2264th Meeting, 84th Session, Committee against Torture (CAT)

Very good morning to you all. Let's begin meeting 2264 of the United Nations Committee against Torture. This is a public meeting. And first of all, it will deal with the Committee's annual report for adoption. The draft report was prepared by the previous committee rapporteur, Mr. Vedel Kessing, and the current rapporteur of the committee, Mr. Abdel Razak Rouane, said document can be found in the reference folder document CAT/C/84/R.1, and there are versions available in English, French and Spanish. So, it is my pleasure to give the floor to Mr. Rouan to introduce the annual report. You have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Pursuant to Article 24 of the Convention, the Committee is obliged to submit an annual activity report to States Parties and the General Assembly. As the Committee holds its last regular session each year in the month of November, which means to say that it coincides with the ordinary session of the General Assembly. It adopts its annual report at the end of the April/May session in order to be able to transmit the report to the General Assembly during the course of the same year. The current annual report then, which I have the honour of presenting as the Committee rapporteur, covers a period from 3rd of May 2025 to the 1st of May 2026. On the 1st of May 2026, which is the date of the closure of the 84th session of the Committee against Torture, 176 States were parties to the Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment. As a result of the cash flow situation related to the UN ordinary budget and cash conservation measures, the Committee has only been able to hold two sessions since the adoption of its previous annual report. The 83rd session, initially scheduled for July 2025, was held from the 10th to 28th November 2025, and 84th session ran from the 13th of April to the 1st of May 2026. Furthermore, the length of the 83rd and 84th sessions was reduced from four weeks to three weeks each. So it means to say that the Committee has lost five weeks of meeting time during the period under review. Election of the Committee Bureau. Following the 20th meeting of States Parties to the Convention, which was held on the 1st of October 2025 in Geneva, the makeup of the committee changed as from the 1st of January 2026. On the 13th of April 2026, the committee re-elected Claudella to the chair for a mandate of two years. Anna Raku, Liu Hua Wen and Peter Vedel Kessing were elected vice chairs and I myself was elected as rapporteur, all of them for a mandate of two years. At the end of the 83rd session, Jorge Contesse was appointed rapporteur on new complaints interim measures pursuant to article 22 of the convention replacing Todd Buchwald and Abdel-Zahraa Rouane was appointed committee rapporteur for the follow-up on concluding observations replacing Bahtiyar Tuzmuhamedov. During the 84th session, Ms. Maeda Naoko was appointed committee rapporteur, following up on concluding observations of Mr. Kessig, committee rapporteur on rapporteurs. The working group on individual communications comprises the following members, Mr. Contesse, Ms. Gonzalez Pinto, Mr. Kessig, Mr. Liu, and Mr. Moulaye Abdallah. Committee activities concerning the Optional Protocol to the Convention. In line with the Optional Protocol to the Convention, a joint meeting was held on the 13th of November 2026 between members of the Committee and those of the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture. This meeting focused on strengthening cooperation between the two entities and on reviewing the difficulties relating to implementing the Convention, the Optional Protocol. On 16 April 2026, Ms. Elina Steinat, Vice-Chair of the Sub-Committee, presented the 19th annual report of the Sub-Committee to the Committee in line with article 16, paragraph 3 of the Optional Protocol. With regard to the participation of non-governmental organisations, national human rights institutions and national prevention mechanisms against torture in the work of the Committee. For a long time, the Committee has recognized the participation of non-governmental organizations in its work and has an established practice of holding closed meetings with them prior to the review of States Parties reports. The Committee would like to thank these organizations taking part in these meetings. The Committee addresses its sincere thanks to the World Organization Against Torture, the OMCT, for its role in coordinating the contributions submitted by NGOs on the Committee's work. The Committee also appreciates the commitment and contribution of national human rights institutions and national preventive mechanisms, which have been established pursuant to the Optional Protocol. Hybrid meetings have been stopped since January 2024, with the exception of dialogues with state party delegations, continues to have an adverse impact on the work of the Committee by limiting, above all, the participation and, as a result, the commitment of civil society organizations, national human rights institutions, national preventive mechanisms, UN entities and other stakeholders. The Committee requests that multilingual hybrid meetings be reinstated as part of its sessions and provided with the necessary resources and encourages the States Parties to support this request.

