E/1999/3
Organizational session for 1999 Consolidated report on the outcomes of the functional commissions
Note by the Secretariat |
1. The present report is submitted in response to the provision contained in paragraph 68 of annex I to General Assembly resolution 50/227 that the Secretariat should consolidate, in a single document, conclusions and recommendations of the subsidiary bodies and the issues that may require action by and/or the attention of the Economic and Social Council. The report aims to identify and highlight linkages between the work of the functional commissions and to assist the Council in ensuring the harmonization and coordination of the agendas and work programmes of the functional commissions by promoting a clear division of labour among them and by providing clear policy guidance to them.1 It should also assist the Council in addressing major policy issues emerging from the commissions' work that require a coordinated response by the United Nations system. 2. The report focuses on linkages between the outcomes of the functional commissions' work in 1998. By identifying these linkages, it is hoped that the Council will have a better insight into which matters are in need of better cooperation and coordination among its functional commissions. Based on such insight, the Council may be in a better position to provide guidance to its functional commissions. Matters addressed in a functional commission that are unique to that commission and have no cross-cutting or linkage implications are not treated in this report. 3. The report is aimed at providing a means of communication among functional commissions themselves in order for them to be more aware of each other's work and to overcome the isolation in which they operate. At present, there is no formal mechanism by which the functional commissions communicate among themselves. Whatever communication exists takes place largely in an ad hoc manner, often dependent on personal initiatives by chairpersons. A bird's-eye view of the work of all the functional commissions is lacking. It is the Council's task to provide this view so that work in one functional commission that may have links with or implications for the work of another functional commission finds due consideration across the board. 4. The report is not a substitute for the reports of the functional commissions. Rather, it should be read in conjunction with those reports and be seen as a guide or navigator enabling the Council to review those reports simultaneously rather than sequentially. 5. Seven of the nine functional commissions of the Council met in 1998.2 The edited reports of only five of the seven commissions were available when the present report was being prepared: the reports of the Commission on Population and Development (thirty-first session), the Commission for Social Development (thirty-sixth session), the Commission on the Status of Women (forty-second session), the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (forty-first session) and the Commission on Sustainable Development (sixth session). For the Commission on Human Rights (fifty-fourth session), unedited information on resolutions and decisions was taken from the Internet. For the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (seventh session), the unedited advance report was available. 6. The Council's attention is particularly drawn to the report of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which is the only report of the Council's functional commissions that provides a summary of the resolutions and decisions calling for action by and/or the attention of the Council.
Recommendation The Council may wish to request those functional commissions that have not yet done so to implement General Assembly resolution 50/227 with regard to providing summaries of their resolutions and decisions for action by and/or the attention of the Council. 7. The number of resolutions and decisions calling either for action by or the attention of the Council varies considerably among commissions. In order to provide the Council with a sense of this diversity, the following information is relevant:
a The draft resolution entitled "Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action" for ultimate adoption by the General Assembly was adopted by the Council at its resumed organizational session in May 1998. b The Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice recommends three draft resolutions for approval by the Council for adoption by the General Assembly and nine draft resolutions for adoption by the Council.
8. From this table, it is clear that the volume of resolutions and decisions emanating from the functional commissions is considerable: 75 outcomes require action by the Council and 114 are brought to its attention, for a grand total of 189. Admittedly, the bulk of these outcomes (131) stem from the Commission on Human Rights. However, considering that many Commission on Human Rights draft resolutions and decisions call for a vote, the time the Council can devote to the outcomes of the other functional commissions is severely impaired, with the result that their resolutions and decisions receive only cursory attention.3 9. However, from these resolutions and decisions, a number of cross-cutting issues can be identified, which provide a way for the Council to deal with these various resolutions and decisions systematically: 1. Gender equality and advancement of women: (i) Development 2. Human rights and gender: (i) Violence against women 3. Human rights and the administration of justice 4. Ageing 5. Migration 6. The enabling environment: (i) Globalization 7. Poverty and hunger: (i) Poverty 8. Basic social services: (i) Education 9. Sustainable development. 10. By looking at these cross-cutting issues, the Council can have an organizing principle by which the outcomes of the commissions can be reviewed simultaneously so as to assist the Council on issues of coordination, complementarity, duplication and overlap.
