COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD OPENS FORTY-SIXTH SESSION

The Committee on the Rights of the Child this morning opened its forty-sixth session and adopted its agenda. Ibrahim Salama, a representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, also addressed the Committee.

In opening remarks, Ibrahim Salama, Chief of the Treaties and Council Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, underscored the relevance and potential added value to the treaty body system of the Universal Periodic Review – the main new element in the Human Rights Council's institution-building, which was supposed to provide a peer review of States' policies in relation to human rights in a global, objective and cooperative manner. That provided an additional tool to follow-up on the Committee's recommendations. In addition, the fact that treaty bodies' input was among the main terms of reference of the review exercise would hopefully enable Member States to address human rights situations on an objective basis and not in a selective or arbitrary manner.

On Committee-specific developments, Mr. Salama said the next workshop on follow-up to the recommendations of the Committee was being convened in Burkina Faso from 6 to 8 November 2007. The Independent Expert for the United Nations Study on Violence against Children had submitted his report to the sixty-second General Assembly, providing information on the dissemination of the Study, as well as on progress made in the initial phase of follow-up. In December 2007, the international community would review progress made towards creating a World Fit for Children, some five years after the 2002 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children. In addition, the 10-year Strategic Review process of the Machel Study on the impact of armed conflict on children would reframe action on children and armed conflict.

As to the Committee's work at its present session, Mr. Salama said during the next three weeks it would consider 12 reports: 1 submitted under the Convention, and 11 under the Optional Protocols. A Day of General Discussion would be held on Friday, 21 September, on the theme of Resources for the Rights of the Child – Responsibility of States, Investments for the Implementation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of Children and International Cooperation. The Committee would also discuss two draft General Comments – on indigenous children and children's participation – as well as its working methods, including a final assessment of the work in two chambers.

Maja Andrijasevic-Boko, the Secretary of the Committee, then updated the Committee on the status of reporting, saying the Committee had received a total of 22 reports since its last session: 12 under the Convention; 4 under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict; and 6 under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. In total, since its inception, the Committee had received 404 reports from States parties – 331 under the Convention, and 73 with regard to the Optional Protocols – and had reviewed 347 of them prior to the present session. Written replies for all nine of the reports by States parties being considered at this session had been received.

At the end of the public meeting, the Chairperson, Yanghee Lee, announced that the new Committee Member Alya Ahmed Bin Saif Al-Thani of Qatar, who would complete the term of the former Expert Ghalia Mohd Bin Hamad Al-Thani, was unable to attend the present session and would be joining the Committee at its next session, in January.

When the Committee reconvenes in public at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 18 September, it is scheduled to take up the initial report of Croatia (CRC/C/OPAC/HRV/1) on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

Statements

IBRAHIM SALAMA, Chief of the Treaties and Council Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), gave an overview of developments that had occurred in relation to the work of the United Nations human rights treaty bodies since the Committee's May session. Most recently, the enhancement of the human rights treaties body system had been discussed in Berlin in the beginning of July 2007 at an informal brainstorming, hosted by the Government of Germany. Discussions there had demonstrated, once again, the need to seek ways and methods for harmonizing the treaty body system and had highlighted the Inter-Committee Meeting as a vehicle to achieve that end. Committee Expert Moushira Khattab had represented the Committee on the Rights of the Child at the meeting, and would provide further information on the brainstorming.

The Universal Periodic Review mechanism was emerging as the main new element in the institution-building of the Human Rights Council, Mr. Salama continued. Its relevance and potential added value to the treaty body system was clear. The Universal Periodic Review was supposed to provide a peer review of States' policies in relation to human rights in a global, objective and cooperative manner. That provided an additional tool to follow-up on the Committee's recommendations. In addition, the fact that treaty bodies' input was among the main terms of reference of the review exercise would hopefully enable Member States to address human rights situations on an objective basis and not in a selective or arbitrary manner.

