经济、社会和文化权利委员会第51届会议开幕（部分翻译）

上午

2013年11月4日

经济、社会和文化权利委员会第51届会议今天上午开幕，会议听取了人权事务副高级专员弗拉维亚·潘谢里和委员会主席兹齐斯瓦夫·凯吉亚的致辞。委员会还通过了其议程和工作方案。

人权事务副高级专员弗拉维亚·潘谢里在开幕致辞中表示：过去的一年对委员会而言至关重要，在此期间委员会改进了工作方法。任择议定书生效和根据《经济、社会及文化权利国际公约》审议个人来文都是重要的成就。但在经济紧缩和贫困增加的现状不容许有任何自满的余地。各国已同意向系统中投入额外的常规预算资源，以使条约机构能够履行其职责。潘谢里女士鼓励委员会继续讨论提高工作有效性的方式，并与其他条约机构协调工作方法。

委员会成员在与潘谢里女士的互动对话中问道如何提高批准公约的国家数量，使之具有更大的合法性；什么是确保以基于人权条约和原则的专业方式处理人权问题的最有效机制；以及协调方面取得了哪些进展。

委员会主席兹齐斯瓦夫·凯吉亚告知委员会海地已成为最新加入公约的国家，这使批准公约的国家数量达到161个，而黑山已批准了任择议定书。

委员会将于今天下午3点再次召开公开会议，届时将会见本周中报告将接受审议的国家的非政府组织和国家人权机构代表，即科威特、阿尔巴尼亚、比利时和波斯尼亚与黑塞哥维那。委员会在会议期间还将审议吉布提、白俄罗斯、埃及、加蓬、奥地利和挪威的报告。

Opening Statements

ZDZISLAW KEDZIA, Committee Chairperson, in his opening statement, said that the Committee’s work took inspiration from important recent developments in the protection of economic, social and cultural rights. He said that Haiti had been the latest State party to accede to the Covenant and that Montenegro had joined the group of States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Covenant.

FLAVIA PANSIERI, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, in her opening statement, said that the past year had been a very important one for the Committee, which had made improvements to its working methods. Extra meeting time granted by the General Assembly without the engagement of additional staff had doubled the Committee’s workload and had placed pressure on the secretariat. A sustainable solution to the problem was needed. The entry into force of the Optional Protocol was another important achievement. Consideration of individual communications would help States better to apply the Covenant and would assist victims to seek remedies in cases of human rights violations.

Several important discussions on economic and social rights were taking place at the international level, including the General Assembly’s Special Event on Achieving the Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015 Development Agenda, held in September 2013, and the International Conference on Population and Development Beyond 2014 Review, which would culminate in the General Assembly’s session in September 2014.

Ms. Pansieri stressed that in a time of austerity, increasing poverty and attacks on the very notion of economic, social and cultural rights, there was no room for complacency. The Co-Facilitators of the Inter-Governmental Process on Treaty Body Strengthening presented a quasi-procedural resolution in September 2013, requesting the Secretary-General to prepare a comprehensive and detailed cost assessment of the draft elements by 15 November 2013. There was an understanding that addressing the challenges of the treaty body system was not a cost-neutral exercise, and States had accepted that additional regular budget resources would need to be invested in the system.

It was encouraging to see the importance attached by the General Assembly to issues such as capacity-building for reporting, granting additional meeting to Committees, and increasing accessibility through webcasting and video-conferencing. In February 2014 the General Assembly was expected to allocate additional regular budget resources to enable treaty bodies to discharge their mandates fully. A comprehensive solution to the treaty body strengthening process would go a long way towards allowing the Committee to fulfil its mandate effectively. Ms. Pansieri encouraged the Committee to continue to discuss modalities of increasing effectiveness of its work and to harmonize working methods with other treaty bodies.

Interactive Dialogue

In an interactive dialogue with Ms. Pansieri, a Committee Member asked which mechanism was the most efficient to ensure that human rights issues were handled by professionals in a professional manner based on human rights treaties and principles.

In response to that question, Ms. Pansieri said that, as in the Human Rights Council, States were represented by diplomats and politicians but national delegations also included human rights experts on their teams. Optimal results would be achieved through recognizing the work of the Council and of treaty bodies as mutually supportive. It was also important to inform and support Member States about resolutions which had been passed. At the same time, the dynamics within the Council were also influenced by the fact that it was an inter-governmental process and not an expert body. It was necessary to draw on all positive elements in order to enhance the understanding and application of human rights. In that respect, the Council, as an expression of political will and commitment, played an important role.

A Committee Member asked how the Committee could achieve higher numbers of ratifications and lend more legitimacy to the Covenant.

Ms. Pansieri said that the Office of the High Commissioner and its staff were also present at the field level and were not just providers of technical and financial support. Through its advocacy work, the Office actively engaged in efforts aimed to encourage the ratification of treaties. Committee Members, as experts and citizens of many different countries, could also function as effective advocates of the Covenant.

An Expert asked what progress had been made in terms of harmonization and what outstanding issues were still there into which the Committee should put more effort.

Ms. Pansieri said that the regular meetings of the Chairpersons of treaty bodies were an important way of ensuring that best practices were shared and promoted harmonization.

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