1. Gender equality and advancement of women 11. The issues of gender equality and advancement of women are particularly addressed in the following outcomes: Draft resolution III of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Mid-term review of the system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women, including the status of women in the Secretariat" Draft resolution IV of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women on critical areas of concern identified in the Beijing Platform for Action" (violence against women; women and armed conflict; human rights of women; and the girl child) Resolution 42/1 of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Human rights and land rights discrimination" Resolution 42/4 of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Older women and support systems: gender and caregiving" Resolution 36/1 of the Commission for Social Development: "Promoting social integration and participation of all people, including disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and persons" Draft resolution I of the Commission on Population and Development: "Importance of population census activities for evaluation of progress in implementing the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development" Resolution 1998/1 of the Commission on Population and Development: "Health and mortality" Decision 1998/1 of the Commission on Population and Development: "Special theme for the Commission in the year 2000" Draft resolution I of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice for adoption by the General Assembly through the Council: "Preparations for the Tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders" Draft resolution VI of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: "United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice"
Draft decision I of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice:
"Provisional agenda and documentation for the eighth session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice" Resolution 7/1 of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice:
"Strategic management by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme" Decision 6/1 of the Commission on Sustainable Development: "Strategic approaches to freshwater management"
Decision 6/2 of the Commission on Sustainable Development:
"Industry and sustainable development"
Decision 6/3 of the Commission on Sustainable Development:
"Transfer of environmentally sound technology, capacity-building, education and public awareness, and science for sustainable development" Resolution 1998/25 of the Commission on Human Rights:
"Human rights and extreme poverty"
Resolution 1998/33 and corresponding draft decision 13 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Question of the realization in all countries of the economic, social and cultural rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and study of special problems which the developing countries face in their efforts to achieve these human rights" Resolution 1998/39 of the Commission on Human Rights:
"Human rights in the administration of justice, in particular of children and juveniles in detention" Resolution 1998/45 of the Commission on Human Rights:
"United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education" Resolution 1998/52 of the Commission on Human Rights:
"The elimination of violence against women" Resolution 1998/72 of the Commission on Human Rights:
"The right to development"
Resolution 1998/76 of the Commission on Human Rights:
"Rights of the child".
12. Table 1 provides information on the linkages between these various outcomes. 13. As is the case with human rights and gender (see sect. 2 below), which increasingly have permeated each other, the issues of gender equality and advancement of women C or, more generally, the issue of mainstreaming a gender perspective C are increasingly evident in the work of the functional commissions other than the Commission on the Status of Women. This is evident not only in the Commission for Social Development, the Commission on Population and Development and the Commission on Human Rights, but also in the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Commission on Sustainable Development and, at least following the twentieth special session of the General Assembly, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. The Council's agreed conclusions 1997/2 are in no small measure instrumental in achieving this mainstreaming of a gender perspective, and the Commission on the Status of Women should receive considerable credit for this achievement. However, as a gender perspective is increasingly mainstreamed, the risk of duplication and overlap C as can be seen in the case of human rights and gender (see sect. 2 below) C between the functional commissions and the Commission on the Status of Women is growing. Still, it should be recognized that the Commission on the Status of Women brings a gender dimension to areas of work for which there exists no corresponding Table 1 Equality and advancement of women
a The Commission on Narcotic Drugs had before it a note by the Secretariat on gender mainstreaming in drug policies and programmes and eradicating poverty (E/CN.7/1998/9). The Commission requested its Chairman to convey to the President of the Council the fact that it had taken into consideration the information provided in that document. There is no evidence whether this note was also made available to the Commission on the Status of Women or the Commission for Social Development.b Linkage to the Second Committee of the General Assembly.c Although the Commission on Population and Development makes no explicit mention of sex and age disaggregated data collection, the demographic practice of collecting such disaggregated data is of long-standing and virtually routine.Recommendations 1. The Council may wish to transmit the conclusions contained in draft resolution IV of the Commission on the Status of Women to all its subsidiary bodies, to the specialized agencies and to the General Assembly, in particular its First and Sixth Committees, for their consideration and appropriate follow-up action. 2. The Council may wish to invite the Commission on the Status of Women to monitor and assess the outcomes of other functional commissions' work as to their treatment of mainstreaming a gender perspective in their work and to report thereon to the Council. 3. The Council may wish to transmit Commission on the Status of Women resolution 42/1 on human rights and land rights discrimination to the Commission on Human Rights when it considers the issue of the right to development. 4. The Council may wish to invite the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to collaborate on and coordinate their work in mainstreaming gender in law and justice. 5. The Council, when approving the provisional agenda of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, contained in Commission draft decision I, may wish to request the Commission to address gender mainstreaming in drug policies and programmes. 6. The Council is invited to take into account draft resolution III of the Commission on the Status of Women on a mid-term review of the system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women, including the status of women in the Secretariat during its deliberations at its operational activities segment and to bring that resolution to the attention of the Second Committee of the General Assembly.
