COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD CONCLUDES SIXTY-THIRD SESSION

The Committee on the Rights of the Child today concluded its sixty-third session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports presented by Israel, Slovenia, and Guinea-Bissau under the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and on the reports of Armenia, Rwanda and Uzbekistan under the provisions of the Convention and its Optional Protocols.

During its opening meeting, the Committee heard an address by Wan-Hea Lee, Chief of the Groups in Focus Section, Human Rights Treaties Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopted its agenda. The Committee also elected a new bureau with Kirsten Sandberg of Norway as its new Chairperson.

Kirsten Sandberg, the Committee’s Chairperson, in concluding remarks at the end of the session, highlighted the Committee’s ongoing dialogue and cooperation with other United Nations bodies. The Committee had continued with its discussion on working methods and, given that a number of general comments had been recently drafted, this area had not been prioritised during the current session. The reports and concluding observations on the country reports under review had been adopted unanimously.

Maria Herzog, Committee Rapporteur, updated the Committee about recent activities carried out by its members, among others, the annual meeting of Chairpersons’ of treaty bodies and the launch of the handbook for the implementation of Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. During the current session, the Committee had interacted with representatives of non-governmental organizations and students and, in closed meetings, heard briefings on recent developments related to human rights and the rights of children.

The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations will be available on the Committee’s webpage at the following link next week.

The Committee is a body of independent experts formed in 1991 to monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by its State parties. The Convention gives a comprehensive collection of children's rights the force of international law. The Committee also monitors implementation of two Optional Protocols to the Convention: on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. A third Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 19 December 2011. It will allow individual children to submit complaints about specific violations of their human rights under the Convention and its first two Optional Protocols. The Protocol opened for signature on 28 February 2012 and will enter into force upon ratification by 10 United Nations Member States.

The Committee will hold its sixty-fourth session from 16 September to 4 October 2013 to review the reports of China, Kuwait, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Sao Tome and Principe, and Tuvalu, under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee will also review the reports of the Republic of Moldova and Paraguay under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and the reports of China and Paraguay under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CRC13/20E