EXPERTS ON RIGHTS OF WOMEN ADDRESS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Commission on Human Rights
58th session
10 April 2002
Morning



Debate Begins on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights



The Special Rapporteur on violence against women and Chairpersons of the Commission on the Status of Women and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women spoke briefly before the Commission on Human Rights this morning, describing activities undertaken over the past year and calling for greater attention to such matters as aid for the women of Afghanistan and the empowerment of women as a way of combatting poverty.
The Commission also began this morning its annual review of economic, social and cultural rights, hearing from a series of national delegations contending, among other things, that international efforts to eliminate poverty were insufficient and that economic and development rights were not given the priority they deserved considering that poverty violated the basic human rights of billions of people.
Othman Jerandi, Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, said among other things that the group had adopted a measure with detailed recommendations on the repeal of discriminatory legislation in Afghanistan, on support for women's political participation there, and on Afghan women's rights to work, education, security of person, freedom of movement, health, and ownership of property.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, introduced a report she said focused on the sensitive topic of cultural practices in the family that were violent toward women -- an important issue that would define the international human rights debate over the next decade. She also said the Commission's time constraints this year did not allow sufficient opportunity for Special Rapporteurs to present and comment on the work they had carried out.
Charlotte Abaka, Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, said the Committee had recognized that it was important to respect, promote and protect women's human rights, among other things, to help create a better future for children. She said the Committee had expressed its solidarity with Afghan women and recognized that their participation as full and equal partners with men was essential for the reconstruction and development of the country.
Representatives of Sierra Leone, Colombia, Pakistan, Spain (on behalf of the European Union), Chile (on behalf of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries), India, Brazil, Cuba, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Viet Nam, China, Mexico, Algeria, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya also addressed the morning session.
The Commission will reconvene at 3 p.m. to continue its debate on economic, social and cultural rights.
Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective
Under this agenda item, in advance of the general debate on the subject, the Commission heard the introduction to a report of its Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (E/CN.4/2002/83 and Adds. 1-3). The report was not yet available in English.

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Under this agenda item, the Commission has before it a number of reports.
There is a report (E/CN.4/2002/52) by the Secretary-General on access to medication in the context of pandemics such as HIV/AIDS. The report includes contributions from States, contributions from United Nations specialized agencies and related organizations, contributions from the European Union, contributions from national human rights institutions and contributions from non-governmental organizations. The report concludes that the urgent need to improve access to prevention, treatment and care for people living with HIV/AIDS is clear and that the significantly different survival rates for people living with HIV/AIDS in rich versus poor countries and communities is a direct result of unequal access to affordable treatment and adequate health services. The important steps taken so far must be translated into effective action towards realizing human rights, and the rights in particular, of the children, women and men living with HIV and AIDS around the world.
There is a report of the Secretary-General on human rights and unilateral coercive measures (E/CN.4/2002/51) which contains replies received from four countries -- Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, and Tunisia -- to a note verbale sent to Member States seeking views and information on the implications and negative effects of unilateral coercive measures on their populations.
There is a report (E/CN.4/2002/53) by the Secretary-General on women's equal ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal rights to own property and to adequate housing. The report consists of replies from Governments, replies from United Nations bodies, funds and programmes, replies from specialized agencies, replies from international and regional financial institutions, and work of the treaty bodies and other United Nations human rights mechanisms, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The report concludes that the complexity of issues involving women's ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal rights to own property and to adequate housing, makes the need for more substantive research all the more evident. Among the possible areas of research are issues related to women's access to land and/or the relationship between the right to adequate housing and land and property rights, with a view to better determining how the right to adequate housing might be used to support women's rights to land and property. In relation to the latter, the Commission may wish to take note of the reports of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, in which he indicated his willingness to examine these issues from the perspective of his mandate.

Guest Speakers
OTHMAN JERANDI, Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, said that the during its forty-sixth session the Commission on the Status of Women had adopted five resolutions, including a resolution on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the UN system and a resolution on women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS, which highlighted the role of gender equality and empowerment of women in reducing women's vulnerability to the disease.
