UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : Opening of the 79th Session, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends.

I would like to call to order and declare open the 79th session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and welcome all those observing our work both from the meeting room and online.

And I'm very pleased to see that most of our colleagues are here present and we all look forward to proceeding with our work.

Before we proceed with our work of the 79 session, it is my pleasure to invite the representative of the Secretary General, Mr Andre Ori, to deliver the opening statement.

Mr Ori is the section chief responsible for four other treaty bodies, That's the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers.

Mr Ori, thank you for being here with us, and very warm welcome and you have the floor.

[Other language spoken]

Madam Chair, distinguished member of the Committee of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the United Nations Secretary General, it's an honour to welcome you to the 79th session of the Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, one of the two major instruments setting out binding legal rights that belong to all persons on earth, reflecting the collective aspiration for a world funded on peace and dignity for all.

In this occasion, to reflect not only on the achievements of the past 60 years, but also on the growing precariousness of the human rights monitored by this Committee across the globe.

As the security risk are becoming more tangible and threatening, As a multi multilateralism itself is being dramatically eroded, as a national budgets are being redirected away from social protection programmes, and as the trajectory of inequality and the extreme concentration of wealth undermine centuries of advances in the human rights conditions, the importance of the Committee's work cannot be overstated.

Right soldier today more than ever, need every mechanism that allows them to express their concerns and empowers them to call for action, not least within this Committee.

It must not relent in calling duty bearers to account for their obligation under this Convention and Covenant.

Madam President, distinguished Members, in this regard, we Chr is committed to building global partnership to advance human rights.

In the coming month, the I Commissioner has launched the Global Alliance for Human Rights, a wide-ranging, long term initiative aimed at putting human rights at the heart of political leadership, public debates and daily life.

The Global Alliance will bring together governments, civil society, youth, artists, scientists, business, philanthropies and the entire United Nations system to defend human rights, inspire collective action and strengthen the global human rights ecosystem.

Its goal is to renew the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to build a world in which responsibility, dignity and justice define the relationship between people and institutions.

We are counting on your support for this transformative initiative.

Together, we can ensure that human rights remain the foundation of peace, security and sustainable developments.

Madam Chair, distinguished Members, while your work has never been more important, the Treaty bodies are facing unprecedented constraints, not scenes.

Since their creation in 2025, more than 30% of meeting time was lost due to the liquidity crisis, which caused a serious drop in the work that could be undertaken, coupled with a continuing decrease in the submissions of State party reports, which has resulted in continuous reductions to the to the resources for the treaty bodies.

Under the resource formula established under the General Assembly resolution 68 to 68, the functioning of the treaty body system as a whole is at stake.

Independently from the liquidity crisis.

This year, we expect the resource system to remain extremely challenging with further cuts to both post and non post resources.

We anticipate a 40% reduction in meeting time this year, which will translate into less work that can be undertaken and, most regrettably, less impact for the people we serve, the right holders.

Unfortunately, the United Nations financial crisis shows no sign of abating.

As of today, there is no confirmation of the second session this year, a situation that affects all treaty bodies.

Moreover, we still have no confirmation of the first session of certain treaty bodies.

We recognise the difficulties this poses not only for the members, but also for all in interlocutors and partners who engage with the Committee, not least state parties, civil society, national human rights institutions and others.

We will share updates as soon as they become available and appreciate your understanding.

In the meantime.

The High Commissioner has consistently warned that if the trend of fewer reports and dwindling resources continues, the system risk reaching a breaking point.

He has called for innovative ideas and solutions, including in connection with the UN8 initiative.

He will certainly discuss his new proposals with the Chairs at their annual meeting in June 2026.

Meanwhile, the Office is doing is utmost to support this Committee and other Treaty bodies, not least by highlighting at every opportunity the direct impact of resources limitation on the human eye protection on the ground.

The messaging has become consistent, although positive results are yet to be seen.

Madam Chair, distinguished Members, I would like to refer to the important achievements of the Committee in adopting the general comments on the environmental dimension of sustainable development.

This milestone in the Committee's work as I highly appreciated the general comments as resonated worldwide and is being used by wide range of stakeholders.

Knowing the long and hard work that went into this general comments, I'm pleased to see that he has been so well received with respect to developments at the Human Right Council.

Of direct relevance to this committee, I would like to highlight that the Council annual full day meeting on the rights of the child scheduled for the 9th of March 2026.

We'll focus on the theme of the High Commissioner's report on children rights in armed conflict.

The Committee might find those discussions useful for his ongoing work on the draft.

General comments on armed, armed conflict and economic, Social and cultural rights.