2. Human rights and gender 14. Human rights is one of the cross-cutting themes which figure particularly prominently in the International Conference on Population and Development, the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women. Several functional commissions, besides the Commission on Human Rights, address aspects of human rights: the Commission on Population and Development, the Commission for Social Development, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Of these, it is especially the Commission on the Status of Women which devotes considerable attention to human rights issues related to women, although the issue is also present in the Commission for Social Development and, in particular, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. 15. The Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights have long cooperated in ensuring that the human rights of women are integrated throughout the United Nations system and in ensuring cooperation in the review of these rights. For example, a joint report prepared by the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on women's real enjoyment of their human rights, in particular those relating to the elimination of poverty, economic development and economic resources (E/CN.4/1998/22BE/CN.6/1998/11) was submitted to both Commissions in 1998. 16. In addition, the two commissions held exchanges of views which provided useful inputs to the deliberations of each commission: the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-second session, in accordance with its resolution 41/6, invited the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, relevant special rapporteurs and treaty body experts to participate in its discussions on the critical areas of concern "human rights of women" and "the girl child"; the Commission on Human Rights held an interactive dialogue with the Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women. 17. The Council's attention is drawn to the following outcomes of the functional commissions: Draft resolution I of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Situation of women and girls in Afghanistan" Draft resolution II of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Palestinian women" Draft resolution IV of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women on critical areas of concern identified in the Beijing Platform for Action" (violence against women; women and armed conflict; human rights of women; and the girl child) Resolution 42/2 of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Release of women and children taken hostage in armed conflicts, including those subsequently imprisoned" Resolution 42/3 of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Violence against women migrant workers" Resolution 42/5 of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" Resolution 1998/4 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Situation in occupied Palestine" Resolution 1998/17 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Violence against women migrant workers" Resolution 1998/30 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Traffic in women and girls" Resolution 1998/51 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Integrating the human rights of women throughout the United Nations system" Resolution 1998/52 of the Commission on Human Rights: "The elimination of violence against women" Resolution 1998/56 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" Resolution 1998/70 and corresponding draft decision 27 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Situation of human rights in Afghanistan" Resolution 1998/73 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Hostage-taking" Resolution 1998/76 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Rights of the child" Draft resolution II of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice for adoption by the General Assembly through the Council: "Transnational organized crime" Draft resolution IV of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: "Action against illegal trafficking of migrants, including by sea" Draft resolution V of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: "Action to combat international trafficking in women and children" Draft decision I of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: "Provisional agenda and documentation for the eighth session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice" Resolution 36/1 of the Commission for Social Development: "Promoting social integration and participation of all people, including disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and persons" Resolution 1998/1 of the Commission on Population and Development: "Health and mortality". 18. Among these various outcomes, the Council's attention is particularly drawn to draft resolution IV of the Commission on the Status of Women, in which the Council is called upon to endorse agreed conclusions reached by the Commission. These wide-ranging and comprehensive agreed conclusions deal with various aspects of the human rights of women in considerable detail: (i) violence against women; (ii) women and armed conflict; (iii) human rights of women; and (iv) the girl child. Furthermore, within these four broad areas emphasis is also placed, inter alia, on the rights of migrant workers, especially women and girls; trafficking in women and girls; female genital mutilation; gender disaggregated statistics; reproductive and sexual health; sexually transmitted diseases; girls in armed conflict; and labour and the girl child.4 19. In the Commission on the Status of Women's agreed conclusions, the Commission on Human Rights is urged to ensure that all human rights mechanisms and procedures fully incorporate a gender perspective in their work within their respective mandates and it is stated that cooperation, communication, and exchange of expertise should be enhanced between the Commission on the Status of Women and other functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council, including the Commission on Human Rights, in order to more effectively promote women's human rights. 20. Table 2 provides information on the linkages between these various outcomes. Table 2 Human rights and gender
a No evidence of gender consideration.
