COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD OPENS SEVENTY-NINTH SESSION
The Committee on the Rights of the Child opened its seventy-ninth session this morning, hearing from Orest Nowosad, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section of the Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanism Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopting its agenda and programme of work for the session.
Mr. Nowosad said that tragically, children continued to be left behind and be the target of many violations. The 2018 report on food security highlighted the fact that, for the third consecutive year, the number of hungry people in the world increased, especially children, and that more than half a million children in conflict zones could die of malnutrition by the end of the year, if not helped. But everything was not negative in the field of children’s rights, he stressed; with the Convention on the Rights of the Child entering its thirtieth year, children were increasingly aware of their rights, acting as agents of change, while the United Nations Youth Strategy would be launched in New York the following week.
The Committee then adopted its agenda and programme of work.
A representative of the Secretariat said that since its last session, the Committee had received six reports – all of them under the Convention - bringing the number of reports pending consideration to 43. The number of ratifications of the Convention on the Rights of the Child remained at 196, and with no new ratifications of the two Optional Protocols - on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography – the number of States parties was 167 and 174, respectively. Two new States - Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia – ratified the Optional Protocol on a communication procedure, which now had 39 ratifications.
In her opening remarks, Renate Winter, Committee Chairperson, said that during the session, the Committee would consider four reports submitted under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, namely El Salvador, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mauritania, and Niger. It would also review the reports of Benin, Niger and Saudi Arabia under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and the reports of Benin and Saudi Arabia under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. The Day of General Discussion on the theme of “Protecting and Empowering Children as Human Rights Defenders” would be held on 28 September in Room 17 at the Palais des Nations, she said, and the Committee would continue to update its General Comment N°10 on children’s rights in juvenile justice.
The Committee heard statements from representatives of the International Labour Organization, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Children’s Fund, World Health Organization, and Child Rights Connect.
The seventy-ninth session of the Committee will run from 17 September to 5 October 2018. All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage. The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings will be available via the following link: http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/.
The Committee will next meet at 3 p.m. today, 17 September, to start its consideration of the combined third to fifth reports of Mauritania under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC/C/MRT/3-5).
Statements
OREST NOWOSAD, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section of the Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanism Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, greeted the Committee on behalf of Michelle Bachelet, new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and said that tragically, children continued to be left behind and be the target of many violations. The 2018 report on food security highlighted the fact that, for the third consecutive year, the number of people in the world who were hungry increased, especially for children. More than half a million children in conflict zones could die of malnutrition by the end of 2018, if not helped.
But everything was not negative in the field of children’s rights - with the Convention on the Rights of the Child entering its thirtieth year, children were increasingly aware of their rights. Children would participate in this Committee’s Day of General Discussion on 28 September, which would be a starting point for the protection and empowerment of children as human rights defenders, while the United Nations Youth Strategy would be launched in New York the following week, stressed Mr. Nowosad. “There have never been so many teenagers and young people in the world than today; they are agents of change, but are also those most affected by climate change and conflict”, he added, noting with satisfaction that their engagement in the context of the United Nations was becoming more prominent.
Turning to the annual meeting of the Chairs of the human rights treaty bodies that had taken place in June 2018 in New York, Mr. Nowosad said that the Chairs had, inter alia, agreed to a common approach to follow-up to concluding observations. The Secretary-General’s report on the treaty body strengthening process, available online, highlighted that the adjustments to the Committees’ meeting time had not been matched by the increase in staff in relation to the reviews of the report, analysis of individual communications, or in situ visits. It was becoming harder for the staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to assist Committee Experts to fulfil their mandates, and by extension, impeded the ability of the United Nations to support States in meeting their human rights commitments, Mr. Nowosad deplored.
