VENEZUELA

Special Decisions or Action taken Re: Reporting

CESCR E/C.12/1995/SR.58/Add.1

COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

Thirteenth Session

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE SECOND PART OF THE 58TH MEETING

Friday 8 December 1995, at 11:50 a.m.

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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE TO THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL (agenda item 9) (continued)

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Letter to PROVEA (Venezuela)

32. Mr. SIMMA said that he had been requested to draft a reply to PROVEA, a Venezuelan NGO, regarding the request made on behalf of a number of Venezuelan NGOs for the Committee to consider at its next session the situation on the implementation of the Covenant in Venezuela. The letter read:

"Dear Ms. Bolivar,

As acting Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, I would like to thank you for the letter you addressed to the Committee in the name of numerous Venezuelan non-governmental organizations.

In this letter you express the wish that the state of realization of the rights enshrined in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Venezuela be analysed by the Committee as soon as possible according to the procedure developed for the case of States not fulfilling their reporting obligations.

In this regard, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that Venezuela has submitted two initial reports due according to the former reporting cycle. These reports were considered by the (former) Economic and Social Council Committee in 1984 (initial reports on Covenant articles 6 to 9) and 1986 (articles 10 to 15). In the meantime, a new reporting cycle has been adopted, requiring States to report on the implementation of the entire range of the rights contained in the Covenant every five years. Within this new system, the second periodic report of Venezuela was due on 30 June 1991.

The Committee has decided to consider the situation of economic, social and cultural rights in non-reporting States in the order derived from the length of time for which the reports are overdue. In this regard, however, more than 40 States parties to the Covenant have not even presented their initial reports. It is to States belonging to this category, therefore, that the Committee has to turn its attention first.

Let me take this opportunity to express the gratitude of the Committee for the interest which the Venezuelan organizations you represent take in the work of the Committee. You can be assured that the realization of the rights enshrined in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Venezuela will be considered by the Committee in due course with the utmost care. But you will certainly understand that, in performing its function, the Committee must follow orderly procedures foreseeable for all parties involved.

Yours sincerely,

Chairperson"

33. The CHAIRPERSON said that, if he heard no objection, he would take it that the Committee wished to adopt the text as read out by Mr. Simma.

34. It was so agreed.

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