Period, the Committee continued to adopt the precautionary measures necessary to protect anyone cooperating with it from reprisals or any other acts of intimidation, in accordance with its usual practice. Concerning the participation of the Committee in the UN Treaty Body Strengthening process, during the period under review, the Committee continued to contribute to this process which aims at strengthening the treaty body system, represented by Mr. Iskan. The Committee considers that the serious shortage of human and financial resources is significantly impairing the ability of treaty bodies to implement their mandates fully and that this trend risks pushing the system to the limits of its operation and capacity. It therefore urges Member States to increase the allocation of necessary resources budget deliberations in order to prevent further reductions that would render the work of the Committee and the other human rights treaty bodies unsustainable. Concerning participation of Committee members in related activities to the mandate of the Committee during the period under consideration, Committee members participated in different and several events and activities related to the Convention and the mandate of the Committee. I come now to the submission of reports by States Parties under article 19 of the Convention. Between 3 May 2025 and 1 May 2026, 11 reports from States Parties under article 19 of the Convention were submitted to the Secretary-General. Initial reports were submitted by Eswatini and Liberia. A third periodic report was submitted by Mauritania. Fourth periodic reports were submitted by Bolivia, Serbia and Tunisia. Fifth periodic reports were submitted by Belgium, Lithuania and Morocco. A ninth periodic report was submitted by Portugal, and a ninth periodic report was submitted by Sweden. There were 25 States parties with overdue initial reports and 40 States parties with overdue periodic reports. At its 83rd session, the Committee adopted a list of issues prior to reporting for States parties that have accepted the simplified reporting procedure and whose next periodic report is due in November 2026. These are Australia, Chad, El Salvador, Malawi, Somalia and Uganda. It also adopted a list of issues prior to reporting for Nigeria. At its 84th session, the Committee adopted a list of issues prior to reporting with regard to States parties that have accepted the simplified reporting procedure and whose next periodic report is due in May or July 2027. These are Brazil, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Slovakia, New Zealand, Romania, Spain and Switzerland. As to consideration of reports submitted by States Parties under article 19 of the Convention at its 83rd and 84th sessions, sessions, the Committee considered the reports submitted by eight States Parties under article 90 of the Convention: reports of Albania, Argentina, Bahrain and Israel in the 83rd session, and the reports of Gabon, Italy, Pakistan and Tajikistan in its 84th session. As at 1 May 2026, 52 initial or periodic reports of State parties were awaiting consideration. The Committee's backlog in reviewing State parties' initial and periodic reports was further exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, and its impact continues to affect the Committee's work. More recently, cancellations of meetings owing to the organisation's financial situation have also obliged the committee to postpone eight country reviews during the period under review. Regarding follow-up to concluding observations on State Parties' reports, between 3 May 2025 and 1 May 2026, follow-up reports were received from the following State Parties: North Macedonia, Finland, Austria, Honduras, Liechtenstein, Ecuador, Turkey, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Jordan, Spain, and Turkmenistan. The rapporteurs for follow-up to concluding observations communicated with States parties under the follow-up procedure. Such communications reflected the analysis carried out by the rapporteurs and specified the pending issues. During the period under review, such communications were sent in letters to Egypt, Finland, Liechtenstein, Honduras, North Macedonia, Austria, Ecuador, Republic of Korea, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kuwait. The rapporteurs for follow-up to concluding observations expressed appreciation for the information submitted by national human rights institutions, human rights NGOs and civil society organizations under the follow-up procedure. The Committee work under article 20 of the Convention continued during the period under review. As to consideration of complaints under Article 22 of the Convention, the Committee recalled that 71 States parties to the Convention have declared that they recognize its competence to receive and consider complaints under Article 22 of the Convention. As at 1 May 2026, the Committee had registered since 1989 1,335 complaints concerning 45 States parties. 459 of them had been discontinued and 163 had been declared inadmissible. The Committee had adopted final decisions on the merits in 541 complaints and found violations of the Convention in 230 of them. Some 176 complaints were pending consideration. All the Committee's decisions on the merits, those declaring a complaint inadmissible, and discontinuous decisions can be found in the Treaty Body Case Law Database, on the Office of the High Commissioner website, and in the official document system of the United Nations. During the reporting period, the Committee adopted 21 decisions on the merits, declared 10 communications inadmissible and discontinued the consideration of 9 communications. The Committee's workload under Article 22 remains significant, with some cases remaining in the backlog of the Committee. The Committee knows that some States Parties have failed to implement the decisions adopted on complaints. The Committee has continued to seek to ensure implementation of its decisions through its rapporteur for follow-up on decisions adopted under Article 22. This concludes the presentation of the annual report of the Committee against Torture covering the period 3 May 2025 to 1 May 2026, including its 83rd and 84th sessions. