COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD OPENS FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION

The Committee on the Rights of the Child this morning opened its fifty-eighth session, hearing an address by Carla Endelenbos, Chief of the Petitions and Inquiries Section of the Human Rights Treaties Division of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on behalf of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Committee also adopted its agenda.

Carla Endelenbos, Chief of the Petitions and Inquiries Section of the Human Rights Treaties Division of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on behalf of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that during the session the Committee would again make their important contribution toward helping to ensure that all children were able to enjoy their rights, focusing specifically on seven States parties. The session was also important because it was the Committee’s last session before the High Commissioner summed up the results of two years of consultations with all stakeholders, with a report presenting her proposals for treaty body strengthening.

Ms. Endelenbos welcomed the draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was established to elaborate a communications procedure - children would finally be able to bring complaints to the treaty body. She mentioned two other important evolutions; the new Resolution expressing grave concern about discrimination against persons on the grounds of sexual orientation, and the creation of the new treaty body that would monitor the application of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

In regard to child-specific activities, Ms. Endelenbos mentioned several events such as the expert meeting on the legal framework required to prohibit, prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children that took place in July 2011; the meeting on “promoting and protecting the rights of children living and/or working on the street: bridging the gap between policy and practice”, that would take place in November 2011; as well as the expert meeting on violence in the Juvenile Justice system that would take place in Vienna in January 2012.
Jean Zermatten, the Committee Chairperson, said that during the session seven States parties’ reports would be examined: six on the Convention (Italy, Republic of Korea, Syria, Iceland, Panama and Seychelles) as well as the initial report of Sweden under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. There would also be a General Comment on article 31, the right to play, and on article 24, the right to health; and the Day of General Discussion would be dedicated to children with incarcerated parents.


The Committee will reconvene in public on Tuesday, 20 September at 10 a.m. when it will begin its review of reports by States parties with the consideration of the combined third and fourth reports of Italy.

Statements

JEAN ZERMATTEN, the Committee Chairperson, said that the Committee last met in June and since then, many countries had seen drastic change. It was in that climate of insecurity that the Committee now had to work.

CARLA ENDELENBOS, Chief of the Petitions and Inquiries Section of the Human Rights Treaties Division of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on behalf of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the session would be another in which the Committee would make their important contribution toward helping to ensure that all children are able to enjoy their rights, focusing specifically on seven States parties. This session was also important because it was the Committee’s last session before the High Commissioner summed up the results of two years of consultations with all stakeholders with a report presenting her proposals for treaty body strengthening.

Ms. Endelenbos dealt with the growth of the treaty body system, specifically concerning the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Following the adoption by the Human Rights Council during its seventeenth session of the draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, established to elaborate a communications procedure, the draft optional protocol would now go before the General Assembly for approval during its sixty-sixth session. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was confident that children would finally join the ranks of fully-fledged rights-holders empowered to bring complaints about violations of their rights to an international body.

During that same session the Human Rights Council also adopted, for the first time, a Resolution expressing grave concern about acts of violence and discrimination against persons on the grounds of their sexual orientation and identity. In addition, the Committee on Forced Disappearances was created. The first meeting of the States parties to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance took place on 31 May 2011. The long-awaited Committee on Enforced Disappearances would hold its first session in November of this year. It would be the tenth human rights treaty monitoring body.

The process of treaty body strengthening was advancing. There were many messages coming out of these consultations. Civil society organizations were calling for the strengthening of the system. One key demand was that all treaty bodies aligned their functioning procedures, and national human rights institutions made the same remarks. The key messages of states, who also lend moral support to strengthening the treaty bodies, was clearly one of austerity and self-discipline, particularly in respect of the so-called “non-mandated activities” undertaken by nearly all treaty bodies, such as follow-up procedures, and the development of general comments.

With respect to Secretariat support, at the Sion meeting they learned for the first time the full resource requirements for the preparation of the documentation needed by the treaty bodies. Two documents on the growth of the treaty body system and resource implications were prepared for the Sion consultation by The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. They were prepared at the repeated request of State parties, who were continuously confronted with ad-hoc requests for additional resources by individual treaty bodies, among them the request of the Committee for a double-chamber session each year on a permanent basis.

The Inter-Committee Meeting, held on 27-29 June 2011, focused on enhancing the effectiveness of the treaty bodies, in particular by reinforcing coordination on the structure of the constructive dialogue with State parties; the structure and length of concluding observations; and interaction with stakeholders, in particular national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations. The decision was taken to replace the Inter-Committee Meeting with other meetings involving all concerned treaty bodies, to be convened as deemed necessary to deliberate on issues of common interest.
The Chairpersons also decided to engage in a drafting process of guidelines on the independence and expertise of members of treaty bodies and to hold their next meeting (June 2012) in the African continent in order, among others, to interact with the regional mechanisms and other actors.

In regard to child-specific activities, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the non-governmental organizations Advisory Council for the follow-up to the United Nations Study on Violence against Children organised an expert meeting on the legal framework required to prohibit, prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children. It took place in Geneva in the first week of July 2011. The expert meeting led to the formulation of a number of practical recommendations to accelerate the adoption of effective legislation to protect all children from violence. Such recommendations were presented in the Special Representative of the Secretary General’s report to the General Assembly.

Also, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was organising a meeting “on promoting and protecting the rights of children living and/ or working on the street: bridging the gap between policy and practice”. It would take place on 1-2 November 2011 in Geneva.

An expert meeting on violence in the Juvenile Justice system would also take place in Vienna in January 2012, to be organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence Against Children.

A positive measure regarding the children affected by armed conflict was the unanimous adoption by the Security Council, during its annual Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict on 12 July 2011, of a resolution expanding the criteria for listing parties who recruit or use children, kill and/or maim children, or commit sexual violence, to now also include parties who attack schools and hospitals.
Concerning Secretariat support, a more dramatic reduction than had been anticipated was now foreseen in the budget of the United Nations Secretariat.

JEAN ZERMATTEN, Committee Chairperson, noted that the Committee had quite a tight schedule and that the official time allotted was rather limited. He welcomed all the concerned actors present and hoped that there would still be a dialogue with them, although the schedule was busy. During this session, seven States parties’ reports would be examined; six on the Convention (Italy, Republic of Korea, Syrian Arab Republic, Iceland, Panama and Seychelles) as well as the initial report of Sweden under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. There would also be a General Comment on article 31, the right to play, and on article 24, the right to health.

Regarding the next sessions, the Chair commented that a lot of events were already on the calendar. Also, the new resolution on discrimination according to sexual orientation provided for a lot of discussion. The 30 September 2011 would be the day of General Discussion and would be dedicated to children with incarcerated parents.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CRC11/024E