COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS DISCUSSESDRAFT STATEMENT ON POVERTY, CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM

CESCR
25th session
3 May 2001
Afternoon




The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon discussed a draft statement on poverty and heard a presentation about the upcoming World Conference against Racism.

Committee Expert Paul Hunt, who prepared the draft statement on poverty, said the first sentence of the statement, maintaining that poverty constituted a denial of human rights, was an innovative declaration. No legislative body of the United Nations -- including the General Assembly or the Commission on Human Rights -- had made that statement. They had said that poverty constituted a denial of human dignity, but if the Committee were to adopt this, it would be the first time a UN body made such an assertion.

The draft statement focuses on the scale and nature of the problem of poverty, and describes the international human rights normative framework. It also contains conclusions and recommendations, including suggestions that international human rights norms be integrated into national poverty eradication plans, and assertions that non-State actors had heavy responsibilities in the struggle against poverty.

Committee Experts praised the draft, although some wondered if it should be a General Comment instead of a statement. The members will discuss this issue further before they determine the final draft.

Earlier in the meeting, Robert Husbands, the Secretary of the Preparatory Committee for the World Conference against Racism, briefed the Committee members about the Conference, which will be held in Durban, South Africa from 31 August to 7 September. Mr. Husbands explained that funding for at least one Expert from the Committee -- and possibly two -- would be available for travel to the Conference. Committee members at the Conference would be invited to fully participate in the plenary sessions, and would likely be tapped to sit on treaty body seminars. Further, there would be private panel discussions featuring treaty body experts.

Mr. Husbands said the Committee had provided valuable contributions to the draft declaration and programme of action, particularly in the field of education. Several Experts, however, expressed concern that their participation was not more clearly expressed in the document. Chairwoman Virginia Bonoan-Dandan said she was concerned about scant reference to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the draft declaration and programme of action. The International Covenant, she said, was rife with references of discrimination.

When the Committee meets again on Friday, 4 May at 10 a.m., it will take up the implementation of the International Covenant in Togo in the absence of a report from the State party.




* *** *