Committee on the Rights of the Child Closes Ninety-Second Session after Adopting Concluding Observations on Reports of Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Ireland, Mauritius, New Zealand, Oman and Sweden

The Committee on the Rights of the Child this afternoon concluded its ninety-second session after adopting concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Ireland, Mauritius, New Zealand, Oman and Sweden. The concluding observations will be available on the session’s webpage on Thursday, 9 February 2023.

Mikiko Otani, Committee Chairperson, said that as of 3 February, there were 196 States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 172 States parties to the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, 178 States parties to the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and 50 States parties to the Optional Protocol on the communications procedure.

Ms. Otani said the Committee had reviewed the reports of Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Ireland, Mauritius, New Zealand, Oman and Sweden, for which concluding observations were formally adopted.

On individual communications, Ms. Otani said the Committee had adopted decisions in eight cases. It had found violations of the Convention in a case against France concerning an unaccompanied migrant child who was subjected to age determination tests and denied access to accommodation, education and other social services. The Committee had also examined two cases against Switzerland concerning deportations to Georgia and Austria respectively, but found no violations of the Convention. The Committee had also declared a case against Chile admissible, which concerned the return of a child from Chile to Switzerland. The Committee had discontinued four cases, two against Spain and two against Switzerland, respectively.

In the context of the outcome of the treaty body strengthening process adopted by the General Assembly, the Committee adopted two important decisions during the present session. First, the Committee decided to apply the opt-out simplified reporting procedure to the initial reports under two Optional Protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Secondly, the opt-out simplified reporting procedure under the Convention and the two Optional Protocols would start to be implemented from 1 January 2024. States parties were required to inform the Secretariat if they wished to opt-out by 30 September 2024.

Ms. Otani said the Committee also continued its work on drafting general comment 26 on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change, holding an online meeting with the Children Advisory Team during the session.

The Committee then adopted the report of its ninety-second session.

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

Three departing members who were concluding their terms, Jose Rodriguez Reyes, Clarence Nelson and Gehad Madi, then took the floor to bid farewell to the Committee. Velina Todorova also took the floor to thank the Chair of the Committee.

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 Committee’s ninety-second session and other documents related to the session can be found here.

The Committee will hold its ninety-third session from 8 to 26 May 2023, when it is scheduled to review the reports of Albania, Finland, France, Jordan, Sao Tome and Principe, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom.

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