A/HRC/4/49 page 15 Working Group, as requested by the Council under its resolution 1/3. I have continued to advocate for greater attention to economic, social and cultural rights, including through the lecture on “Economic and social justice for societies in transition”, which I delivered in New York on 25 October 2006. With some of the new posts established by the General Assembly in December 2005, we are creating a small dedicated team of professionals to work on economic, social and cultural rights within the Research and Right to Development Branch, which will allow us to better support the work of all relevant human rights mechanisms, as well as ensure greater attention to those rights throughout all the activities of the Office, and will allow us to offer better support to States in their efforts to improve enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. To that end, we held an internal consultation in Geneva, involving all Headquarters branches as well as human rights field staff, from 11 to 15 December 2006, to help us plan for increased work on economic, social and cultural rights, particularly at the field level. J. Human rights education 55. In 2005, the General Assembly proclaimed the World Programme for Human Rights Education (2005-ongoing) and adopted a Plan of Action for the years 2005-2007, focusing on the integration of human rights education in the primary and secondary school systems. In coordinating the World Programme, I have been giving priority to enhancing partnership within the United Nations system, which is tasked to assist the national implementation of the Plan of Action. To this end, in 2006 my Office facilitated, in close cooperation with UNESCO, the establishment of the United Nations Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee on Human Rights Education in the School System. The Committee, composed of 13 United Nations agencies and programmes, met for the first time in September 2006 and agreed on strategies for the short, medium and long term focusing on the use of existing United Nations mechanisms and institutions as entry-points for enhancing cooperation. It also identified three broad areas for support to national efforts, namely technical assistance, information-sharing and resource mobilization. My Office is promoting similar cooperative efforts also at the country level, where OHCHR field presences are mobilizing United Nations agencies and programmes and are developing joint initiatives to assist national human rights education programming. Other activities undertaken by my Office in the context of the World Programme are highlighted in my report (A/HRC/4/85) to the Council on the subject. IV. THE QUESTION OF THE DEATH PENALTY 56. The issue of the death penalty has become the subject of renewed national and international debate. Against that background, the applicable standards in international human rights law for the imposition and execution of the death penalty in international human rights law continue to be relevant, not least to the ongoing international trend towards restriction of application and abolition of the death penalty. 57. International human rights law protects the inherent right to life, and the death penalty can only be imposed as an exceptional measure subject to strict legal restrictions. The evolving body of international law also indicates a trend to more restrictive interpretations of those limitations that are set out in international law. Article 6, paragraphs 2, 4 and 5, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights permits the application of the death penalty