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Rouan, for presenting the draft annual report. I cannot see any requests for comment, so it is adopted. We will move on to the next item on our agenda, which concerns the decisions that the committee has adopted during this, the 84th session, which has run from the 13th of April up until now, today, the 1st of May. In the current session, Pursuant to Article 19 of the Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the Committee adopted concluding observations on the periodic reports of Gabon, Italy, Pakistan and Tajikistan. I would like to begin by referring to Gabon. The committee was alarmed at reports indicating deplorable conditions in places of detention, including prison overcrowding, which is both excessive and chronic as a result of the abusive and prolonged use of pretrial detention, and the limited use of alternatives to custodial sentences, which are actually foreseen in Article 23 of the Criminal Code of Gabon. Libreville Prison, for example, in 2026, recorded an overcrowding rate of between 400% and 700%. The Committee urged the State Party to step up its efforts to bring conditions of detention into line with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Nelson Mandelan Rules, in particular by allocating additional resources to these efforts and strengthening its international cooperation, including through concluding targeted partnership agreements in order to benefit from technical and financial support commensurate with the reforms required. The Committee further urged the State Party, as a matter of urgency, to reduce prison overcrowding by making greater use of alternatives to detention in accordance with the Tokyo Rules and the Bangkok Rules, and to ensure that pretrial detention was imposed only as an exceptional measure. In this regard, the Committee took note of the delegation's confirmation that it will publish the report of the 2024 visit by the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture to the country, the SPT. The Committee took note of the designation of the National Human Rights Commission as the national preventive mechanism pursuant to Law 23 of 2024, dated 21 November, which reorganizes the National Human Rights Commission. However, the Committee regrets that the necessary measures for operationalizing the National Human Rights Commission, National Preventive Mechanism, have not yet been taken, in particular with regard to the appointment of their members and the effective allocation of sufficient and material resources. In this regard, the Committee also took note of the State Party's intention to revise Law 23 of 2024, with a view to removing potential obstacles which prevent legal professionals and doctors from acting as members, owing to the prohibition on holding any other position as provided for in Article 21 of that law, Article 2 as well. The Committee urges the State party to take urgent measures to operationalize the National Human Rights Commission and the national preventive mechanism, in particular by expediting the adoption of the amendments to the law mentioned in order to remove legal obstacles to establishing the NHRC, and by proceeding without delay with the selection and appointment of its members, ensuring that they are both independent and impartial through a transparent selection process in accordance with Article 18 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and the Paris Principles. They must also proved that they have expertise in the field of torture prevention, and the membership should have a multidisciplinary composition. When it comes to Italy, the Committee took note of the huge challenges faced by the State Party to respond to fluctuating migration flows, with intermittent spikes in the number of arrivals during the period under review. However, the committee expressed its concern about allegations of pushbacks at the state party's borders, as well as the state party's continued cooperation with the Libyan Coast Guard as part of its memorandum of understanding, and the state party's use of migration detention facilities in Albania. So the Committee recommends that the State Party respects the principle of non-refoulement, revises the application of the Memorandum of Understanding of 2 February 2017 between Italy and Libya in order to ensure full compliance with Italy's obligations under the Convention. Italy should also ensure legal clarity regarding its responsibilities under the convention in respect of detainees that are held abroad, including in relation to investigating allegations of torture, receiving complaints, guarantees of reparations, and responding to individual communications under Article 22 of the convention. The Committee also expressed its concern over special detention regimes which are in force in the State party, including those restrictive regimes which are foreseen in Article 41 bis of the Penitentiary Act and Article 72 of the Criminal Code. In this regard, the Committee highlighted conditions which are tantamount to prolonged solitary confinement, going well beyond the maximum of 15 days, which is what is permitted under international standards. The Committee thus recommended that the State Party strictly limit the use of special detention regimes to those