Committee on the Rights of the Child Opens Ninety-Fifth Session
The Committee on the Rights of the Child this morning opened its ninety-fifth session, during which it will review reports on the efforts of the Republic of the Congo, Bulgaria, Senegal, the Russian Federation, Lithuania and South Africa to adhere to the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Senegal will also present reports under the Optional Protocols to the Convention on children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
In opening remarks, Mahamane Cisse-Gouro, Director of the Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and representative of the Secretary-General, said that although the international community had just commemorated the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, more and more children continued to be killed every day. In too many places around the world, children continued to be badly affected by armed conflict. It was estimated that about one child out of five were now living in or fleeing from conflict zones. These numbers were shocking.
The Committee had had a very busy period since the last session, with launches of general comment 26 on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change in various regions, engagements with COP 28, missions to Thailand and Cambodia, a productive meeting with the Chair and the Rapporteur of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and a follow-up visit to the Pacific. All these activities were crucial as they contributed to bringing the Convention on the Rights of the Child closer to the people, especially children, at national and regional levels.
Last November, members of the Committee had visited the three countries that were reviewed during the extraordinary session which took place in 2020 in Samoa – the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Tuvalu – where they met with children, communities, governments and civil society organizations. They also met with representatives of 12 Pacific Island countries in Samoa for a workshop on the challenges as well as opportunities for strengthening implementation of the Committee’s recommendations. Also, during the workshop in Samoa, the Committee celebrated World Children’s Day through a regional launch of its general comment 26, hearing from children. All had much to learn from children’s contributions.
Mr. Cisse-Gouro said children’s engagement was also a strong element of the Human Rights 75 Initiative, with children participating in various panels to share their work as human rights defenders. As the High Commissioner emphasised at the end of the Human Rights 75 High Level Event, “It is not just about asking them to contribute ideas. They need to contribute to decisions.”
The collective engagement in the process of strengthening treaty bodies had seen further progress in 2023. The resource constraints exacerbated by the protracted liquidity crisis that the Office of the High Commissioner was facing would have a negative impact on the proper functioning of the treaty bodies and risked worsening the "backlog" with, as of 30 November 2023, 364 States party reports awaiting consideration, 1,971 individual communications registered pending consideration, 255 additional unregistered communications awaiting analysis, and 957 actions open emergencies. The High Commissioner's indication to Member States in November that the Office had reached a point where it needed to align its services with existing capacities underscored the urgency for States to provide the essential resources needed to meet these challenges. The decisions taken by States this year on the main pillars of the process of strengthening the treaty bodies would determine the future trajectory of the treaty body system. The process would culminate in the adoption of the biennial General Assembly resolution in December 2024 – hopefully with a robust budget.
Mr. Cisse-Gouro concluded by recalling that the 2024 annual meeting of the Human Rights Council on the rights of the child was scheduled for Thursday, 14 March 2024. It would consist of two panels focusing on the child's right to inclusive social protection, and on the integration of children's rights within the United Nations.
Allegra Franchetti, Secretary of the Committee, said that six reports under the Convention had been received since the last session, bringing the total number of reports pending consideration to 72, while 67 periodic reports were overdue. The total number of ratifications of the Convention remained at 196. Eight States had opted out under the simplified reporting procedure. There were no new ratifications of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; the number of ratifications for the former remained at 173 and for the latter at 178. Three new reports had been received under the Optional Protocol on children and armed conflict and 36 initial reports were overdue, while two new reports had been received under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, bringing the number of overdue initial reports to 48. There was one new ratification of the Optional Protocol on individual communications, that of the Republic of Moldova, bringing the number of ratifications to 51 States.
Ann Skelton, Committee Chair, said the Committee would review the periodic reports of the Republic of the Congo, Bulgaria, Senegal, Russian Federation, Lithuania and South Africa during the session. The Committee was to have reviewed the periodic report of Israel but at the request of the State party, this had been postponed and it would hopefully be reviewed in September.
Ms. Skelton said the Committee would continue its discussion concerning the organisation of its future work and the procedure to be followed in the consideration of reports of States parties and their follow-up. In particular, the Committee would discuss issues related to its methods of work and would continue its discussion on follow-up to the treaty body strengthening process and the 2020 review, including on the working paper on options and guiding questions for the development of an implementation plan for the conclusions adopted by the chairs of the treaty bodies at the thirty-fourth annual meeting of the chairs. As from this session, the Committee would implement its decision to proceed with the simplified reporting procedure as the standard reporting procedure for periodic reports under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and for initial reports under the Optional Protocols on opt-out basis. It would also proceed with its decision to include a new cluster entitled "children's rights and the environment" to be used in the dialogue with States parties and the Committee’s concluding observations.
In conclusion, Ms. Skelton said that the state of children around the world was one that gave cause for deep reflection. The Committee was aware of its role in following the very fragile situation of children around the world and it would continue to make statements on this.
During the meeting, the Committee also heard statements from representatives of the United Nations Children’s Fund and Child Rights Connect.
The ninety-fifth session of the Committee is being held from 15 January to 2 February. Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, while webcasts of the public meetings can be found here. The programme of work of the session and other documents related to the session can be found here.
The Committee will next meet in public at 3 p.m. this afternoon to consider the combined fifth and sixth periodic report of the Republic of the Congo (CRC/C/COG/5-6).
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