Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Seventy-ninth session

Summary record (partial)* of the 1st meeting

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Monday, 9 February 2026, at 10 a.m.

Chair:Ms. Saran

Contents

Opening of the session

Statement by the representative of the Secretary-General

Adoption of the agenda

The discussion covered in the summary record began at 12.40 p.m.

Opening of the session

The Chair declared open the seventy-ninth session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

She said that, in the light of numerous contemporary challenges, the work of the Committee and other treaty bodies remained vital to efforts to uphold international law and human rights frameworks as tools for achieving peace and sustainable development. States Parties and all other relevant stakeholders must continue to be guided by the principles of equality, indivisibility, interdependence, interrelatedness and justiciability of all human rights.

She welcomed the signature of the Covenant, on 23 September 2025, by Andorra.

Statement by the representative of the Secretary-General

Mr. Ori (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)) said that the sixtieth anniversary of the Covenant, which would be marked in 2026, provided an opportunity for reflection on the growing precariousness of the rights monitored by the Committee. Against the backdrop of increasingly tangible security threats, the dramatic erosion of multilateralism and the extreme concentration of wealth, the importance of the Committee’s work could not be overstated. The Committee must continue to call duty bearers to account with respect to their obligations under the Covenant.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) remained committed to building global partnerships to advance human rights. The High Commissioner would soon launch the Global Alliance for Human Rights, which would bring together governments, civil society, young people, artists, scientists, businesses, philanthropists and the United Nations system to defend human rights, inspire collective action and strengthen the global human rights ecosystem, with the aim of renewing the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, putting human rights at the heart of political leadership, public debate and daily life and building a world in which the relationships between people and institutions were defined by responsibility, dignity and justice.

The treaty bodies were facing constraints never before seen in their history. In 2025, more than 30% of meeting time had been lost owing to the liquidity crisis, with further reductions expected in 2026, meaning that less work could be completed and less impact achieved for rights holders. The crisis showed no sign of abating: the Committee’s second session for 2026 had not yet been confirmed, while other treaty bodies were still awaiting confirmation of their first session of the year. The High Commissioner had consistently warned that the treaty body system would reach breaking point if the trend towards the submission of fewer reports and the dwindling of resources continued. He had called for innovative solutions, including as part of the UN80 Initiative, and proposals would be discussed at the annual meeting of the Chairs of the human rights treaty bodies in June 2026.

The programme of the sixty-first session of the Human Rights Council included a number of activities of relevance to the Committee’s work, in particular the Council’s annual meeting on the rights of the child, which would focus on the theme of children’s rights in armed conflict and could feed into the Committee’s discussion of its draft general comment on armed conflict and economic, social and cultural rights. Work on the elaboration of a new legally binding instrument on the rights of older persons was advancing thanks to the efforts of the intergovernmental working group that had been established for that purpose. The Committee’s input would be critical in ensuring that the future instrument was grounded in established human rights principles and responsive to the lived realities of older persons, who now accounted for more than 10% of the world’s population, with the fastest growth occurring in developing and underresourced countries where social protections, health systems and relevant policies were limited.

The Committee’s adoption, in September 2025, of its general comment No. 27 on the environmental dimension of sustainable development had been very well received, and the general comment was already being used by a wide range of stakeholders.

Adoption of the agenda ( E/C.12/79/1 )

The agenda was adopted.

The meeting rose at 12.55 p.m.