situations in which it's absolutely necessary. the State Party should also ensure that any restrictive measure be individual, proportional, and regularly reassessed. Similarly, the Committee urged the State Party to strive to ensure that solitary confinement, be it de jure or de facto, is only used in exceptional circumstances and as a measure of last resort for the shortest time period possible, and that the state party establish a ceiling on the length of solitary confinement which does not go beyond 15 days in both law and practice, which is what is in line with international standards. With regard to Tajikistan, the Committee expressed its concern about the allegations of deaths in police custody. which are presumably linked to torture or ill treatment, coerced confessions, and denial of medical care in penitentiaries. There's also a lack of effective investigations and thorough explanations of the cause of these deaths. The committee also observed that the Institute of Legal Medicine operates under state authority. This raises concern about its independence and the independence of the forensic documentation produced in such cases. So the committee urges Tajikistan to ensure that all deaths in custody are swiftly and thoroughly investigated by an independent entity. Notably through independent forensic examinations which are conducted in line with the Minnesota protocol and that efforts be set stepped up to establish an independent. Legal Medicine Institute. The Committee has taken note of a number of measures undertaken by Tajikistan to monitor places of deprivation of liberty, including the activities of the monitoring group, which was established within the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights for the purposes of conducting monitoring visits. The committee also took note of the high-level international conference held by the State Party in February 2026, which aimed at exploring avenues for ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. The Committee encourages Tajikistan to accede to that international instrument and to establish as a matter of priority a national preventive mechanism against torture which is sufficiently funded The Committee also urged Tajikistan to ensure periodic independent monitoring of all places of deprivation of liberty in line with international standards, including by civil society organizations and relevant public authorities. With regard to Pakistan, the Committee expressed its deep concern about the deportation of a large number of Afghan citizens, including minors. They have been returned to that country following the adoption of the plan to repatriate illegal foreign citizens, which was adopted on the 26th of September 2023. It was Repatriation has occurred without any individual assessment of protection needs and risks of refoulement. Furthermore, the Committee has expressed its serious concerns about allegations of coercion, intimidation, harassment, and threats of deportation and police abuse, extortion, raids and arbitrary detention to return Afghans, including registered refugees, to their country of origin, where they could be at risk of persecution, torture or ill-treatment. The Committee urges the State Party to consider repealing or reviewing the illegal foreigners repatriation plan, since it poses serious risks for non-citizens, in particular Afghan nationals who are being forcibly returned to their country of origin, and to investigate all allegations of police abuse against Afghans and other actions by public authorities undertaken for the purpose of coercing them to return to their country of origin, despite the real risk of torture that they face. And Pakistan must also discipline or criminally sanction those responsible for such abuse.

The committee raised its concern also about reports according to which human rights defenders Civil society activists, journalists, lawyers, political opponents, protesters, and other critics of the government, as well as their family members, have been subjected to torture and ill treatment and other forms of retaliation, such as intimidation, threats, harassment, physical attacks, excessive use of force, arbitrary arrest and detention, prosecution on trumped up and politically motivated charges, including before military courts, enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial execution. The Committee urged the State to take the measures necessary to ensure that these persons are adequately protected from torture and ill-treatment and other forms of reprisals that they might be at risk of as a result of their activities, and that all human rights violations perpetrated against them are thoroughly investigated, that those responsible are brought to justice, and that victims or their families are provided with effective remedies. The committee expressed its concern about the situation of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and Idris Khattak, whose arbitrary detentions were studied by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, as well as those of Bushra Bibi, Ali Wazir, and Mehran Baloch, especially with regard to their access to medical care. The Committee recommended that the State party review the situation of all persons who have allegedly been detained and imprisoned on political grounds or in retaliation for their work, including former, including the individuals that I have just mentioned, and ensure at the same time that they have access, that they be guaranteed access to adequate medical care while detained Those are the four cases of the States parties that the Committee has examined in this session. The Committee would like to thank the World Organization Against Torture, the OMCT, for its coordination role vis-a-vis