46th Meeting, 80th Session, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)

Good afternoon. I call to order the public part of meeting number 46 of the 80th session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. We hereby approach the end of our session. We had two intense weeks during which we engaged in person with four States Parties, considered two follow-up reports, and adopted four lists of issues. Following our decision at our last session, We continued the work on the general comment on the application of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in situations of armed conflict, and discussed a variety of other matters, including a reflection on artificial intelligence and the economic, social and cultural rights, and on business and human rights. The Committee adopted a statement on draft proposals for treaty bodies. Statement on National Mechanisms for Implementation, Reporting, and Follow-up of Recommendations from Human Rights Mechanisms. 2026 marked the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Both committees held a joint commemoration on 6 November to mark this event. We continued to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, both in person and remotely, most often informally, on the sidelines of a formal meeting time. I thank all those who have demonstrated interest in the work of our Committee. And more generally, I thank them for the work they undertake in the promotion and protection of economic, social, cultural rights. 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 our Committee. Regarding the State Party reporting process during the session, the Committee reviewed four State Party reports in the following alphabetical order: Austria, Eswatini, Mexico and Pakistan. We are grateful to all delegations for the dialogues conducted here in Geneva. We had a very positive and sincere discussion with those States Parties, and we thank them for their enthusiastic participation in the discussion and for their continued support. Following our deliberations and closed meetings, I hereby declare the concluding observations of the four States Parties formally adopted by the Committee. These will be transmitted to the respective States Parties and made available publicly in advance unedited versions on the webpage of the OHCHR on Monday, 16 November 2026. With respect to the follow-up to concluding observations, the Committee discussed and adopted the assessments on the follow-up reports of Cambodia and Portugal. The assessments will be transmitted to the State Parties concerned and made publicly available in the weeks to come. We urge States Parties with due or overdue follow-up reports to submit them for consideration by the Committee. At this session, the Committee adopted four lists of issues, in alphabetical order: Burkina Faso, Estonia, Slovakia and Zambia. The assessments will be transmitted to the States Parties concerned and made available publicly in advance unedited versions on the webpage of the OHCHR in the next week. In addition to States, 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 civil society. The engagement of all concerned is deeply appreciated. At the 81st session of the Committee, which will be held in February 2027, the Committee will review the reports of Angola, Canada, Namibia, North Macedonia, and the Republic of Korea. It will adopt lists of issues following the submission of the reports of Central African Republic, Nepal, New Zealand, Oman, and Uganda. The tentative dates of our next session are 8 to 24 February 2027, subject to confirmation that resources will be available for the session, which we hope to receive as soon as possible. We encourage all States Parties to continue to submit the reports due under the regular reporting procedure, particularly any long overdue reports. I would also like to use this opportunity to highlight that 22 States Parties have yet to submit their initial reports, 15 of which have been overdue for more than 10 years. Numerous States are overdue also with periodic reports. As a total, 49 periodic reports remain overdue, over 16 of which have been so far over 10 years. In this respect, I wish to recall that the capacity-building programme established pursuant to UNGA resolution 68/68 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 would 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 articles 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, UNOG, including conference officers, technicians, technical moderators, as well as our interpreters, and many other services, press officers, press writers, and translators. Sincere thanks on behalf of our committee to all of you. We will gather again in early 2027 for the 81st session. As mentioned, we hope to have concrete information about our next session as soon as possible. We look forward to holding constructive dialogues with States 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 80th session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights officially closed. Thank you for your attention.