increasing social spending, through national and local budgets, for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights (e.g. rights related to health, food, water and sanitation, housing, education, social protection and work);
3. addressing structural discrimination in economic planning and budget decisions;
4. maximizing available resources, including progressive taxation, industrial policies and curtailing illicit financial flows, for progressively achieving the full realization of all economic, social and cultural rights;
5. adopting budget transparency, accountability and meaningful participation of civil society and other stakeholders;
6. ring-fencing and/or increasing social spending;
7. investing in social spending to comply with the obligation of realizing minimum essential levels of all economic, social and cultural rights and to progressively achieve the full realization of these rights by:
   • implementing counter-cyclical fiscal policies efficiently, effectively and equitably to avoid retrogression of economic, social and cultural rights;
   • reallocating public expenditure (e.g. re-directing resources towards social spending from areas such as defence).