UN Committee Publishes List of Humans Rights Issues for UK Government to Address

The UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) is halfway through a review process of how well the UK Government is achieving our everyday rights.

HRCS has been engaging in the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural (ICESCR) Rights Review Cycle. ICESCR translates as our everyday rights, so things such as the right to food, to housing, to an adequate standard of living, and to health care. You can read more about what rights ICESCR protects here.

The UN’s Committee responsible for ICESCR is currently reviewing how the UK Government (including devolved governments) are best achieving the rights within ICESCR. Following a period of Review, the Committee will put together a list of recommendations for how the governments can be doing better.

Currently, we are half-way through the process, and the Committee has published a list of issues following evidence in both written and oral statements from civil society across the UK. You can read both our joint civil society report and statement below:

1. Joint civil society report from HRCS to the Committee
2. Oral statement given to the Committee:
   1. Written version
   2. Video version

In this current Review cycle to date, we have:

1. Engaged with HRCS members and wider civil society to submit a joint Report to the UN’s Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
2. Given oral evidence in-person at the Committee’s pre-sessional working group (PSWG) in Geneva, including a ten-minute statement based on the civil society report.
3. Pulled together the following analysis to keep the process clear and accessible.

For further information or if you have any questions, please contact our Senior Policy Officer Lucy on lucy@hrcscotland.org