The Commission had adopted a draft resolution on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan to be considered by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) which had detailed recommendations on the repeal of discriminatory legislation, on support for women's political participation, on their right to work, education, security of person, freedom of movement and the enjoyment of the highest standard of physical and mental health, and on their right to own personal and real property, including land.
The Commission on the Status of Women had considered two thematic issues during this session, Mr. Jerandi said: the eradication of poverty through the empowerment of women throughout their life cycle in a globalizing world; and environmental management and mitigation of natural disasters: a gender perspective. Agreed conclusions were adopted with respect to each theme. Those relating to poverty recognized that globalization had left many women marginalized and deprived of basic social protection, and affirmed that gender equality and women's empowerment were important for the eradication of poverty. The agreed conclusions on environmental management and the mitigation of natural disasters emphasized the vital role played by women in the reduction of natural disasters and the need to enhance women's capacities to respond to natural disasters, including through the creation of appropriate institutional mechanisms.
RADHIKA COOMARASWAMY, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, encouraged the Commission to read her report and the presentation she had written since they dealt with the sensitive topic of cultural practices in the family that were violent toward women -- an important issue that would define the international human rights debate in the next decade. There were three addenda to the report -- on missions she had undertaken to Sierra Leone and Colombia and on communications to and from Governments.
The Special Rapporteurs this week had collectively taken the decision not to read their oral presentations because they could not do justice to their year's work in only five minutes or less, but also because they wanted to assist the Commission in this difficult time. It also was necessary to highlight their concern at the Commission's decision to curtail the time and presentations of the Special Rapporteurs. The Special Rapporteurs' system was an extremely important aspect of the Commission's work, in many ways these experts were the eyes and ears of the Commission. It was hoped that in the future, regardless of time constraints, Special Rapporteurs would be given time to fully present their work to the Commission. It was hoped that the future agenda of the Commission could be structured so that this would be possible.
A Representative of (Sierra Leone) said Sierra Leone wholeheartedly agreed with the findings of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women following her mission to the country. Her recommendations had duly been taken into consideration by the Government. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs had incorporated the various concerns of the Special Rapporteur into the new mechanisms which had been put in place to enhance the rehabilitation of women who had suffered from many abominations committed during the civil war in the country.
CAMILO REYES RODRIGUEZ (Colombia) said the Colombian Government had cooperated with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women but did not share the statements she had made in her report and even less what she had said in her summary. In order to cooperate with the Commission and taking into account the time constraints under which the Commission was operating, Colombia would express its opinion later.
CHARLOTTE ABAKA, Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, said her Committee was responsible for monitoring implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women through review of States parties' reports. It also had the power to formulate general recommendations, and to make suggestions to the General Assembly through the Economic and Social Council. At present, 168 countries were party to the Convention; however, it was still well short of the goal of universal ratification by the year 2000 established by the international community in both the 1993 Vienna Programme of Action and the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action.
The Committee, aside from its examination of reports of States parties and elaboration of concluding comments, had adopted a number of important statements to be forwarded to various fora since the Commission's fifty-seventh session. The Committee recognized that the Convention it monitored and the Convention on the Rights of the Child were complementary and that it was important to respect, promote and protect women's human rights in the realization of a better future for children. It had expressed solidarity with Afghan women and recognized that their participation as full and equal partners with men was essential for the reconstruction and development of their country.

General Debate on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
ATTIYA INAYATULLAH (Pakistan) said the framers of the UN Charter had envisioned the economic and social advancement of all peoples. More than fifty years later, the international community had failed to move towards these goals. Poverty remained the most pervasive violator of human rights and was a major obstacle to the realization of all human rights. While the fight against terrorism had been launched at global and national levels, the fight against poverty had barely begun in a serious manner in many parts of the world. The root causes of a large number of problems at the national level could be traced to inequalities at the international level.
An inequitable international economic and trading system continued to discriminate against and marginalize the developing countries. They and their 4.6 billion people -- three-quarters of humanity -- were the losers in today's global trading system which discriminated against their goods and commodities. International indices reflected that in the poor and developing countries one women died in childbirth every minute; 11 million children under the age of five died each year from preventable diseases; 50 per cent of those living in the poor developing countries were malnourished; one billion lacked access to clean water; and 2.4 billion lacked access to basic sanitation.