21. By reviewing the various resolutions and decisions of the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights, it would appear that there is considerable overlap between the work of the Commission on the Status of Women and that of the Commission on Human Rights, mainly because the latter has mainstreamed a gender perspective and the former has mainstreamed a human rights perspective. 22. In view of the above, as well as of Council agreed conclusions 1997/2 on gender mainstreaming, the following recommendations could be considered by the Council:
Recommendations 1. The Council may wish to welcome the fact that the Commission on Human Rights took into account the Commission on the Status of Women agreed conclusions on the critical areas of concern identified in the Beijing Platform for Action, and may wish to ensure that these agreed conclusions are fully integrated in the work of particularly the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. 2. In view of the similarity in treatment of the issue of violence against women in the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights as well as in the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and in view of the fact that the Commission on Human Rights has a Special Rapporteur on this issue, the Council may wish to consider whether the issue should be exclusively addressed in the Commission on Human Rights, with the Special Rapporteur making his or her findings available to the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. 3. In view of the very close similarity in the treatment of the issue of violence against women migrant workers in both the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights, the Council may wish to consider whether this issue should be exclusively addressed in the Commission on Human Rights with the Commission on the Status of Women playing a monitoring and advisory role. 4. In view of the similarities in the treatment of the issue of traffic in women and girls in the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and in view of the fact that the Commission on Human Rights has a Special Rapporteur on this issue, the Council may wish to consider whether the issue should be addressed exclusively in the Commission on Human Rights with the Special Rapporteur making his or her findings known to the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and with these two commissions playing monitoring and advisory roles. 5. In view of the close similarity in treatment of the issue of human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan in both the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights, the Council may wish to consider whether the Commission on the Status of Women should continue to present draft resolutions on this subject for action by the Council or whether this should be left to the Commission on Human Rights on the understanding that the Commission on the Status of Women would continue to monitor the situation by means of having the reports of future gender missions as well as of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights made available to it. 6. In the light of its agreed conclusions 1997/2, the Council may wish to consider whether the issue of Palestinian women, as currently addressed in the Commission on the Status of Women, should be mainstreamed in the Commission on Human Rights and/or in the Council's own work.
3. Human rights and the administration of justice 23. The linkage between human rights and the administration of justice is a close one and, in this regard, the Council's attention is drawn to: Resolution 1998/39 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Human rights in the administration of justice in particular of children and juveniles in detention" Draft resolution VI of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: "United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice", which contains a section on the administration of juvenile justice. Parts of Commission on Human Rights resolution 1998/76 on the rights of the child are also relevant. 24. Table 3 provides information on the linkages between these outcomes.
Table 3 Human rights and the administration of justice
25. There would appear to be very little communication between the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, at least in the area of juvenile justice, even though both commissions consider it an issue of high importance if not an issue deserving priority attention.
Recommendation In view of the close similarity in treatment of the issue of juvenile justice, the Council may wish to invite the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Commission on Human Rights to improve their cooperation and coordination in this area, particularly with regard to standards and norms.
