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

The Committee on the Rights of the Child this afternoon closed its eighty-third session after adopting concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Austria, Belarus, Costa Rica, Hungary, Rwanda and the State of Palestine under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Luis Ernesto Pedernera Reyna, Committee Chairperson, said that there were now 196 States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child; 170 States had ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict; 176 States had ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and 46 States had ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol on a communications procedure.

The Committee had considered nine individual communications and had found violations in four, three against Spain and one against Paraguay. It had found that three cases were inadmissible - Germany, Finland and Panama - and had discontinued two, a case against Denmark and a case against Georgia.

The Committee had adopted Guidelines on Intervention by Third Parties and had continued its debate on the 2020 review of the treaty bodies strengthening process. It had continued the work on the next general comment on the rights of the child in the digital environment and on the organization of the day of general discussion in September 2020, which would focus on children in alternative care.

During the session, the Committee had held its seventh biannual meeting with the regional offices of the United Nations Children’s Fund and had signed a framework of cooperation with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence in conflict.

Amal Salman Aldoseri, Committee Rapporteur, spoke about activities held by Committee Experts during the intersessional period, as well as private meetings the Committee had held with different stakeholders during the session.

The Committee held its eighty-third session from 20 January to 7 February.

The concluding observations and recommendations on the reports reviewed during the session will be available on Thursday, 13 February on the session’s webpage, where other documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found.

The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings can be accessed at http://webtv.un.org/.

The eighty-fourth extraordinary session of the Committee will be held from 2 to 6 March in Apia, the capital of Samoa, during which the Committee will consider the reports of the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Tuvalu.

The Committee will hold its eighty-fifth session from 11 to 29 May in Geneva, when it will review the reports of Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Eswatini and Tunisia.


For use of the information media; not an official record


CRC20.009E