26th Meeting, 79th Session, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)

Good afternoon. I call to order meeting number 26 of the 79th session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. We hereby approach the end of our session. We had two and a half intense weeks during which we engaged both in person and in a hybrid mode with four State Parties, considered two follow up reports and adopted four lists of issues. We conducted our work on communications under the Optional Protocol and following our decision at our last session, continued the work on general comment on the application of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in situations of armed conflicts, and discussed a variety of other matters, including an initial reflection on artificial intelligence and the economic, social and Cultural rights.

We have continued to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, both in person and remotely, most often informally on the sidelines of our formal meeting time as well. I thank all those who have demonstrated interest in the work of this Committee and more generally, I thank them for the work they undertake in the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights. We also had a very positive and sincere discussion with State Parties, and we thank them for their enthusiastic participation in our annual meeting and the discussions, and also for their continued support in this regard. The Committee again emphasizes that no one may be subject to reprisals for having cooperated with or having sought to cooperate with the Committee regarding the State Party reporting process. During this session, the Committee reviewed four State Party reports in the following alphabetical order Australia, Georgia, Kenya and Uruguay.

We are grateful to all delegations for the dialogues conducted here in Geneva following our deliberations and closed meetings. I hereby declare the concluding observations for the State Parties formally adopted by the Committee. These will be transmitted to the respective State Parties and made available publicly in advance unedited versions on the webpage of the OHCHR on Friday 27th February 2026, with respect to the follow up to concluding observations, the Committee discussed and adopted the assessments on the follow up reports of Lithuania and Tajikistan. The assessments will be transmitted to the State Parties concerned and made publicly available in the weeks to come. We urge State Parties with due or overdue follow up reports to kindly submit them for consideration by the Committee at this session.

The Committee adopted four lists of issues in alphabetical order Ecuador, Egypt, Kazakhstan and Paraguay. The assessments will be transmitted to the State Parties concerned and made available publicly in advance unedited versions on the web page of the OHCHR Next week. During this session, the Committee adopted decisions in respect of 42 individual communications submitted under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Committee adopted three decisions, including two decisions on the merits concerning communications against Spain and Italy and one decision declaring a communication inadmissible concerning Italy. The Committee further decided to discontinue the consideration of 39 communications concerning Italy and Spain.

All communications examined during the session concerned allegations of violations of the right to adequate housing under the Covenant. The Committee also adopted its report on the follow up to views in accordance with Article 9 of the Optional Protocol and its Rules of Procedure. States are our main interlocutors. However, the importance of engagement with other stakeholders who have their distinct roles to play cannot be stressed enough. During the session, the Committee also held informal meetings outside of official meeting time with other stakeholders, including with civil society.

The engagement of all concerned is deeply appreciated by our committee. At the 80th session of the committee, starting in October 2026, the dates are still to be confirmed. The Committee will review reports of Austria, Eswatini, Mexico and Pakistan. It will adopt lists of issues following the submission of the reports of Burkina Faso, Estonia, Slovakia and Zambia. The Committee will also consider and adopt assessments on the follow up reports of Cambodia and Portugal.

Regrettably, the financial crisis affecting the wider United nations, the treaty body in our Committee, means that we cannot yet confirm the session dates. We recalled our decision taken at our last session to implement the simplified reporting procedure, requesting the Secretariat to support this process by preparing a structured implementation plan and by coordinating its practical aspects. We regret that the financial situation of the United nations still does not allow for implementation of our decision. No plan can be put into effect when we cannot be certain that our sessions will take place. We therefore look forward to a time, hopefully soon, when we will be able to advance on this simplified reporting procedure, our commitment to which stands until then.

We encourage State Parties to continue to submit reports under the regular reporting procedure, including long overdue reports. I would like to use this opportunity to highlight that 21 state parties have yet to submit their initial reports, 15 of which have been overdue for more than 10 years. Numerous state Parties are overdue also with periodic reports. As a total, 49 periodic reports remain overdue, over 16 of which have been so for over 10 years. In this respect, I wish to recall that the capacity building program established pursuant to the UNGA Resolution 6868 of 2014, it is available to offer support to States which may call for technical assistance, including with respect to the establishment of national mechanisms for reporting, implementation and follow up.

Finally, I'd like to once again invite all States to ratify the Covenant. In addition, I encourage States that are parties to the Covenant but haven't acceded to or ratified the Optional Protocol. To do so, and to enter the declarations for Article 10 and 11 of the Optional Protocol, I would like to extend words of thanks to all those who have assisted the Committee during these two and a half busy weeks. Our Secretariat, the colleagues from the OHCHR and unog, including conference officers, technicians and technical moderators. I would also like to thank the interpreters as well as many other services, press officers, pressy writers and translators.

We will meet again later in 2026 for the 80th session. As mentioned, we hope we have concrete information about our next session as soon as possible. It being an important year of a joint celebration between our Committee and the Human Rights Committee. We look forward to holding the constructive dialogues with State parties, pursuing our other work, as well as engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders with the aim of achieving the effective promotion and protection of all the rights enshrined in the Covenant. With this, I Now declare the 79th session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights officially closed.

Thank you for your kind attention.