JOAQUIN PEREZ-VILLANUEVA Y TOVAR (Spain), speaking on behalf of the European Union (EU), said the EU had taken note of the unequal realization of economic, social and cultural rights around the world, which particularly affected persons belonging to disadvantaged groups. The realization of economic, social and cultural rights required the adoption of appropriate legislative and other measures, as well as the setting up of policies and programmes for social and economic development. The EU fully supported the Secretary-General's efforts to integrate human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, within the system of the United Nations.
The European Union expressed its willingness to contribute through the year 2015 to eradicating the situations of extreme poverty in which an excessive number of persons still lived. The EU reaffirmed that the generalized eradication of poverty and the full enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights were interrelated. It highlighted the need for better understanding of the relationship between discrimination and poverty, and urged the identification of ways in which Governments could support development based on principles of equality and social inclusion. Considering that the right of everyone to be free from hunger and to have adequate food, as well to have access to clean drinking water, was based on the responsibility of Governments to protect their peoples, the EU was of the opinion that States should adopt all necessary measures, individually and through international assistance and cooperation, to guarantee implementation of these rights.
JUAN ENRIQUE VEGA (Chile), speaking of behalf of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC), said the question of access to medicines within the context of epidemics such as HIV/AIDS must be of particular concern to the international community. The question of access to medicine had mobilized international public opinion over the last year. The efforts of the international community had produced some highly relevant results, such as the establishment of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and the adoption by the Doha Ministerial Conference of the Declaration of the TRIPS Agreement and public health. The Commission had also recognized that access to medicines was essential for the full implementation of everyone's right to enjoy the highest possible level of physical and mental health. However, the scale of the drama through which the victims of these epidemics were now living left no room for complacency.
A second issue of particular importance was the need to improve mechanisms available to the United Nations for promoting economic, social and cultural rights. The question of the "status" of the two sets of human rights had been settled at the Vienna World Conference. Since 1993, it had been known that the two categories of rights were indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. However, much remained to be done to give concrete expression to the Vienna Declaration in terms of the multilateral system of human rights, including the correction of asymmetries within the corpus of binding legal instruments. Recognizing economic, social and cultural rights implied the assumption of obligations on the part of the State and hence the need for effective means of assessing progress in the fulfilment of those obligations.
SHARAT SABHARWAL (India) said grinding poverty as well as marginalization of individuals and societies continued unchecked. It was only in recent years that economic, social and cultural rights had begun receiving attention, though this attention was still quite inadequate. The Indian Constitution was deeply influenced by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in giving recognition to this set of rights. India believed that fulfilment of the right to education was key to the enjoyment of many other human rights. A Constitutional amendment bill to make the right to education one of the fundamental rights for children of the age group 6 to 14 had been introduced in Parliament and had already been passed by the lower house. An education-for-all campaign was being undertaken by the Government to achieve the long-cherished goal of universal elementary education.
Robust national action for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights should be matched by equally vigorous international cooperation to make available the requisite resources to developing countries and to create a conducive international economic environment for the realization of these rights. These aspects should not be lost sight of, particularly in the course of the Commission's reflection on a proposed optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
OLYNTHO VIEIRA (Brazil) said the right to enjoy the highest level of physical and mental health, as stated in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, was taking on increased importance on the international social agenda. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) human development report for 2000 indicated that 27 per cent of the world's population did not have access to health services. This was unacceptable. The difficulties faced by victims of illnesses were often related to human rights.
The Commission had recognized last year that access to drugs in the context of pandemics such as HIV/AIDS was fundamental for full realization of the right to health. This was but a first, though important, step on the long path towards full understanding of the human rights dimension of health matters. The promotion and protection of the right to health would require more than simple consideration by the Commission. It would necessitate permanent dialogue with Governments, UN bodies, and civil society representatives, as well as the adoption of policies and practices aimed at ensuring the implementation of this right. Brazil would present a draft resolution to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the right to health.
