A/HRC/10/46
page 16
56. In Colombia, OHCHR facilitated a consultation process among representatives of
indigenous communities on the right to education of minorities as input to the inaugural session
of the United Nations Forum on Minorities that took place in Geneva on 15-16 December 2008.
57. Field presences also provided support to the United Nations treaty bodies. In Cambodia,
the Office supported the Government’s preparation and translation of a State party report to the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). OHCHR-Cambodia also
supported - notably through trainings and advice - civil society organizations to submit
contributions to CESCR, and further provided CESCR with a comprehensive oral and written
briefing at the Committee’s pre-sessional working group meeting in November 2008. In the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, OHCHR supported the Government, civil society and
the UNCT in a coordinated joint follow-up on recent concluding observations issued by various
treaty bodies, including CESCR. UNMIS-Human Rights, in cooperation with the Sudanese
Government’s Advisory Council for Human Rights, organized a four-day workshop in Khartoum
in June 2008 on reporting under the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and
other human rights treaties. The participants included members of the Advisory Council for
Human Rights, various ministries, including the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional
Development of South Sudan, the Southern Sudan Human Rights Commission, and
non-governmental organizations involved in promoting human rights. One of the
recommendations emanating from the workshop was to set up an inter-ministerial body to
contribute to the drafting process of the report to CESCR.
58. OHCHR also prepared a report on indicators for promoting and monitoring the
implementation of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights
(HRI/MC/2008/3) for the inter-Committee Meeting of the treaty bodies in June 2008. The report
outlines the adopted conceptual and methodological framework for identifying contextually
relevant quantitative and other appropriate indicators to promote and monitor the implementation
of all human rights. The report also describes the configuration of structural, process and
outcome indicators and lists illustrative indicators on selected human rights, including the right
to adequate food, the right to health, the right to adequate housing, the right to education, the
right to work and the right to social security. The framework was developed by OHCHR in
consultation with a panel of experts, including members of the treaty bodies, special rapporteurs,
United Nations organizations and civil society organizations, and has been validated through
workshops and consultations with national stakeholders, namely national human rights
institutions, government bodies responsible for States parties reporting, national statistical
agencies, UNCTs and non-governmental organizations. As a follow-up to similar subregional
workshops organized by OHCHR in Asia and Africa in 2007, a Latin American workshop on
human rights indicators was organized in Colombia on 25-26 November. National workshops
and consultations in support of initiatives on indicators for human rights assessments at country
level were also held in Nepal, Mexico and Colombia.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
59. The adoption of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights by the General Assembly on 10 December 2008 marks a very
significant development for the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural
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