4. Ageing 26. The following functional commissions address the issue of ageing in various ways: Draft decision of the Commission on Population and Development: "Report of the Commission on Population and Development on its thirty-first session and provisional agenda for the thirty-second session of the Commission" Draft decision I of the Commission for Social Development: "Activities of the Consultative Group for the International Year of Older Persons" Draft decision II of the Commission for Social Development: "Report of the Commission for Social Development on its thirty-sixth session and provisional agenda and documentation for the thirty-seventh session of the Commission" Resolution 36/1 of the Commission for Social Development: "Promoting social integration and participation of all people, including disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and persons" Decision 36/101 of the Commission for Social Development: "Options for the future review and appraisal of the implementation of the International Plan of Action on Ageing" Draft decision of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Report of the Commission on the Status of Women on its forty-second session and provisional agenda and documentation for the forty-third session of the Commission" Resolution 42/4 of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Older women and support systems: gender and caregiving". 27. Table 4 provides information on the linkages between these various outcomes.
Table 4 Ageing
28. In view of the fact that 1999 is the International Year of Older Persons and that the Commission on Population and Development, the Commission for Social Development and the Commission on the Status of Women will all deal with the issue of ageing in 1999, ranging from the general (population structure) in the Commission on Population and Development to the more specific in the Commission on the Status of Women, the Council may wish to consider the following recommendation:
Recommendation The Council may wish to invite the Commission on Population and Development, the Commission for Social Development and the Commission on the Status of Women as well as their respective secretariats in preparing for their sessions to draw upon each other's work concerning the issues of population structure and ageing.
5. Migration 29. The issue of migration is addressed in the following outcomes of the Commission on Population and Development, the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: Draft decision of the Commission on Population and Development: "Report of the Commission on Population and Development on its thirty-first session and provisional agenda for the thirty-second session of the Commission" Resolution 1998/15 of the Commission on Human Rights: "International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families" Resolution 1998/16 and corresponding draft decision 4 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Migrants and human rights" Resolution 1998/17 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Violence against women migrant workers" Resolution 1998/52 of the Commission on Human Rights: "The elimination of violence against women" Decision 1998/105 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Study concerning the right of freedom of movement" Decision 1998/106 and corresponding draft decision 38 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Freedom of movement and population transfer" Draft resolution IV of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women on critical areas of concern identified in the Beijing Platform for Action" Resolution 42/3 of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Violence against women migrant workers" Draft resolution II of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice for adoption by the General Assembly through the Council: "Transnational organized crime" Draft resolution IV of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: "Action against illegal trafficking in migrants, including by sea". 30. Table 5 provides information on the linkages between these various outcomes.
Table 5 Migration
Recommendations
1. The Council may wish to invite the Commission on Population and Development, when it takes up the issue of international migration, to take into account the findings of the Commission on Human Rights with respect to the human rights of migrants, of the Commission on the Status of Women with respect to gender mainstreaming in migration, in particular the use of gender disaggregated data, as well as of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in its work on international migration. In addition, the Council may wish to invite the Commission on Population and Development to make available the report of the Technical Symposium on International Migration to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on the Status of Women.
2. The Council may wish to invite the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Commission on Human Rights to improve their cooperation and coordination when they address the issue of migrants, particularly with regard to the implementation and elaboration of international conventions in this regard.