Regarding the work of the special procedure that this Committee might find relevant to his work, I would like to highlight that the Special Rapporteur on the right to education has released a report entitled Right to education in armed conflict, a human rights imperative.

The Special Rapporteur on Cultural rights recently published a report on artificial intelligence and creativity, which might inform your reflections on the topic.

Moreover, the intergovernmental process for elaborating a new legally binding instruments on the right of older persons is advancing through the open-ended intergovernmental working group established for this purpose.

This is strong hope that the Committee will provide critical substantive input, ensuring that the upcoming Treaty is grounded in established human rights principles and responsive to the live, lived realities of older persons who now accounts for the over 10% of the world's population.

This must be this must not be misunderstood as an issue predominantly affecting wealthier nations.

The reality is that fastest growth in the older population is occurring in developing and under resourced countries where demographic ageing is accelerating in context of limited social protection, wealth system and policy preparedness.

In this way, the Committee's engagement would not only not only strengthen current protections, but also supported development or robust right based policy and legal frameworks that can have a lasting and significant impact on the lives of older persons globally.

We sincerely hope that the Committee will wait in and on what might become the next addition to the corpus of the international human rights law.

Madam Chair, allow me to conclude by wishing you much success at this session.

Despite the constraints, we are pleased that the Committee was able to convene now, enabling it to hold dialogues with four State parties, namely Australia and Georgia, Kenya and Uruguay, and to consider 43 individual communication cases, as well as to follow up on concluding observations and individual communications.

We thank each Member sincerely for your commitment and your hard work, which are even more important in times of uncertainty.

Thank you for your attention.

Thank you Mr Ori for this information and above all for your kind words for our Committee and expressing such confidence in the work of the Committee and its contribution to the continued and heightened protection of economic, social and cultural rights around the world in the face of today's ever more complex challenges and setbacks.

The Committee also welcomes the signature of Andorra on 23rd September 2025 of our Covenant.

Given today's numerous challenges, it is most clear that our work and the work of other treaty bodies is as important as ever in holding up the importance of international law and human rights frameworks as a tool towards peace and sustainable development.

As such, a reminder to state parties and all other relevant stakeholders that the principles of equality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights, as well as their justice ability, must continue to guide their approach to addressing the many challenges which we face worldwide.

I would like to thank the members and all partners of the committee for your cooperation in accommodating our unusual opening session arranged in this manner to maximise our efficiency in the light of the increased financial constraints facing the United Nations.

As we have only a short opening segment, let us continue with our order of Business Today.

I turn to item number one of the provisional agenda and annotations, which is the adoption of the agenda.

Let us quickly review the provisional agenda.

Regarding item number two, we will be discussing the details of our organisation of work throughout our session and in closed meetings.

In the spirit of focusing on our core mandate, we will start with the dialogues as of this afternoon.

Regarding item number 3, the Committee will in particular be focusing on the draft general comment on the application of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in situations of armed conflict, as pointed out by you as well.

Regarding item 4, the Committee will be discussing the follow up reports for Lithuania and Tajikistan in the session.

Regarding item number 5, we are grateful to all the UN partners at the national level who provide support to States in their efforts to follow up to the recommendations of the committee.

Regarding item number six, I would like to confirm that the committee will review the reports of Kenya, Georgia, Uruguay and Australia in that order, and that for Australia and Kenya, the delegations are expected to participate in hybrid modality, namely, there will be delegates participating both in person as well as online.

Regarding item number 7, since our last session, we've received the periodic reports of Thailand, Cameroon and Spain.

The committee thus has 40 reports in all awaiting consideration.

Item number 8, the committee will be adopting the concluding observations on the state parties reviewed in the first two weeks of the session.

The concluding observations will be communicated to the respective permanent missions by Wednesday 25th February and made available publicly on Friday 27th February.

The Committee will also be adopting list of issues regarding Ecuador, Egypt, Kazakhstan and Paraguay.

Regarding item number 9, the Committee will be considering matters related to the Optional Protocol to the Covenant.

It'll cover the proposals of the Working Group on Individual Communications regarding item number 10, amongst other events.

The committee will be holding its annual informal meeting with state parties.

Are there any members who wish to comment on the agenda at this point?

[Other language spoken]

Not seeing any requests for the floor, the agenda is adopted.

Colleagues, in the interest of saving time and focusing on the core mandates of the Committee, we will immediately proceed with the examination of State party reports this afternoon.

You may find the internal programme of work which is available on the extranet.

With this, I would like to announce that the public meeting is adjourned.

The Committee will convene reconvene at 3:00 PM in public to proceed with the dialogue with the delegation of Kenya.

Thank you all.

The meeting is closed.

Opening of the 79th Session, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) - 16 Feb 2026