Committee on the Rights of the Child Closes Ninety-Ninth Session after Adopting Concluding Observations on Reports of Brazil, Indonesia, Iraq, Norway, Qatar and Romania
The Committee on the Rights of the Child this afternoon closed its ninety-ninth session after adopting its concluding observations on the reports of Brazil, Indonesia, Iraq, Norway, Qatar and Romania under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the report on Brazil’s efforts to implement the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
The concluding observations will be available on the webpage of the session on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday, 5 June 2025.
Presenting the report of the session, Sophie Kiladze, Committee Chairperson, said there had been a lot of improvements regarding the realisation of child rights in certain countries. However, after more than 35 years of entry into force of the Convention, the child rights situation was still very alarming in many States parties. Millions of children were victims of armed conflicts in many different parts of the world. The armed conflicts were taking their lives or lives of their parents and family members, leaving them in unimaginable sorrow for the whole of their lives. Many who survived were living in camps under deteriorating conditions. Millions of children were living in poverty, without access to education, health and digital environment, among others. The list was very long and many hours would not be enough to express the suffering of these children.
Ms. Kiladze said the United Nations was undergoing a huge liquidity crisis, which was affecting the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which had to work without knowing whether next sessions would be held. She asked the Secretary-General
and all relevant States parties to ensure that the Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as other treaty bodies, continued their work. She said the Committee regretted the cancellation of the pre-sessional working group, expected to be held during the week following the end of the session, because of the liquidity situation.
Under the Optional Protocol on a communication procedure, the Committee adopted decisions on eight individual communications on the following issues: children in the context of migration, access to school during the COVID pandemic, and parental contact with children.
The Committee found no violation of the Convention in one case against Switzerland. It found three communications inadmissible in a case against Italy and two cases against Switzerland. It also discontinued the consideration of four cases against Finland and Switzerland after they had become moot. The Committee was satisfied that these discontinuances followed the positive resolution of these four cases. The Committee also discussed inquiries under article 13 of the Optional Protocol. It was currently dealing with four inquiries.
Also during the session, the Committee discussed amendments to its rules of procedure and working methods. It continued its discussion on follow-up to the treaty body strengthening process in the context of the United Nations liquidity crisis. It also continued its work on the next general comment no. 27 on children’s rights to access to justice and to an effective remedy.
The Committee continued its work on trends of the modern world regarding child rights, including artificial intelligence, and discussed a draft joint statement on artificial intelligence and child rights. Nine international organizations were co-signatories of the statement, co-led by the International Telecommunication Union and the United Nations Children’s Fund.
The Committee then adopted the report of the session.
On the first day of the session, which was held from 12 to 30 May, Ms. Kiladze (Georgia) was elected as Chair and Cephas Lumina (Zambia), Thuwayba Al Barwani (Oman), Philip D. Jaffe (Switzerland), and Mary Beloff (Argentina) were elected as Vice-Chairs.
The Committee also welcomed four new members - Timothy. P.T. Ekesa (Kenya), Mariana Ianachevici (Republic of Moldova), Juliana Scerri Ferrante (Malta), and Zeinebou Taleb Moussa (Mauritania) – and welcomed back Mr. Lumina, who previously served as a member from 2017 to 2021. They made their solemn declaration.
Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, and webcasts of the public meetings can be found here. The programme of work of the Committee’s ninety-ninth session and other documents related to the session can be found here.
The Committee is expected to hold its one hundredth session in September 2025. However, this session is currently pending confirmation because of the liquidity situation.
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