24 May 1988

12th plenary meeting

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The Economic and Social Council,

Mindful of its central responsibilities under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,

Recalling its resolution 1985/17 of 28 May 1985, by which it established the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to be entrusted from 1987 with the important task of examining the implementation of the Covenant,

Recalling also its resolutions and decisions relating to its Sessional Working Group of Governmental Experts on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including resolution 1979/43 of 11 May 1979, which remain in force in so far as they are not superseded or modified by the provisions of resolution 1985/17,

Reaffirming the importance of increasing public awareness of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the role that non-governmental organizations can play in that regard,

Recalling General Assembly resolutions 41/121 of 4 December 1986 and 42/105 of 7 December 1987 on reporting obligations under United Nations instruments on human rights, which are of relevance to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and that in those resolutions the Assembly reaffirmed the importance of maintaining summary records of the proceedings of the bodies supervising the implementation of United Nations instruments on human rights, and bearing in mind the relevance to the work of the Committee of the activities and experience of other United Nations treaty bodies,

Recalling also the request of the General Assembly, in its resolution 42/105, that it consider changing the periodicity of reporting under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the endorsement by the General Assembly, in its resolution 42/102 of 7 December 1987, of the invitation extended by the Economic and Social Council to the Committee to consider recommendations relating to its future work,

1. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on its second session, including the conclusions and recommendations adopted by the Committee with respect to its future methods of work;

2. Urges all States that have not yet done so to become parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;

3. Invites States parties to the Covenant to follow the recommendations made by the Committee to address the problems of non-submission and extended delays in the submission of periodic reports, in particular the need to submit and present the reports in a timely manner and to complete the entire cycle of initial reports before submitting second reports, and requests the Secretary-General to send appropriate reminders to those States parties whose reports are overdue;

4. Welcomes the decisions taken by the Committee on the action it should take to seek supplementary information in cases where reports are incomplete;

5. Invites States parties to the Covenant to review the processes followed in the preparation of their periodic reports on the implementation of the Covenant, including consultation and co-ordination with appropriate governmental departments and agencies, compilation of data and training of staff, and to hold, as appropriate, consultations with interested non-governmental organizations with a view to ensuring full compliance with relevant guidelines, improving the quality of description and analysis in such reports and limiting reports to a reasonable length;

6. Endorses the recommendation of the Committee that States parties be requested to submit a single report within two years of the entry into force of the Covenant for the State party concerned and thereafter at five-year intervals, and requests the Secretary-General to inform States parties to the Covenant of this decision;

7. Welcomes the decision of the Committee to revise and simplify the guidelines for reports of States parties and to place limits on the time devoted to the consideration of the report of each State party;

8. Endorses the request of the Committee that the Secretary-General prepare a report showing clearly the extent and nature of any overlapping of issues dealt with in the principal human rights treaties, with a view to reducing, as appropriate, duplication in the different supervisory bodies of issues raised with respect to any given State party;

9. Takes note of the recommendation of the Committee on its future sessions, but considers that, in view of the various recommendations made by the Committee to expedite its consideration of periodic reports, the current provision for one annual session of three weeks' duration should be maintained for the time being;

10. Authorizes the Committee to establish, within available resources, a pre-sessional working group to meet for a period of up to one week prior to each session;

11. Agrees that an effort should be made to avoid overlapping of future sessions of the Committee with sessions of the Commission on Human Rights;

12. Takes note of the decision of the Committee to devote one day during each session to a general discussion of one specific right or a particular article of the Covenant in order to develop in greater depth its understanding of the relevant issues;

13. Welcomes the decision of the Committee to prepare general comments, based on the various articles and provisions of the Covenant, with a view to assisting States parties in fulfilling their reporting obligations, paying particular attention to relevant practices followed by other treaty bodies, and takes note of the methods of work to be followed at future sessions of the Committee;

14. Urges the Committee to encourage States parties, in conformity with article 2, paragraph 1, of the Covenant, to consider identifying bench-marks for measuring achievements in the progressive realization of the rights recognized in the Covenant and, in this context, to pay particular regard to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged persons;

15. Urges the specialized agencies, the regional commissions and other appropriate United Nations bodies, in particular the United Nations Development Programme, to extend their full co-operation and support to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by, inter alia, enabling their representatives to attend meetings of the Committee and submitting relevant information to the Committee;

16. Invites non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Council to submit to the Committee written statements that might contribute to full and universal recognition and realization of the rights set forth in the Covenant, requests the Secretary-General to make those statements available to the Committee in a timely manner and thanks those organizations that submitted written statements to the Committee for consideration at its second session;

17. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the report of the Committee to the attention of the Commission on Human Rights, its Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, other United Nations organs and their subsidiaries, specialized agencies concerned with providing technical assistance and the regional commissions;

18. Requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts under the programme of advisory services on human rights to assist States parties in discharging their reporting obligations under the Covenant, including the holding of training courses on the preparation of reports on the implementation of the Covenant, and requests the Secretary-General to advise States parties of the availability of such assistance;

19. Takes note with appreciation of the conclusions of the Committee on the importance of greater publicity for its work, and encourages the Secretary-General to give publicity to the proceedings of the Committee and to ensure that it receives full administrative support so as to enable it to discharge its functions as effectively as possible;

20. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide the Committee, upon its request, with relevant data from official United Nations sources, including information from the specialized agencies and the regional commissions;

21. Decides to transmit the report of the Committee to the General Assembly at its forty-third session for consideration under the agenda item entitled "International Covenants on Human Rights".