NGOs, as well as thanking civil society representatives who made a significant contribution to the committee session. We also are grateful for the participation of national human rights institutions, NHRIs, and national preventative mechanisms, the NPMs. During this session, the committee had private meetings with the National Guarantor for the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty, the NPM of Italy; the National Commission for Human Rights Pakistan, the NHRI of Pakistan; the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Tajikistan, also the NHRI for that country, Tajikistan. During the current session, the Committee adopted list of issues prior to reporting for Brazil, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and Switzerland. Turning now to the next country reviews, As of today, our Committee has still not been informed whether the sessions scheduled for July and November of 2026 will take place. Owing to the ongoing financial situation of the United Nations Secretariat, all other treaty body sessions planned for 2026 also remain unconfirmed. For example, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture is scheduled to undertake visits to France in May of 2026 and to Sri Lanka in June of 2026. However, no further visits have been confirmed for the remainder of the year. As a result of the aforementioned, the Committee is currently unable to announce at this time the dates of its future sessions or the next country reviews and the corresponding designation of country rapporteurs. As soon as more information becomes available, the Committee will announce the dates of its upcoming sessions and the country reviews planned for each session through its web pages and other usual channels of the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights. In keeping with the Committee's practice, country reviews will be preceded, when relevant, by private UN briefings, private NHRI and NPM briefings when such entities exist, and briefings, private briefings with NGOs and private CSO briefings. Regrettably, the sudden cessation of hybrid meetings will continue to negatively impact the work of the committee members, civil society organizations, national human rights institutions, national preventative mechanisms, and other stakeholders. As a general rule, the Committee sets a deadline for the submission of alternative reports four weeks before the beginning of the sessions at which the State Party's initial and/or periodic report will be considered. The exact deadlines applicable for the submission of alternative reports will be indicated on the committee's web pages once the next sessions are confirmed. Turning now to the list of issues and lists of issues prior to reporting to be adopted by the committee, the committee will adopt list of issues prior to reporting at its next sessions for Costa Rica, Denmark and Slovenia. The Committee welcomes and appreciates information submitted by NGOs, NHRIs and NPMs as well as other stakeholders to inform the preparation of the list of issues prior to reporting. Turning now to the individual complaints procedure. under Article -- during the 84th session, the Committee examined 21 individual complaints. This was under Article 22. Of the cases examined, five were deemed admissible -- inadmissible. Additionally, 10 cases were decided on the merits. In five cases, the Committee found no violation, while in Another five cases, the committee determined there to be a violation by the state party. Furthermore, the committee adopted five discontinuance requests. One communication was postponed for a future session. Article 20 now, activities under Article 20 of the Convention. The Committee's work under Article 20 of the Convention continued during the 84th session, as has been our practice. I should like to refer now to follow-up to concluding observations and individual cases, as well as to matters of reprisals. At the current session, the Committee undertook its activities on follow-up under Articles 19 and 22 of the Convention and in relation to the matter of reprisals. Ms. Maeda Naoko, Ms. Naoko Maeda, the Committee's rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations under Article 19 of the Convention, presenting the report, said that during the period under review, the Committee had received follow-up reports from Jordan, Spain, and Turkmenistan. She welcomed the willingness of these States parties to provide information regarding measures they had taken to implement their obligations under the Convention. During the period under review, the Committee received alternative follow-up reports from NGOs and other stakeholders in relation to the follow-up replies submitted by Thailand and Turkey. The rapporteur also communicated with concerned states parties regarding pending issues once their reports on implementation of the concluding observations were received and assessed. Since May 2025, Such communications were sent to the Republic of Korea, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Kuwait. In addition, the follow-up replies submitted by Jordan, Spain, and Turkmenistan were currently-- or are currently under consideration. Turning to Article 22. Mr. Huan Huan Liu, Committee's rapporteur on follow-up to communications under Article 22, said that there were no detailed developments to present since the last session as regards follow-up on individual communications. He added that he was making efforts to urge all relevant states parties to speed up their actions in this regard. I will turn now to the issue of reprisals. Mr. Peter Kessing, the committee's rapporteur, A committee rapporteur indicated that during the intersessional period, the committee secretariat had recorded several incidents