A/HRC/20/4
bodies, special procedures and universal periodic review of the human rights council. The
workshop, which brought together Government, national human rights institutions, civil
society organizations, United Nations and other international organisations, highlighted the
relevance of OHCHR’s methodology on indicators to enhance implementation and followup on recommendations of human rights mechanisms. In partnership with the
Ombudsperson of Serbia, OHCHR initiated work on the development of indicators to help
in the reporting on the realization of economic, social and cultural rights of local Roma
communities. The initial focus has been on indicators on the right to adequate housing; the
monitoring process was also to cover a review of law and policy, with OHCHR providing
guidance, among other things, on applicable international standards.
21.
On 14 December 2011, OHCHR launched a report in Nepal entitled “Opening the
door to equality: access to justice for Dalits in Nepal”. The report is the result of over five
years of work and draws from cases investigated and tracked by OHCHR, primarily in the
impoverished far-western region. It identifies and analyses the challenges faced by Dalits in
obtaining justice for caste-based discrimination and untouchability practices. It also
examines in detail the human rights framework for the protection, particularly, of Dalit
women and children, who are typically the most vulnerable members of that community,
and discusses the recommendations and observations of the treaty bodies in relation to the
denial of economic, social and cultural rights. The report offers concrete recommendations
to the Government of Nepal, the judiciary, national human rights institutions and other
stakeholders on equal access to justice for Dalits, which can aid poverty-reduction
strategies by, for example, providing redress to poverty caused by crime and an inability to
assert land rights.
22.
With OHCHR’s support, Colombia’s Ministry of Education made substantial
progress in implementing the “EduRights” programme, which makes human rights
education mandatory in elementary and secondary educational institutions. With the aim of
reaching at least 35 education secretariats at department and municipal level, the Ministry
of Education and OHCHR are collaborating for the training of 150 teachers from three
provinces. The Departments of Meta, Chocó and Santander are currently benefitting from
the programme; its implementation will continue throughout 2012 and be expanded to other
regions of Colombia.
23.
As part of its work to promote the justiciability of economic, social and cultural
rights, OHCHR organized a seminar in April 2011 for judges and magistrates on this issue
in Bolivia. The seminar offered an overview of the legal nature and content of economic,
social and cultural rights, of the situation of economic, social and cultural rights in Bolivia,
and of the avenues for the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights on both the
national and international levels. Representatives of the Office also had the opportunity to
engage the National Human Rights Institute on the integration of economic, social and
cultural rights into its work, stressing different avenues through which the array of
functions accorded to the National Human Rights Institute by the constitution could be used
to strengthen the protection and realization of economic, social and cultural rights. A
second, two-day workshop was held, this time for civil society and grassroots organizations
on the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights and the promotion of the
ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant. Participants included
organizations working on a variety of economic, social and cultural rights and related
issues, such as the right to housing, the right to health, the right to education, the right to
food, indigenous peoples’ rights, land and human rights and violence against women.
Bolivia has since ratified the OP-ICESCR.
24.
Jointly with the Chilean National Human Rights Institute, OHCHR held a workshop
in Chile from 11 to 12 April 2011 on the integration of economic, social and cultural rights
into the work of the National Human Rights Institute, which formally began functioning in
7
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