A/HRC/17/24
family reunion. In March 2010, OHCHR supported and participated in the Global
Consultation on Migrants’ Health organized by WHO and the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) in Madrid, Spain.
6.
In relation to the food crisis, OHCHR actively participated in the Secretary–
General’s High–Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis. In particular,
OHCHR contributed to updating the Comprehensive Framework for Action, as a common
strategic framework for United Nations agencies, international financial institutions and the
World Trade Organization (WTO). The Updated Comprehensive Framework for Action
(UCFA) recognizes the right to food and the human rights-based approach as strategic entry
points for addressing world food security and nutrition. Human rights considerations are
integrated throughout the recommendations formulated in the UCFA as cross–cutting
issues.
7.
OHCHR continued its advocacy for the use of indicators to strengthen human rights
policies and monitoring systems on economic, social and cultural rights at country, regional
and international levels. On the occasion of the first World Statistics Day (20 December
2010), the High Commissioner highlighted how data enable more effective promotion,
monitoring and implementation of human rights standards, and noted that the framework
developed by OHCHR1 makes available precise and up-to-date data to help States assess
progress in human rights implementation and capacity-building.
8.
Drawing from this methodology, which was endorsed by the treaty bodies in 2008,
field presences in Ecuador, Mexico and Nepal have continued working towards
strengthening the capacity of national authorities for developing indicators to be used as a
tool to monitor economic, social and cultural rights. For example, in Mexico, OHCHR, the
National Institute for Statistics and Geography, and the National Human Rights
Commission have achieved prominent advances in their work on indicators, especially for
the rights to health and education. Indicators for the right to health were subject to
validation involving over 70 experts, including governmental institutions, civil society
organizations and human rights local commissions, which contributed to improving the
indicators and enabling more systematic monitoring of the right. In Nepal, OHCHR
continued its support to the Government, national human rights institutions and civil
society organisations to identify and contextualize indicators for monitoring ESCRs. One of
the outcomes was the integration of human rights indicators into the National Human
Rights Action Plan that outlines the Government’s plans and priorities for 2010-2012, in a
number of areas, including health, education, administration of justice and institution
building, and addresses targeted programmes for marginalized and vulnerable groups. In
Ecuador, OHCHR, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, the National Institute of
Statistics and Census, the National Secretary of Planning and Development, the
Ombudsman and United Nations agencies were involved in the design of a national plan for
developing the use of indicators to promote and monitor the implementation of human
rights, including economic, social and cultural rights.
9.
Given the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ request to States
parties to identify statistical indicators and related national benchmarks for each right
provided for in the Covenant, OHCHR conducted training workshops on the conceptual and
methodological framework for indicators developed with the treaty bodies at the request of
national stakeholders, including Governments, national human rights institutions, and
United Nations Country Teams. Technical assistance on human rights indicators was also
provided by OHCHR to a number of countries, including Guatemala, Kenya and the
United Kingdom. OHCHR started developing practical tools to help disseminate and
1
4
Outlined in HRI/MC/2008/3.
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