and situations presenting potential risks of reprisals. These included, he said, allegations of reprisals against four Burundian lawyers for having cooperated with the committee during the review. at its 58th session of the special report of Burundi requested under Article 19 of the Convention. Shortly after the lawyers' participation at the 58th session, the public prosecutor of Burundi sought their disbarment and seizure of their property which was eventually confirmed by the court or upheld by the court. Mr. Kessing said that the committee found that in failing to fulfill its obligation to refrain from reprisals against individuals who cooperated with the committee, the state party violated Article 13 of the Convention and that the state party's refusal to engage in the individual complaint procedure amounted to a violation of Article 22.3. The Committee urged Burundi to restore the complainant's law licenses and to provide appropriate redress. In fact, the Committee issued a press release on the decision in question on 23 December 2025. As regards individual communications under Article 22, Mr. Kessing said that the Committee received allegations of reprisals in two communications related to Morocco. In one case, the complainant's wife repeatedly reported ongoing reprisals against the complainant's family in Morocco. In the other case, the author made allegations of reprisals on 31 August 2025, which were addressed in the final decision adopted in November of 2025. The rapporteur also presented a pending case regarding the Russian Federation in which the Committee received allegations that the complainant was being subjected to reprisals given the complaint brought or the communication brought to the Committee. A letter was sent Or rather, the complainant then submitted new allegations of reprisals, and the Committee decided to send a further letter to the State Party, clearly indicating the new allegations and reminding the State Party of its obligations of non-reprisals and unhindered cooperation of the Committee. The Committee also decided to send a letter to the complainant's lawyer, asking for updated information on the state of health of the complainant and current health situation. The committee also decided to send a letter to the attorney, again, for an ask for updated information on the state of health of the complainant's current situation, as was also indicated when Mr. Abdarasak presented the annual report. On 13 April, the Committee, by consensus, agreed to the re-election of Mr. Claude Heller as Chairman, and elected Ms. Anna Raku, Mr. Liu Huaquan, and Mr. Peter Kessing as Vice-Chairpersons. Mr. Abderrazak Rouane was elected as Committee Rapporteur. On 14 April, the Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, Ms. Alina Staniute, presented the Committee's 19th annual report of the SPT that is contained in document CAT/C/84/2, in accordance with Article 16 of the Convention. of the Optional Protocol to the Convention. On that same date, the Committee held a private meeting with representatives of human rights organizations that regularly contribute to its work. As agreed in April 2023, this meeting is now convened on an annual basis. The meeting provided an opportunity to share updates and recent developments in the committee's work and to discuss ways of enhancing cooperation between the Committee and civil society. I should like to underscore the following: The Committee met with Mr. Antti Korhokivi, the Chief of the High Commissioner's Office for Human Rights, charged with the Treaty Body Section. this meeting with the chief of the HRTB was held on 20 April 2016 concerning the financial situation of the office and the allocation of resources to the committee. We requested that meeting, the goal being to express our disagreement with the criteria with which the time period for sessions was allocated. We recall that since November of last year, in a letter that we sent to the authorities of the High Commissioner's Office, we made altogether clear the importance of the activities of the Committee, this considering the 166 States are already States Parties to the Convention. in addition to the multiple activities that we undertake as regards articles 19, 20, 22, et cetera. We believe that all these matters should, that we should, that there should be a equitable and proportionable distribution of resources in a timely manner, bearing in mind the reality of committee and the amount of committee members and the amount of States parties to these conventions. The program of work of the session also included a thematic briefing by the United Against Torture consortium that brings together leading organizations cooperating with us. This was focused on legal safeguards against torture and ill treatment in the context of demonstrations, public demonstrations. This briefing took place on Tuesday, 22 April. It was a very productive meeting on a matter that will merit follow-up in the dialogue that the Committee holds with the civil society organizations. The Committee would also like to thank all NGOs and all CSOs, the NHRIs, and the NPMs, as well as other stakeholders for their contribution to what I consider to be a successful session that has met its objectives. Further, I would like to note the evergreen and valuable support of the Secretariat to our work. And I wish to thank as well all of the members of the Committee. Thank you for your intense dedication when it comes to meeting the mandate of the Committee. And this despite the challenges faced by the Treaty body system. Thank you kindly. And with that, this public session, the last session of this 84th, the last meeting of this 84th session, we will now move to a private meeting. We will suspend. Thank you.