COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD OPENS SEVENTY-FIFTH SESSION
The Committee on the Rights of the Child opened its seventy-fifth session this morning, hearing an address by Ibrahim Salama, Chief of the Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Committee swore in new members, elected a new bureau and adopted its agenda and programme of work for the session.
Renate Winter was elected as the new Chairperson. Susanne Aho Assouma, Clarence Nelson, José Angel Rodríguez Reyes and Olga Khazova were elected as Vice-Chairpersons. Bernard Gastaud was elected as Rapporteur.
Ibrahim Salama, Chief of the Human Rights Treaties Branch, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, remarked that around the world 280 children were born every minute; of those, 254 were born in less developed countries and only 26 in more developed ones. Despite improvements in health and education, millions of children still lived in absolute poverty, were stunted and malnourished, out of school or exposed to violence. Governments still had a long way to go to ensure that no child was left behind and the Committee had a crucial role to play in supporting States to improve the daily life of children and advance the realization of their rights, and also by taking stock of the complementarity between the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 2030 Agenda.
The Committee had undertaken many activities with regard to the draft joint General Comment on children in the context of international migration, currently being developed with the Committee on Migrant Workers. A successful multi-stakeholder consultation had taken place in Madrid on 4 and 5 May, and two other regional consultations would be held, one in Bangkok on 24 and 25 May and another in Mexico City on 27 and 28 June, while an expert meeting would be held in Berlin in June. Concerning the Optional Protocol on a communication procedure, Mr. Salama indicated that this procedure was gaining traction and so far, the Committee had received 15 registered communications and 80 which were not yet registered.
Manfred Novak had been appointed the Independent Expert for the Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, said Mr. Salama. Mr. Novak had led an expert meeting on the subject matter in March 2017 and fundraising efforts were ongoing to ensure the funding for the implementation of the Global Study. The Human Rights Council in its March session had dedicated its annual full day meeting on the rights of the child to the protection of the rights of the child in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; next year, the Council would address the topic of children in the context of humanitarian emergencies. An expert meeting on a human rights-based approach to preventing child mortality would be organized by the Council and the World Health Organization on 27 and 28 June in Geneva. Finally, Mr. Salama paid tribute to the outstanding work and endless energy of the outgoing Committee Chair, Benyam Dawit Mezmur, and wished the Committee a productive session.
The following five new members of the Committee made the solemn declaration: Cephas Lumina, Ann Skelton, Mikiko Otani, Luis Pedernera, and Velina Todorova.
Benyam Dawit Mezmur, outgoing Committee Chairperson, took stock of the Committee’s successes over the past two years, among other things in its engagement on the various issues of the increasingly volatile world, including the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, South Sudan and elsewhere, the international migration crisis, the war on terror, and the Ebola and Zika virus epidemics. Mr. Mezmur thanked all the members, the Secretariat and all other individuals who supported the work of the Committee.
The Committee then proceeded with the election of the new Chairperson and members of the bureau in a private meeting.
Renate Winter was elected as the new Chairperson. Susanne Aho Assouma, Clarence Nelson, José Angel Rodríguez Reyes and Olga Khazova were elected as Vice-Chairpersons. Bernard Gastaud was elected as Rapporteur.
The Secretary of the Committee informed that since the end of the previous session, two reports had been received under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and from El Salvador. The total number of ratifications of the Convention remained at 196. The number of ratifications of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict remained at 166, and of the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography at 173. Since the Committee’s seventy-third session, five new States had ratified the Optional Protocol on a communications procedure – Croatia, Liechtenstein, Panama, Paraguay and Switzerland – bringing the total number of ratifications to 34.
During its seventy-fifth session, which will run from 15 May to 2 June, the Committee will review the situation of children’s rights and the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols in the United States, Bhutan, Lebanon, Qatar, Romania, Mongolia, Antigua and Barbuda, and Cameroon. The States’ reports and other documentation can be found on the session’s webpage.
Live webcast of the Committee’s public meetings is available at http://webtv.un.org/
The Committee will next meet in public on Tuesday, 16 May at 10 a.m., to consider the combined third and fourth periodic report of the United States under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC/C/OPSC/USA/3-4), and its combined third and fourth periodic report under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/USA/3-4).
For use of the information media; not an official record
CRC17/015E