On 8 March 2023 the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ (CESCR) will be meeting in Geneva, as part of the Committee’s Pre-sessional Working Group, where members of the Committee meet to develop a ‘List of Issues’ that they want more information on from the UK Government.   See here for more information on the CESCR review process.

The committee will have reviewed the evidence submitted in January on the state of economic, social, and cultural rights in the UK, and will be hearing directly from representatives of civil society on this evidence. 

Our Head of Policy, Research and Campaigns, Helen Flynn, will be in Geneva to present the independent parallel report on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which we prepared on behalf of civil society in England and Wales.    

GRIPP report 

The Committee will also be hearing from representatives of the Growing Rights Instead of Poverty Partnership (GRIPP), who developed and submitted a joint report with evidence from people with direct experience of the violations of their economic, social, and cultural rights.  We worked with GRIPP to support this submission; see here for information on this unique process. 

Joint statement 

To accompany evidence from civil society presented to the Committee, we have coordinated and will submit, a joint UK civil society statement, which includes 5 overarching issues which are of concern across the UK.  These issues are:

• the ongoing threats to the Human Rights Act
• the distinctive paths devolved nations/jurisdictions are taking in relation to rights.
• the erosion of the universality of rights – particularly for migrants and those seeking asylum
• access to economic, social, and cultural rights
• the general assault on rights standards in the UK