6. The enabling environment 31. The enabling environment is addressed particularly in the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission for Social Development and the Commission on Sustainable Development:
Resolution 1998/23 of the Commission on Human Rights:
"The right to food" Resolution 1998/24 and corresponding draft decision 9 of the Commission on Human Rights:
"Effects on the full enjoyment of human rights of the economic adjustment policies arising from foreign debt and, in particular, on the implementation of the Declaration on the Right to Development" Resolution 1998/33 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Question of the realization in all countries of the economic, social and cultural rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and study of special problems which the developing countries face in their efforts to achieve these human rights" Resolution 1998/72 and corresponding draft decision 29 of the Commission on Human Rights: "The right to development" Decision 1998/102 and corresponding draft decision 36 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Effects of structural adjustment policies on the full enjoyment of human rights" Decision 6/1 of the Commission on Sustainable Development: "Strategic approaches to freshwater management" Decision 6/2 of the Commission on Sustainable Development: "Industry and sustainable development" Decision 6/3 of the Commission on Sustainable Development: "Transfer of environmentally sound technology, capacity-building, education and public awareness, and science for sustainable development" Draft decision II of the Commission for Social Development: "Report of the Commission for Social Development on its thirty-sixth session and provisional agenda and documentation for the thirty-seventh session of the Commission" Resolution 36/1 of the Commission for Social Development: "Promoting social integration and participation of all people, including disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and persons". 32. Table 6 provides information on the linkages between these various outcomes. 33. It should be noted that the Council adopted agreed conclusions 1997/1 on fostering an enabling environment at its 1997 substantive session, on the grounds that it constituted a topic of sufficiently all-encompassing importance and that it was for the Council itself to deal with this issue in a comprehensive manner rather than for its functional commissions to take it up in a piecemeal fashion. Furthermore, many aspects of the enabling environment for development are also taken up in the General Assembly, particularly its Second Committee. 34. Because the enabling environment for development is all-embracing, it is difficult for each functional commission to do full justice to all its features. The result is that most functional commissions can only selectively treat certain aspects of it. Table 6 The enabling environment
a Linkage to the work of the Second Committee of the General Assembly.
Recommendations
1. The Council, in view of its agreed conclusions 1997/1, may wish to invite its functional commissions to take those conclusions into account when they address issues related to the enabling environment for development.
2. The Council may wish to transmit Commission on Human Rights resolution 1998/72 on the right to development to all its subsidiary bodies, to the specialized agencies and to the General Assembly, in particular its Second and Third Committees, for their consideration with a view to the possibility of their making a contribution to the work of the independent expert and of the ad hoc working group of the Commission on Human Rights on this issue.
7. Poverty and hunger 35. Poverty and hunger are addressed in the following outcomes of the functional commissions: Resolution 36/1 of the Commission for Social Development: "Promoting social integration and participation of all people, including disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and persons" Resolution 1998/23 and corresponding draft decision 8 of the Commission on Human Rights: "The right to food" Resolution 1998/24 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Effects on the full enjoyment of human rights of the economic adjustment policies arising from foreign debt and, in particular, on the implementation of the Declaration on the Right to Development" Resolution 1998/25 and corresponding draft decision 10 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Human rights and extreme poverty" Resolution 1998/33 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Question of the realization in all countries of the economic, social and cultural rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and study of special problems which the developing countries face in their efforts to achieve these human rights" Resolution 1998/72 of the Commission on Human Rights: "The right to development" Decision 6/1 of the Commission on Sustainable Development: "Strategic approaches to freshwater management" Decision 6/3 of the Commission on Sustainable Development: "Transfer of environmentally sound technology, capacity-building, education and public awareness, and science for sustainable development" Draft decision of the Commission on Population and Development: "Report of the Commission on Population and Development on its thirty-first session and provisional agenda for the thirty-second session of the Commission" Resolution 42/1 of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Human rights and land rights discrimination". 36. Table 7 provides information on the linkages between these various outcomes.
Table 7 Poverty and hunger
a Linkage to the draft decision of the Commission on Population and Development: agenda item 3.
Recommendations
1. The Council could invite the attention of its functional commissions to its agreed conclusions 1996/1 on poverty eradication.
2. The Council, having reviewed the agreed conclusions as contained in Commission for Social Development resolution 36/1, could invite its functional commissions to take these conclusions into account so that social development objectives are mainstreamed into their work.
3. The Council, in view of the fact that the Commission for Social Development has been given the main responsibility in the follow-up on poverty eradication, could invite its other functional commissions to inform the Commission for Social Development of their work in this area and invite that Commission to request the other functional commissions to provide inputs on specific aspects of poverty eradication that are closely related to the issues addressed by them.
4. The Council could encourage the exchange of views by the Commission for Social Development and the Commission on Sustainable Development on the issue of integrating social and environmental objectives and encourage the Commission for Social Development to collaborate with the Commission on Sustainable Development, which has decided to address consumption and production patterns and poverty in its five-year programme (1998B2002).
