Working with the Committee on ESCR: our practical guide for NGOs

Paris, November 16, 2017

Human Dignity is releasing today a practical guide in French for NGOs on how to participate in the reporting process of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 

Many national NGOs are less familiar with economic, social and cultural rights and therefore tend to continue to work mainly on civil and political rights, which they know better, including in their advocacy with regional mechanisms and international human rights protection.

The role of NGOs in these mechanisms is yet crucial for States to comply with their international obligations on ESCR, which states tend to neglect.

The purpose of this guide is therefore to contribute to a greater participation of NGOs, particularly Francophone ones, in the work of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

To that end, the guide addresses:

• the rights enshrined in the International Covenant on ESCR and the obligations of States parties derived therefrom
• and the working methods of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the opportunities for NGO participation in the Committee’s reporting process.

This guide is published on the occasion of the training of trainers on ESCR that Human Dignity jointly organizes with the ACDHRS (African Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies) in Banjul, The Gambia, from 13 to 17 November 2017, on the margins of the 61st session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.

The publication of this guide has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of the EUCLID Law Clinic of Paris Ouest Nanterre University: http://euclid.u-paris10.fr.

Human Dignity especially thanks Sara Kamoun and Cyrielle Rousselle for the research and writing of the guide. Our thanks also go to their tutors Marjolaine Roccati and Sophie Grosbon for the supervision and their valuable comments and corrections.