Committee on ESCR and other UN Committees

The Strategic Litigation Working Group initially focused its work on the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, by providing support to specific cases, conducting workshops on the OP-ICESCR in countries that have ratified the Protocol, and holding meetings with the CESCR members.

More recently, the Strategic Litigation Working Group's Steering Committee noted that a broader approach to ESCR advancement before the UN mechanisms of protection would be more strategic than a focus solely on the CESCR, especially in cases where ESCR haven’t been recognized domestically as fundamental or justiciable rights, and/or where States have not yet ratified the OP-ICESCR. In addition, such an approach recognizes the indivisibility and interdependence of human rights, and could encourage cross-fertilization of standard development across UN committees.