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

The Committee on the Rights of the Child this afternoon concluded its sixty-fourth session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Sao Tome and Principe, Kuwait, Republic of Moldova, Tuvalu, Lithuania, Paraguay, China, Luxembourg and Monaco. During the past two weeks, the Committee reviewed the reports of China, Kuwait, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Sao Tome and Principe, and Tuvalu, under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It also reviewed 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.

During its opening meeting, the Committee heard an address by Flavia Pansieri, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopted its agenda and programme of work.

Closing the sixty-fourth session, Kirsten Sandberg, Committee Chairperson, read out the Committee’s annual report to the General Assembly before it was adopted. She said that during this session, the Committee had continued its discussion on methods of work, and along with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination of Women had continued to discuss the draft General Comment on harmful practices. The next day of General Discussion would be held in September 2014 during the sixty-seventh session of the Committee on the topic of media and social networks and the rights of the child.

Committee Expert and Rapporteur, Maria Herczog, summarized intersessional activities by the Committee Experts.

The concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Sao Tome and Principe, Kuwait, Republic of Moldova, Tuvalu, Lithuania, Paraguay, China, Luxembourg and Monaco will be available on the Committee’s webpage 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 States 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-fifth session from 13 to 31 January 2014 at the Palais Wilson in Geneva, when the Committee will consider the reports of the Republic of Congo, Germany, Holy See, Portugal, Russian Federation, and Yemen under the Convention; the reports of Germany, Holy See and Portugal under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and the reports of Holy See, Portugal, Russian Federation and Yemen under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CRC13/033E