International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

Basic facts about the ICESCR

The ICESCR is monitored by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR).
The CESCR was established under the ECOSOC Resolution 1985/17 of 28 May 1985
State reports are submitted to the CESCR every five years
Click here to read The Manual of Human Rights Monitoring: Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
CESCR last monitored the UK’s implementation of the treaty in 2016.
Dates for the UK’s next reporting cycle have yet to be confirmed by the UN.

Phase 1:
- Preparation of the state report at the national level
  - Broad consultation and input from civil society
  - NGO submissions and reports
- Pre-sessional preparation by the treaty bodies for the examination of the report
  - Adoption of a List of Issues (LOI) or a List of Issue Prior to Reporting (LOIPR)
  - pre-sessional working group of CESCR is public and open to NGO participation.
Phase 2:
- Consideration of the report in a public meeting through a constructive dialogue with the state party
- Issuing of concluding observations and recommendations
Phase 3:
- Follow-up on implementation of the concluding observations
  - NGOs also play an important role in this process (pressure states into acting)

UN Information Note for civil society and national human rights institutions
Submission should be submitted in English, French or Spanish
Should be concise, not exceed 10 pages for individual and 15 pages for coalition submissions
Paragraphs should be numbered for ease of reference
Deadlines:
- For the session: preferably 6 weeks and latest 3 weeks before the beginning of the session.
  - The UK state party’s report due date for cycle 7 is yet to be confirmed.
- For the Pre-sessional working groups: preferably 10 weeks and latest 8 weeks before the beginning.
How submission should be made:
- to the CESCR Secretariat electronically in word format to the following email address: cescr@ohchr.org