A/HRC/4/62
page 7
General Assembly (see A/61/369 and Corr.1). The Special Representative of the
Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia addressed issues related to land and housing
rights (in particular the impact of government land and natural resources policies, and forced
evictions) during his mission in March and in his statement to the Human Rights Council in
September. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories
occupied since 1967 examined right to health and education issues during his mission to the
Occupied Palestinian Territory in June 2006.
D. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
16.
Many OHCHR field presences worked on economic, social and cultural rights in 2006.
For example, in Uganda, OHCHR organized, together with WHO and the Ministry of Health,
a workshop on health and human rights; in Angola, the Office conducted with FAO an
international forum on the right to food; and in Guatemala, the Office has been assisting the
Government in the follow-up to the mission of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food.
Moreover, the High Commissioner’s annual report to the Commission on Colombia incorporated
an analysis of economic, social and cultural rights (E/CN.4/2006/9). A subregional judicial
workshop on “Justiciability of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Pacific” was
organized in Fiji in June 2006.
17.
National human rights institutions (NHRIs) are increasingly involved in economic, social
and cultural rights. The NHRI Unit at OHCHR supported or co-organized with NHRIs several
related workshops and conferences, such as a training workshop in the Philippines for NHRIs in
the Asian-Pacific region (January 2006), the Second Regional Conference on NHRIs in the Arab
region (March 2006), the First Regional Conference on Building Networks to Strengthen
ASEAN Human Rights Cooperation (April 2006), and a seminar in Ecuador, organized jointly
with the Network of NHRIs of the Americas and UNESCO, on the right to education and NHRIs
(May 2006).
18.
Two OHCHR publications issued in 2006, Frequently Asked Questions on a Human
Rights-based Approach to Development Cooperation and Principles and Guidelines on a
Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies, provide guidance on how development
programming could be aligned with human rights, linking international standards on economic,
social and cultural rights to operational principles and processes for poverty reduction strategies
at the national level. OHCHR continues to lead the Action 2 inter-agency programme which
supports a number of United Nations country teams in integrating human rights into their
operational activities, including a particularly strong focus on supporting State efforts to
implement economic, social and cultural rights.
19.
Finally, the High Commissioner continued her advocacy on economic, social and cultural
rights. She submitted a report to the Economic and Social Council on the legal protection of
economic, social and cultural rights (E/2006/86), which elaborates upon legal protection as
an essential element in any strategy to promote and protect these rights. In October, the
High Commissioner gave a lecture on “Economic and social justice for societies in transition” at
the New York University School of Law, in which she examined the comparatively limited
protection afforded to economic, social and cultural rights within transitional justice
mechanisms.
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