total number of States parties to the International Covenant on Economic and Cultural Rights to 95 and that of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to 90. Further, the number of ratifications or accessions to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights had increased from 43 to 49 during 1989, the six new States parties being Algeria, Ireland, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, New Zealand, the Philippines and Somalia. Algeria and Ireland had also made the declaration provided for in article 41 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, thus bringing the total number of States parties which had made that declaration to 26. 36. Since the Commission's last session, the Human Rights Committee had continued to discharge its mandate in a highly positive manner, despite an increasingly heavy workload. During its three sessions in 1989, it had considered a total of 12 reports. Two of those had been third periodic reports, which had been considered using a new methodology which placed primary emphasis on maintaining and strengthening the dialogue between the E/CN.4/1990/SR.16 page 9 Committee and the States parties. In order to facilitate its work relating to communications, the Committee had appointed a Special Rapporteur to deal with new communications, and had made several amendments to its rules of procedure. During the past year, it had adopted two additional general comments (one on the rights of children to protection tmder article 24 of the Covenant, and one on non-discrimination), which brought the total number of its general comments to 18. 37. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had held four sessions since its inception. At its third session (6-24 February 1989), the report of which was contained in document E/1989/22, it had devoted 
**Analysis**
The text appears to be discussing international human rights agreements and the work of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The language used is formal and technical, suggesting that the topic is related to international law and human rights. The text does not mention specific economic development projects, natural resources, or environmental issues, which suggests that it is not primarily focused on these areas.

**Category**
Human Rights