A/HRC/8/7* page 3 I. INTRODUCTION 1. In its resolution 1/3, the Human Rights Council gave the Working Group on an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights a mandate to elaborate an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Chairperson submitted a first draft optional protocol (A/HRC/6/WG.4/2) as a basis for the negotiations of the Working Group at its fourth session, held from 16 to 27 July 2007. Based on the discussions of the Working Group, the Chairperson subsequently submitted a first revised draft (A/HRC/8/WG.4/2) to the Working Group at the first part of its fifth session and a second revised draft (A/HRC/8/WG.4/3) to the second part. The present report contains a summary of the discussions held during those two parts of the fifth session, from 4 to 8 February and from 31 March to 4 April 2008, respectively. II. ORGANIZATION OF THE SESSION 2. The fifth session of the Working Group was opened by the Head of the Special Procedures Division of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). 3. The Chairperson, Catarina de Albuquerque (Portugal), declared her confidence that the Working Group would strive for solutions likely to meet consensus and, at the same time, to ensure effective protection for victims of violations of economic, social and cultural rights. 4. The Working Group adopted its agenda (A/HRC/8/WG.4/1) and programme of work. 5. In her address to the Working Group, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the adoption of the optional protocol would be a milestone in the history of the universal human rights system and would provide an important impetus for renewed attention to economic, social and cultural rights. III. OPENING STATEMENTS 6. Delegations welcomed the revised drafts prepared by the Chairpersons to facilitate the negotiation process. 7. Several delegations noted that the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provided an excellent occasion for adopting the optional protocol, which would reaffirm the indivisibility, interrelatedness and interdependence of all human rights. 8. Some delegations emphasized that an optional protocol should closely reflect the language of similar treaties establishing communications procedures. 9. Several delegations, including non-governmental organizations and the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights favoured a comprehensive approach, under which all Covenant rights would be covered by this protocol. Other delegations expressed preference for a selective (“à la carte”) approach, by which States could exclude certain rights by way of opting in or out. 10. While South Africa asserted the justiciability of all economic, social and cultural rights, Canada and the United States of America argued that the progressive nature of those rights made