JORGE FERRER RODRIGUEZ (Cuba) said the United States Government maintained unilateral coercive economic measures against dozens of small and underdeveloped countries, including Cuba, in order to restrict their exercise of the right to self-determination. The oldest and most genocidal measure of all was the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US Government against Cuba. It had lasted for 42 years and had had drastic consequences on the population. The blockade was intended to dictate the economic, political and social order of a sovereign neighbouring State and to promote subversion by means of mercenaries who unsuccessfully pretended to be human rights defenders and independent journalists.
The tragic consequences of the US blockade for the human rights of three generations of Cubans had been verified even by a report by the American Association for World Health, which was free of any suspicion about its impartiality. For those who were still in doubt about whether it was a blockade or an embargo, whether the blockade was extra-territorial, or whether it was a genocide, it was enough to say that last 3 April, a Canadian businessman had been declared guilty by the US of violating the Act of Trade with Enemies. The businessman sold, from Canada, chemical products for making water drinkable in Cuba. The Canadian would face sentences of more than 200 years in prison and a US$5 million fine for the "crime" of selling Cuba products for preventing the transmission of diseases through water. Cuba hoped that justice would be served and an end put to impunity for violations of the human rights of the Cuban people by the US Government.
LUCIAN TIBARUHA (Uganda) said Uganda had put in place a Constitutional and legal framework to enable individuals to enjoy economic, social and cultural rights. The Government had pursued a policy of economic liberalization; and Uganda was one of the founding members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The policy of the Government was to promote the realization and enjoyment of economic rights through development of the private sector. Legislation had been enacted by Parliament to provide an enabling environment. In the sphere of social rights, the Constitution protected the rights of the family; men and women aged 18 and older had the right to marry and to found a family and were entitled to equal rights in marriage.
The Constitution provided that all persons had the right to education; this right was being implemented gradually within the resource base of the country. Five years ago, the Government had introduced universal primary education for four children per family. In order to correct the gender imbalance in higher education, university entry requirements were slightly weighted by one extra point in favour of girls. In the field of health services, the policy of the Government was to build hospitals in various districts and in particular to build a health centre at every sub-county. However, the greatest health concern of the Government was to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS.
ANTOINE MINDUA KESIA-MBE (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) said it was unfortunate that the Governments of some countries had chosen this time to undertake wars of conquest and occupation, forcing the attacked countries to spend their resources on protecting their territorial integrity and sovereignty, as opposed to spending it on development. Development efforts in the DRC had been undermined by the aggression of neighbouring countries.
There was much illegal exploitation of resources and wealth from the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- gold, diamonds, coffee and rare animal species were being pillaged by other countries ever since the armies of those countries had occupied the eastern part of the DRC. This pillaging was jeopardizing the DRC's right to development and territorial integrity. Several United Nations resolutions had demanded that this pillaging stop, especially as the money earned was used to finance conflicts. The farmers in Northern Kivu had reached a situation where they were obliged to sell their food to those attacking the DRC, creating shortages among the local population. The food deficit had resulted in disease, particularly among the poorest in the rural areas. There was no doubt that the war currently waged severely infringed on the right to peace but also on economic, social and cultural rights.
IBRAHIM IBRAHIM (Syria) said the commitments made by the international community to eliminate poverty and disease were not being implemented. Was there any need to recall the 1992 Vienna Declaration and Plan of Action and international conferences and meetings in which the international community had undertaken to implement economic social and cultural rights? The Commission must consider the reasons that continued to impede progress. The AIDS epidemic was a scourge killing millions of people, especially in Africa. Rich countries must not use the pretext of intellectual property rights to protect the results of their research and prevent the poor from gaining access to vital medications.
In the economic sphere, the international community must address the issues of foreign indebtedness that weighed on development programmes in developing countries. It must open markets and adopt fair price policies aimed at ensuring sustainable economic development. Economic, social and cultural rights must be given priority. Israel's occupation of the Syria Golan and the fact that it was defying UN resolutions had impeded the development of Syria. The international community should exert pressure on Israel to implement international resolutions.
