The Human Rights Council convened for its 62nd session between 16 June and 8 July 2026. You can find all our statements delivered during this session below as they become available. Our past advocacy interventions are available here.
Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on internally displaced persons – Indonesia & Mozambique (25 June)
Franciscans in West Papua and northern Mozambique work to support people displaced by ongoing violent conflicts. In both cases, internally displaced persons lack access to basic necessities, a situation that disproportionally affects women and children and exacerbates the risk of gender-based violence. Remarking on the widespread impunity that defines these situations, Franciscans International raised them as an example of the urgent need for State and non-State actors to address situations of protracted displacement, protect civilians, and ensure independent monitoring and humanitarian access.
Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on migrants – Externalization (22 June)
A growing trend of externalizing borders is weakening accountability and access to protection for migrants. In a joint statement by Caritas Internationalis, we expressed particular alarm over proposals for so-called “return hubs” in third countries that risk outsourcing the responsibilities of States under international human rights and refugee law. Invoking the words of Pope Leo XIV that “human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border,” we urged all States to reject a “return at all costs” approach to migration.
Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Climate Change – Food systems (19 June)
With the largest 1% of food businesses controlling over 70% of global farmlands, we are witnessing a concentration of corporate power that drives land grabbing, weakens food sovereignty, and erodes democratic oversight. Moreover, the deepening dependence of agribusiness on fossil fuels hinders climate action and perpetuates human rights harm. Stressing that a just transformation of food systems requires dismantling corporate dominance and redistributing power and resources toward rights-holders, we called on UN Member states to support a robust UN Treaty on business and human rights when negotiations continue in October 2026.
Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on climate change – Fossil fuels (19 June)
In a joint statement by the Geneva Interfaith Forum on Climate Change, Environment, and Human Rights (GIF) we emphasized that food systems cannot be viewed separately from the fossil fuel economy. As such, an integrated vision – addressing pesticides, fertilizers, plastics, and corporate power concentration – is a moral imperative to protect both people and the planet. We called on all States to phase out subsidies to large-scale food businesses, protect Indigenous Peoples and peasants as stewards of a safe climate, and to ensure that the transformation of food systems leaves no one behind.
Thumbnail: UN Photo / Elma Okic