COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS REVIEWS SITUATION IN SOLOMON ISLANDS

MORNING
HR/ESC/99/10
30 April 1999




The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this morning reviewed the situation in the Solomon Islands, in the absence of a Government report, on how that country was complying with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Committee expert Eibe Riedel, who served as country rapporteur, opened the discussion on the situation in the Solomon Islands by highlighting positive and negative aspects in the country.

Mr. Riedel said that despite a constitutional non-discrimination clause and the Government's efforts to address women's issues, women remain limited to customary family roles and had little access to the political and economic life of the Solomon Islands. The illiteracy rate among women was 83 per cent, he said quoting a United Nations report.

The expert also told the Committee that the absence of compulsory primary education in the Solomon Islands was deeply regrettable; only 60 per cent of school age children had access to primary education, and an estimated 50 per cent of young people were without access to secondary education. The country's literacy rate was also estimated to be as low as 23 per cent.

A number of the Committee's experts also expressed concern about the situation in the Solomon Islands and particularly the Government's failure to submit a report to the Committee. It was suggested that the Government should be encouraged to hold a dialogue with the members of the Committee in order to find a solution to the problem it faced in reporting procedures.

The Committee concluded that it should not draft formal concluding observations and recommendations in the absence of a report from the Government. Instead, it decided to hold a day or half day discussion during its forthcoming session and to invite a representative of the Government to attend.

The Committee also briefly discussed feed-back from Germany to its concluding observations and recommendations following its consideration of that country's report last autumn.

When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will discuss substantive issues arising in the implementation of the Covenant.

Discussion

The Committee reviewed the implementation of the Covenant in the Solomon Islands. The country had not submitted a single report since ratifying the Covenant in 1982. Committee expert EIBE RIEDEL, who served as country rapporteur, opened the discussion on the situation by highlighting positive and negative aspects in the country.

In his presentation, Mr. Riedel said that in situations where a Government had not supplied the Committee with any information as to how it considered its own compliance with its obligations under the Covenant, the Committee had to base its observations on a variety of materials stemming from both inter-governmental and non-governmental sources. If a State party did not submit a report and did not appear before the Committee, it deprived itself of the possibility to set the record straight.

It was noted that the Solomon Islands was one of the least developed countries in the western Pacific region and among the highest aid recipients in the world. As a result, poverty was widespread, especially in the rural areas where about 80 per cent of the population lived. In addition, Mr. Riedel said that the Committee should note that the Solomon Islands had failed to generate an annual growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) significantly above the rapid rate of population growth which ranged between 3.1 and 3.3 per cent per year. This rate represented one of the highest in the world.

The efforts of the newly elected Government of the Solomon Islands to establish the foundations of sustainable economic growth through a structural reform programme was seen by Mr. Riedel as a positive measure. In addition, the country's Constitution recognized the right of workers to form or belong to trade unions and the domestic courts had confirmed those rights. The prohibition of forced labour, including forced and bonded labour by children, was also welcomed by the expert.

Mr. Riedel said that despite a constitutional non-discrimination clause and the Government's efforts to address women's issues, women remain limited to customary family roles and had little access to the political and economic life of the Solomon Islands. In general, the rise in unemployment, particularly among the youth, had been of great concern.

Concerning domestic violence, Mr. Riedel said that it appeared to be common and that police tended to regard those incidents as domestic disputes and were more often than not reluctant to investigate charges to that effect. While the courts dealt with the cases of physical abuse of women as assault cases, those cases were rarely reported and, if reported, were often dropped by the victims before their appearance at court or were settled out of court.

With regard to housing, the expert said that the Government's plans to completely privatize housing was of concern. Given the rising numbers of homeless people in the urban areas, there might be a growing need for housing provided by the Government. In addition, there were threats to the maintenance of an adequate standard of living caused by the practices of deforestation and over-fishing which affected the natural environment of the Solomon Islands.

Furthermore, Mr. Riedel said that the absence of compulsory primary education in the Solomon Islands was deeply regrettable. Only 60 per cent of school age children had access to primary education, and an estimated 50 per cent of young people were without access to secondary education. In addition, the literacy rate was also estimated to be as low as 23 per cent, as reported by the United Nations Development Programme. Among the women population, 83 per cent were illiterate due to their consistent under-representation at all levels of education.

A number of the Committee's experts also expressed concern about the situation in the Solomon Islands and particularly noted the Government's failure to submit a report to the Committee. It was suggested that the Government should be encouraged to hold a dialogue with the members of the Committee in order to find a solution to the problem it faced in reporting procedures. The Committee concluded that it should not draft formal concluding observations and recommendations in the absence of a report from the Government. Instead, it decided to hold a day or half day discussion during its forthcoming session and to invite a representative of the Government to attend. It was also suggested that representatives of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Labour Office (ILO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) were invited to attend.

Also this morning, one of the Committee's experts said that the concluding observations and recommendations of the Committee on the report of Germany during its last autumn session had been discussed by the country's Parliament on 4 March. In a one-hour debate, the deputies had reacted favourably to the recommendations and observations of the Committee, particularly on the absence of a poverty line, health rights of asylum seekers and improvement of the employment situation in eastern Germany.