HOANG BICH LIEN (Viet Nam) said that due to problems caused by globalization, many developing countries were confronted with greater difficulties and were marginalized or at risk of being further marginalized. This situation made it even more difficult to achieve the objectives of the UN Millennium Declaration. More than 1 billion people in developing countries were still living in extreme poverty, which was extremely worrying. Many developed countries had reached $ 25,000 in per capita GDP, while the poorest countries showed a per capita GDP of only $ 100. The gap between the developed and developing countries had been widening. The developing countries knew well that poverty hindered people's enjoyment of other basic human rights.
The Vietnamese Government had not only put poverty reduction at the heart of its development strategy but also had worked out specific national anti-poverty programmes. It had made tremendous efforts to carry them out and to combine economic growth with social justice. Viet Nam had a comparatively well-developed health-care system which was accessible throughout the country. Almost all communes had a health station. Basic vaccinations were free and compulsory for all children; and polio had been eliminated and special care had been given to disabled children, particularly those who were victims of the consequences of war. The literacy rate stood now at 95 per cent. Primary education had been achieved in all provinces and cities.
BI HUA (China) said economic, social and cultural rights were an integral part of human rights and constituted an important basis for the realization of other categories of human rights. For developing countries, which accounted for the majority of the world's nations, the realization of economic, social and cultural rights remained a distant goal. This imbalance must be redressed as soon as possible, and the Office of the High Commissioner, as the organ in charge of human rights, must allocate more human and financial resources to this category of human rights and must contribute more effectively to their realization. Effective international cooperation must be promoted based on equality and mutual respect with a view to removing all obstacles to the realization of such rights. The developed countries must show more political will and take such measures as debt relief and the provision of more Official Development Assistance. Efforts must be made to help developing countries minimize the negative impact of globalization and to encourage their equal participation in the decision making on global economic affairs.
The realization of economic, social and cultural rights was a gradual process that could not be achieved overnight. Countries had different economic bases and levels of development, and they were entitled to choose their own development models based on national conditions. The international community, while formulating relevant policies and setting indicators, must heed and take into full consideration the views of the large number of developing countries. Hasty decisions tended to produce less progress and therefore must be avoided.
PABLO MACEDO (Mexico) said his country was committed to respect for economic, social and cultural rights. One of its main concerns was to eliminate poverty and marginalization. Priority was being given to action in the area of food, education, health, housing and rural development, the objective of which was to promote social cohesion, community spirit and environmental protection. To implement this social policy the Government had devised an institutional coordination strategy based on the principles of co-responsibility, inclusion, fairness and transparency called CONTIGO (together with you).
The Government was implementing various programmes to combat poverty, including a Programme of Opportunities and a National Micro Regional Programme. The first programme covered education, health and food for 3.2 million families in the form of structural aid. The second programme covered in its initial phase 250 micro regions, or 5.5 million Mexicans, of whom 3.4 million were indigenous people. Currently, 61.2 per cent of public expenditure was allocated to social development, representing 9.2 per cent of the GDP.
LAZHAR SOUALEM (Algeria) said that progress in human rights constituted, without doubt, one of the remarkable advances of the twentieth century. The political consensus reached by the international community in Vienna in 1993, which had advocated for the indivisibility and interdependence of human rights, had reinforced the conviction of the international community that implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights since 1966 had been insufficient. Over decades, access to health services, to education, to housing and drinking water had been treated by the international community with discrimination and with leniency. Such matters were now called, in United Nations jargon, "social development" or "human development". One could be moved by the fate of a person in provisional detention and could close one's eyes to the fate of 1 billion people who had no access to drinking water. One could somehow be unconcerned by the fact that 100 million children were not going to school and the fact that 800 million people were daily suffering from malnutrition.