The issue of effective cooperation between the treaty bodies and the Human Rights Council, particularly with the Universal Periodic Review mechanism, had also been addressed by the nineteenth Meeting of Treaty Bodies' Chairpersons, which had been held in Geneva from 21 to 22 June 2007 immediately after the Inter-Committee Meeting, where the Committee had been represented by the Committee's Chairperson and Members Jean Zermatten and Awich Pollar. The Inter-Committee Meeting had reiterated its view that the concluding observations should form part of the basis of the Universal Periodic Review, while the Chairpersons had been of the opinion that the review presented both a number of opportunities and challenges. They had underlined the complementary and mutually reinforcing nature of the treaty body system and the future of the Universal Periodic Review, and had emphasized the importance of a continuing dialogue on that matter. The Chairpersons had also recommended that all treaty bodies consider developing modalities for enhanced interaction with the Special Procedure mandate holders, including with a view to developing effective approaches to the review, and coordinating country-specific inputs to that mechanism.

At the Inter-Committee Meeting participants had recognized the need to improve and harmonize further the working methods of the human rights treaties bodies, and had considered it appropriate that the Inter-Committee Meeting meet twice a year, with the participation of the Chairpersons of the human rights treaties bodies. They were currently planning to convene an organizational session of the Inter-Committee Meeting to highlight areas requiring harmonization in the first quarter of 2008, Mr. Salama said.

Recently, a note verbale had been sent to all the Permanent Missions, recommending that they approved harmonized guidelines on reporting under the international human rights treaties, including guidelines on a common core document and treaty-specific documents which should be used by States parties when submitting a report to any human rights treaties body. Briefings with States parties to further disseminate those guidelines and clarify issues related to their implementation were being planned. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had already adopted revised reporting guidelines for the CERD-specific document in August 2007, and Mr. Salama encouraged the Committee to consider developing and adopting, as a matter of priority, a Committee-specific document.

Turning to OHCHR activities, Mr. Salama noted that OHCHR had continued to undertake training workshops with a view to strengthening the capacity of key target groups – namely national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations and the media – to support and facilitate the implementation of concluding observations at the national level.

Workshops on the follow-up to concluding observations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child had become an established part of OHCHR's capacity-building activities at the subregional and national levels, by facilitating the implementation of the recommendations of the Committee through the exchange of knowledge, expertise and good practices.

Briefing the Committee on progress in the follow-up to the United Nations Study on Violence against Children, the Independent Expert for the Study, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, had submitted his report to the sixty-second General Assembly, providing information on the dissemination of the Study, as well as on progress made in the initial phase of follow-up. Mr. Salama congratulated the Committee and its members on their efforts to ensure the wide dissemination of the Study, and was very appreciative of the steps they had taken to raise awareness of its recommendations at the national and regional levels. There had been a vibrant and active process of follow-up. Good practices in follow-up included the annual meetings of the Middle East and North Africa Region, which had raised awareness and had addressed thematic issues relating to violence against children in the region. OHCHR would encourage mainstreaming of the Study recommendations into the work of the treaties bodies and special procedures, as well as in their monitoring and reporting on violence against children; would continue to support implementation of the Study's recommendations through the activities of its field presences and the development of planning and policy tools; and would promote research on thematic issues related to violence against children, including through convening expert meetings and seminars and working with existing human rights mechanisms.

Turning to the Committee-specific developments, Mr. Salama noted that, since its last session, Burkina Faso, Jordan and Montenegro had become parties to the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and Venezuela had become a party to the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. As a follow-up to the Committee's day of discussion on the situation of children without parental care, Brazil and a group of friends continued promoting the development of draft United Nations guidelines for the appropriate use and conditions of alternative care for children, to which the Committee had provided substantive input. In December 2007, the international community would review progress made towards creating a World Fit for Children, some five years after the 2002 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children. In addition, the 10-year Strategic Review process of the Machel Study on the impact of armed conflict on children would reframe action on children and armed conflict in view of United Nations reform and changes in the global policy environment.

As to the Committee's work at its present session, during the next three weeks it would consider 12 reports: 1 submitted under the Convention, and 11 under the Optional Protocols. A Day of General Discussion would be held on Friday, 21 September, on the theme "Resources for the Rights of the Child – Responsibility of States", Investments for the Implementation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of Children and International Cooperation. The Committee would also discuss two draft General Comments – on indigenous children and children's participation – as well as its working methods, including a final assessment of the work in two chambers. In conclusion, Mr. Salama noted that the General Assembly had invited the Committee Chairperson to present an oral report on the work of the Committee to the General Assembly at its sixty-second session as a way to enhance communications between the Assembly and the Committee.

Following those remarks, a Committee Expert announced that South Africa would like to host a regional seminar on follow-up to the Committee's recommendations.


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