UN CESCR

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN CESCR) is to produce a new General Comment (GC) on Sustainable Development and how it affects and connects with economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights).

For the first time, children had the opportunity to have their thoughts and ideas included in the process of drafting a General Comment by the UN CESCR! The Committee’s Drafting Group organized three Children’s Global Consultations on the 5th and the 6th of April of 2022, to hear children’s views and experiences on the theme of Sustainable Development and ESC rights. Building on the practice of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), this is the first time that members from another UN treaty body consulted children in a dedicated event.

To ensure an informed, inclusive, empowering, and safe participation of children, the Drafting Group of the CESCR cooperated in the organisation of the consultations with the Child Rights Connect, the German Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, the German National Human Rights Institution and the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre.

Find out more information about the consultation here.

Two members of the CESCR Committee Drafting Group, Mr Peters Emuze and Mr Michael Windfuhr, have prepared the following videos to give an update to all the children that participated in the consultation on where they are in the development of the General Comments. In these short videos, they also reflect on why these consultations were important and what were the main takeaways from the discussion with children. Check out the videos!