- 144 - Annex VI FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN: ACTION FOR EQUALITY, DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE Statement of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights* 1. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights held its first session in 1987. It was preceded by the Sessional Working Group of Governmental Experts of the Economic and Social Council which had functioned since 1979, six years before the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace was held at Nairobi in 1985. The Committee is mandated to monitor compliance by States parties with their obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Committee is composed of 18 independent experts who are each elected for a term of four years by the Economic and Social Council. 2. The monitoring mechanism provided for under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights consists of the consideration of States parties’ reports on the implementation of the Covenant. These reports are prepared and submitted to the Committee every five years on all the articles of the Covenant. 3. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is the only legally binding international treaty of the United Nations that deals exclusively with economic, social and cultural rights. The Covenant articulates a wide-ranging set of human rights: the right to work; the right to fair wages and to just working conditions; the right to strike and to freedom of association; the right to social security; protection of the family; the right to an adequate standard of living and to freedom from hunger; the right to physical and mental health; the right to education; and the right to take part in cultural life and to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and creative activity. 4. The guiding principles governing the application of the Covenant are expressed in article 2, which provides that States parties are obligated to achieve progressively the full realization of the rights set forth in the Covenant by all appropriate means without discrimination of any kind, and in article 3, which guarantees the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all the economic, social and cultural rights enshrined in the Covenant. 5. The Committee has long recognized the reality that violations of economic, social and cultural rights result in some of the most persistent forms of inequality and of discrimination, particularly against women, the elderly, the disabled and other vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Almost 50 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, women today continue to bear the burden of particular obstacles to the enjoyment of their economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. * Adopted at the twelfth session (26th meeting), on 17 May 1995.