The Human Rights Council convenes for its 61th session between 23 February and 31 March 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 the right to adequate housing – Guatemala (4 March)
Guatemalans continue to experience profound inequalities in access to land and housing, legal uncertainty over tenure rights, and recurring forced evictions that happen both judicially and extra-judicially. In a joint statement, Franciscans International welcomed a report by the Special Rapporteur raising these realities and their disproportionate impact on Indigenous Peoples and peasant communities. We urged the Council to call on Guatemala to urgently address this situation, including by instituting a moratorium on evictions, addressing structural racism and discrimination against Indigenous People, and guaranteeing judicial independence.
Item 2: General Debate – Madagascar (2 March)
Madagascar new Gouvernement de Refondation, established after a wave of Gen Z-led protests, has announced reforms in to fight corruption, guarantee equal access to public services, and strengthen the rule of low. In this context, the engagement with UN human rights mechanisms is a critical step. In a joint statement, we called on the new government to ensure the effective implementation of recommendations related to climate change, internal migration, the excessive use of preventive detention, and civil society inclusion that were made during Madagascar’s recent Universal Periodic Review.
Thumbnail: UN Photo / Violaine Martin