Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Opens Seventy-Eighth Session

Elects Preeti Saran as New Chairperson

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights today opened its seventy-eighth session in Geneva.  The Committee adopted its agenda and programme of work for the session, during which it is scheduled to review the reports of Chile, Colombia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Netherlands, Russian Federation and Zimbabwe.  It also elected a new Committee Chairperson and three new Vice-Chairpersons. 

Opening the session, Antti Korkeakivi, Chief of the Human Rights Treaties Branch, Human Rights Council and Treaties Mechanisms Division, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said despite the liquidity situation currently facing the United Nations, it was encouraging that the second sessions of all the treaty bodies were taking place this year.  The shortening of the meeting time of the seventy-eighth session was not optimal and had regrettably led to the postponement of the review of one State party.  The Office and the United Nations would continue to do their utmost to ensure the Committee’s work could proceed to the maximum extent possible. 

Since the last session, Albania had become the thirty-first State party to accede to the Optional Protocol.  As the Committee prepared for its final reading of the long-awaited draft general comment on economic, social and cultural rights and the environmental dimension of sustainable development, Mr. Korkeakivi shared some reflections of the High Commissioner on this issue, including excerpts from his speech at the Human Rights Council Annual Panel on the adverse impacts of climate change, where he emphasised the centrality of the Covenant in this regard.  The Committee’s work was also invoked by the International Court of Justice in its landmark Advisory Opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change issued on 23 July 2025.  The decision referenced the Convention’s article 12 and 22 and the Committee’s general comment No 14. 

Mr. Korkeakivi said this year had been particularly challenging for international human rights mechanisms, including treaty bodies. Unfortunately, all indications pointed to a continuation of the difficult financial situation for the foreseeable future. The December 2024 biennial resolution on the treaty body system by the General Assembly invited the treaty bodies and the Office to continue to work on coordination and predictability in the reporting process with the aim of achieving a regularised schedule for reporting and to increase their efforts to further use digital technologies. Regrettably, the General Assembly did not endorse the detailed proposals presented in the context of the strengthening process or the corresponding resources to implement them. 

In June, the Chairpersons of the Treaty Bodies held their annual meeting, this time in Geneva, dominated by the liquidity situation, which, the Chairpersons concluded, was a symptom of a deeper crisis gripping the multilateral system.  The Chairpersons also reviewed the status of implementation of the conclusions of their previous meetings and welcomed the working methods that had already been aligned, including in relation to individual communications procedures.  The Office would continue to work alongside the Chairspersons and all the treaty body experts to support the treaty body system as efficiently and effectively as possible.

The Committee had a heavy programme for the next three weeks.  It would consider six State parties under the Covenant: Chile, Colombia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation and Zimbabwe.  It would also adopt lists of issues for Eswatini, Germany, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova and Tunisia, and consider the follow up reports of El Salvador and Luxembourg, and examine individual communications submitted under the Optional Protocol.  In addition, the Committee would examine and hopefully adopt the draft general comment referred to earlier on economic, social and cultural rights and the environmental dimension of sustainable development.  Mr. Korkeakivi commended all Committee members for their efforts and paid tribute to the members of the outgoing Bureau. 

Following the opening statement, the Committee elected new bureau members in a closed session. Wan-Hea Lee, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, announced that the Committee had elected Preeti Saran as Committee Chairperson, as well as three Vice-Chairpersons: Asraf Caunhye, Nadir Adilov, and Giuseppe Palmisano.  Ms. Lee congratulated the new members of the Bureau and invited the new Chairperson to preside over the Committee session.

Preeti Saran, Committee Chairperson, said it was an honour and privilege to assume the role of Chairperson of the Committee.  Ms. Saran thanked the outgoing bureau, including the former Committee Chairperson. She said that since the last session, the Committee had received the periodic reports of the Central African Republic, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Gabon, Togo, Norway and Ethiopia, as well as the initial reports of Somalia and Côte d’Ivoire.  There was a significant number of long overdue reports, including 30 which were overdue more than 10 years, which impeded the Committee’s ability to fulfil their mandate.  Ms. Saran urged States parties to submit their reports expeditiously in accordance with the usual procedure, until the simplified reporting procedure was introduced. 

During this session, the Committee would be adopting concluding observations based on the consideration of the reports of and dialogues with the six States parties. The concluding observations would be publicly released on Monday, 29 September, following the end of the session. The Committee would also adopt lists of issues regarding Eswatini, Germany, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova and Tunisia.  The Committee would consider matters related to the Optional Protocol to the Covenant, namely the Working Group's proposals regarding individual communications, and would consider 18 individual communications submitted under the Optional Protocol concerning Argentina, Spain and Uruguay. 

Several Committee members took the floor to congratulate the new Chairperson and members of the bureau and conveyed gratitude to the previous Committee Chairperson. 

The Committee’s seventy-eighth session is being held until 26 September 2025.  All documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage.  Webcasts of the meetings of the session can be found here, and meetings summaries can be found here.

The Committee will next meet in public at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, 8 September, to begin its consideration of the second periodic report of the Russian Federation (E/C.12/RUS/7).

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