8. Basic social services 37. Basic social services, in particular those related to health and education, are addressed by a number of functional commissions: Draft resolution I of the Commission on Population and Development: "Importance of population census activities for evaluation of progress in implementing the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development" Resolution 1998/1 of the Commission on Population and Development: "Health and mortality" Resolution 36/1 of the Commission for Social Development: "Promoting social integration and participation of all people, including disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and persons" Draft resolution IV of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women on critical areas of concern identified in the Beijing Platform for Action" Resolution 42/4 of the Commission on the Status of Women: "Older women and support systems: gender and caregiving" Decision 6/3 of the Commission on Sustainable Development: "Transfer of environmentally sound technology, capacity-building, education and public awareness, and science for sustainable development" Resolution 1998/33 and corresponding draft decision 13 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Question of the realization in all countries of the economic, social and cultural rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and study of special problems which the developing countries face in their efforts to achieve these human rights" Resolution 1998/72 of the Commission on Human Rights: "The right to development" Resolution 1998/76 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Rights of the child". 38. Table 8 provides information on the linkages between these various outcomes. Table 8 Basic social services
Recommendations
1. The Council could encourage the Commission for Social Development to take into account during its discussions in 1999 on basic social services for all, the work done by other commissions such as the Commission on Population and Development and the Commission on the Status of Women regarding, for example, health, education, poverty and employment.
2. The Council could ensure that the Commission on Human Rights takes into account the work done on the issue of education by other commissions, such as the Commission for Social Development, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Population and Development, and that the outcome of the Commission on Human Rights is shared by those commissions. In this regard, the bureaux and secretariats of those commissions should facilitate the exchange of outcomes.
9. Sustainable development 39. The bulk of the decisions of the Commission on Sustainable Development calling for attention by the Council do not contain linkages with the outcomes of the other functional commissions, except for the instances noted above, which, by and large, are not issues unique to sustainable development. Furthermore, none of the draft decisions of the Commission on Sustainable Development calling for action by the Council exhibit such linkages. 40. However, the Council's attention is drawn to the following outcomes: Resolution 1998/12 and corresponding draft decision 2 of the Commission on Human Rights: "Adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights" Decision 6/4 of the Commission on Sustainable Development: "Review of the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States". 41. Table 9 provides information on the linkages between these outcomes.
Table 9 Sustainable Development
Recommendation The Council may wish to request the Commission on Human Rights to ensure that its work on the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products is complementary to the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development in its follow-up to chapters 19 and 20 of Agenda 21.
10. Conclusion 42. Similarities, if not sometimes outright repetitiveness, often occur among the outcomes of the functional commissions. The differences that do exist, however, are often more a matter of emphasis and sometimes of accuracy than of fundamental disagreement. 43. Still, the recurrence of certain topics in various intergovernmental forums illustrates their importance and gravity. But the Council might need to ensure that its commissions C in addressing such topics C reinforce and complement each other's work rather than repeat and duplicate it. Each functional commission should have maximum value added and approach such issues from its own specific angle.
Notes 1 See thirteenth paragraph of Economic and Social Council agreed conclusions 1995/1, General Assembly resolution 50/227, Economic and Social Council resolution 1997/61 and paragraph 255 of the Agenda for Development (General Assembly resolution 51/240). 2 The Statistical Commission and the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, which hold their sessions biennially, did not meet in 1998. 3 If the Council were to spend an average of five minutes per outcome, it would take the Council almost 16 hours, or almost 2.5 days to go through the reports of its functional commissions. Some outcomes contain lengthy agreed conclusions, others consist of lengthy narratives, while a number would be subject to a vote. A solid review of those outcomes would surely increase this average considerably. 4 Resolution 1998/1 of the Commission on Population and Development on health and mortality calls, inter alia, for strengthening national capacities to collect, analyse and utilize health and mortality data at both the national and local levels in such priority areas as sexually transmitted infections, violence against women and female genital mutilation. |