BEATE ANDRES, International Labour Organization, said that nowadays some 152 million children were still in child labour; of those, 73 million were in hazardous work, 71 percent of the children worked in agriculture, and 69 percent were engaged in family labour, mostly unpaid. A considerable progress had been made in the fight against child labour, she said, with a 38 percent decline in number of children in labour from 2002 to 2016. There was no time for complacency, Ms. Andres stressed, considering that at the current pace the Sustainable Development Goals target of eliminating all forms of child labour by 2025 would not be met. Of particular concern was the age group of five to 11, where progress had virtually come to a stop. The Buenos Aires Declaration laid out key policy measures in achieving the goal of sustained eradication of child labour, she stressed, while the Alliance 8.7, working on achieving the 8.7 target of the Sustainable Development Goal N°8 – included a diversity of partners with a strong commitment to reaching across borders and meeting the challenges together.
MARCELO DAHER, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in his update to the Committee on the child rights activities of the Office, said that the Annual Full Day Meeting of the Human Rights Council on the rights of the child in March 2019 would focus on empowering children with disabilities for the enjoyment of their human rights, particularly through inclusive education. The Office had recently submitted thematic reports to the Council on the prevention of new-born mortality and on realizing the right to birth registration for children most at risk. The Office was asked by the Council to provide child rights input to the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda 2019 review, and would focus on Sustainable Development Goals of particular importance to children: education, inequality and climate change; economic growth with a target to end child labour; and on ending all forms of violence against children. The human rights challenges faced by the young people were being raised as an increasing priority at the Council and within the United Nations system. In addition, the Office continued to support the development of a Global Study on Children Deprived of their Liberty, which was on track to be concluded and presented to the United Nations General Assembly during its 74th session in October 2019.
ANNE GRANDJEAN, United Nations Children’s Fund, explained the ongoing work on revising some of the internal online guidance for the reporting to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, including strengthening linkages with reporting for the Sustainable Development Goals; making increased use of the rich data generated by the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism under the Security Council Resolution 1612; and beefing up the reporting on issues impacting a range of child rights such as climate change and migration. Additionally, United Nations Children’s Fund would promote the active participation of children with disabilities ahead of the Annual Day and in the Annual Day itself. Finally, Ms. Grandjean said, United Nations Children’s Fund was working with Member States on the call for a world summit for children in 2019, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, explicitly link it to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and seek a renewed commitment to the Convention of the world’s leaders.
MARCUS STALHOFER, World Health Organization, welcomed the priority that the Human Rights Council accorded to the health and development of newborns, noting that millions of children under the age of five died each year due to preventable reasons, and this constituted a clear violation of children’s rights. Stressing the critical importance of early childhood development, Mr. Stalhoffer said that nearly 250 million children were still at risk of not developing completely and not achieving their full potential. That was why the World Health Organization, in partnership with others, had developed a new nurturing care framework, centred on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and was working to facilitate equitable access for all to early childhood programs. It had also launched new international standards to improve the quality of care for mothers and newborns, as well as for the pediatric care. The reduction of environmental risks for children should prevent 600 thousand deaths that were due to air pollution in particular, he said, adding that in this area, the focus was on reducing burden of childhood diseases in urban areas. A conference organized by the World Health Organization would soon be held on the impact of air pollution on children's health. In 2016, a framework had been adopted to remove obstacles in access to health services by adolescents, while a package of health interventions was being developed to support the countries in improving the health outcome for children with disabilities.
BEATRICE SHULTER, Child Rights Connect, stressed that children’s views and participation were an invaluable resource and of crucial importance in improving children’s human rights. A Global Children’s Advisory Team, consisting of 21 child representatives from all regions of the world, had conducted worldwide consultations involving more than 2,500 children from 53 countries, to inform the Day of General Discussion, she said, noting that the child-friendly format of the outcomes was available on the Child Rights Connect website. There were plans, Ms. Shulter continued, to institutionalize the Team as the permanent body of the Organization’s global network to continue to empower the children and facilitate their participation in the work of the Committee. Children’s perspective was crucial in any human rights discourse, she stressed, thus the Child Rights Connect was looking forward to the collaboration in run-up to the 2019 Annual Day of Discussion on the Rights of the Child.
For use of the information media; not an official record
CRC18.022E