Committee on the Rights of the Child Concludes Ninetieth Session after Adopting Concluding Observations on Greece, Iceland, Cambodia, Somalia, Cuba, Djibouti, Cyprus, Canada, Kiribati, Croatia, Zambia and Chile

The Committee on the Rights of the Child this afternoon concluded its ninetieth session after adopting concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Greece, Iceland, Cambodia, Somalia, Cuba, Djibouti, Cyprus, Canada, Kiribati, Croatia, Zambia and Chile. The concluding observations and recommendations will be available on the webpage of the session on Thursday, 9 June 2022.

Hynd Ayoubi Idrissi, Committee Vice-Chair, said that as of 3 June, 196 States were parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child; 172 States had ratified the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict; 178 had ratified the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and 48 had ratified the Optional Protocol on a communications procedure.

Regarding individual communications, Ms. Ayoubi Idrissi said the Committee had adopted decisions in seven cases. It had found violations of the Convention in four cases, including one case against Chile concerning child abduction, one case against Georgia concerning corporal punishment in a kindergarten, and two cases against Denmark concerning forced return of children to Somalia and India, respectively. The Committee also discontinued three cases, including two against Spain concerning the determination of the age of unaccompanied migrant children, and one against Slovakia concerning the return of a family of Afghan asylum seekers to the Netherlands.

The Committee also adopted its report on follow-up to views. It had assessed the measures taken by States parties to implement the Committee's views on seven cases against Spain on the determination of the age of unaccompanied migrant children, one case against Finland on the return of a child at risk of discrimination to the Russian Federation, and one case against Switzerland on the expulsion of Azerbaijani children to Italy. The Committee decided to keep all these cases open under the follow-up procedure.

As part of the treaty body strengthening process, the Committee adopted its working methods on inquiries, and considered ways of addressing its backlog of reports, which currently stood at 78. The Committee also continued its work on the draft general comment 26 on children’s rights and the environment, with a special focus on climate change.

Faith Marshall-Harris, Committee Vice-Chair and Rapporteur, presented a report on the activities of the members of the Committee during this session and in the inter-sessional period.

The Committee will hold its ninety-first session from 29 August to 23 September 2022, when it is scheduled to review the reports of Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Germany, Kuwait, North Macedonia, Philippines, South Sudan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam.

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