A/HRC/28/31 discussed the role of United Nations, regional and subregional judicial and quasi-judicial organs in promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights. 30. The third session of the workshop was devoted to the economic, social and cultural rights of persons with disabilities and women. The first panel of that session focused on cooperation in promoting and protecting the economic, social and cultural rights of persons with disabilities, while the second panel discussed cooperation in promoting and protecting the economic, social and cultural rights of women. A. 1. Strengthening cooperation between international and regional human rights systems to mainstream economic, social and cultural rights Best practices 31. Panellists from the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the European Committee on Social Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Indonesian NGO Coalition for International Human Rights Advocacy and the Centre for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights acknowledged the increasing cooperation among human rights mechanisms at the international, regional and national level with regard to sharing and using jurisprudence. 32. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights noted that its membership enjoyed a balanced representation of all regions and drew on the practice of regional human rights protection systems and their jurisprudence when conducting dialogues with State parties. The Committee also indirectly supported regional mechanisms by encouraging State parties to implement the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in cooperation with regional mechanisms, and by recommending the ratification of regional instruments, dissemination of publications as well as compliance with rulings of regional human rights courts. Regional mechanisms reported that they referred to the work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights principles and guidelines on economic, social and cultural rights (2011), which refer to the Committee’s concluding observations and general comments, were cited as an example. 33. The European Committee on Social Rights stated that it recognized the complementarity between international and regional human rights instruments and referred to the international instruments when interpreting the European Social Charter. For example, in a case concerning restrictions on the entitlement of illegal immigrant minors to medical treatment and shelter, the European Committee referred to the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It had also referred to general comments No. 4 (1992) on the right to adequate housing and No. 7 (1997) on forced evictions of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in deciding important cases, such as the decisions of 5 December 2007 on complaints No. 33/2006, International Movement ATD Fourth World v. France and No. 39/2006, European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) v. France. The European Committee had also taken into account important contributions from other regional mechanisms, such as the concepts of “aggravated violation” and “aggravated responsibility” used by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in cases involving Roma rights. 34. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported that, in 2013, it had established a special unit to deal with economic, social and cultural rights and that it would have a Special Rapporteur on economic, social and cultural rights by December 2015. 8

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