Moreover, 1.2 billion people were living on less than $ 1 per day. Each day millions of children died from communicable and non-transmissible diseases, while the transnational pharmaceutical companies blocked their patents, creating a shortage of generic drugs for those in need. In addition, 2.4 billion people had no access to sanitation services. Life expectancy in Africa had been reduced by 10 years in recent decades. Each minute, 11 persons were infected with HIV/AIDS, a disease which had already killed 13 million Africans. Some 23 million more were infected. While the pandemic raged, the call for the democratization of a vaccine had not been heeded.
NORMA NASCIMBENE DE DUMONT (Argentina) said her country had undertaken Constitutional reforms incorporating economic, social and cultural rights. Argentina also had organized a regional workshop in October 2001 which had developed several strategies for the realization and implementation of economic, social and cultural rights. The conclusions of the workshop showed that the international community needed to focus more on legal support for the realization of these rights and on the consequences of globalization. The Office of the High Commissioner had helped make the workshop a success and Argentina believed the High Commissioner could play a significant role within the Commission on the question of the realization of economic, social and cultural rights.
The international community must begin a discussion which would result in the eventual elaboration of a draft optional protocol to the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Such rights, and the right to development, could not be ignored. The President of Argentina had clearly stated that freedom, democracy, cooperation, a market economy and the equitable distribution of wealth were the basis and the tools for resolving development problems. Development and prosperity were not abstract concepts. Figures and statistics sometimes hid the faces of people suffering around the world.
ALEXANDER SLABY (the Czech Republic) said this issue had been with the Commission for decades and was one that had fallen victim to ideological divides. Even today, the issue of economic, social and cultural rights was accompanied by fears and concerns. The only way to overcome this situation was to discuss the concerns using concrete arguments, examples and exchanges of experience. The argument that economic, social and cultural rights were not justiciable no longer held true. One could benefit from national and regional experiences in this respect. More analysis was needed and the report of the Independent Expert was a helpful contribution. Taking into consideration both arguments for and against a draft optional protocol, the Czech Republic believed that the interdependence, indivisibility and interrelationship of all human rights was the prevailing and most convincing argument in favour of elaboration of a draft optional protocol.
A system for consideration of individual communications would eliminate discrepancies in the international protection given to the rights contained in both International Covenants and would put protection of civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights on equal footing. It would offer hope that the international community would be able to move towards development of a significant body of jurisprudence which was indispensable if economic, social and cultural rights were to be implemented properly.
LUCIA H. RUSTAM (Indonesia) said the most distinctive features of globalization were technology, communications, transport, trade liberalization and of course the increase in financial flows, which influenced the growth, size and power of corporations. Without these important components, developing countries were fighting a losing battle against the more complex and efficient systems of the developed world. Indonesia was determined to firmly ground the country's development in democracy and to nurture it back to prosperity. This was a desire reflected in the five priorities of the Government: the development of a political system which was democratic and able to maintain the nation's unity; the speeding up of economic recovery; the development of people's welfare; the improvement of regional development; and the upholding of the law.
Only when the most fundamental rights to food, primary health care and education, which were the basic entitlements of every human being, had been addressed could sustainable development truly begin. Education was not only a necessary means for breaking the vicious circle of poverty, it was an indispensable tool for heightening awareness of basic human rights. Education had a definite role to play in informing women of their right to land ownership and all other economic rights and the empowerment that could be derived from them. It was vital that these rights be systematically applied to all women, considering their huge contributory role to the economies of the vast majority of countries and hence to the sustainable development of these countries. It was difficult to imagine how any progress, economic or social, could be made without their full participation.
HUSNIYA M. MARKUS (the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) said Libya attached great importance to an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights. Libya was one of the first countries to access that Covenant and was continually working towards its implementation. The right to education was enjoyed by everyone in Libya. Education was free, the illiteracy rate was low and everyone enjoyed the right to social security. Special bodies for environmental protection and research had been set up to ensure that the population enjoyed the right to a healthy environment. However, Libya's efforts to implement economic, social and cultural rights, in particular the inalienable right to development, were being undermined by certain countries taking unilateral measures against it.
External debt burdens and the detrimental effects of globalization were at the root of poverty around the world. Poverty had reached terrifying levels in Africa. The Commission was urged to give serious consideration to promoting economic social and cultural rights.


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