[child-rights] CRC 36th session: Committee opens 36th session

UNITED NATIONS
Press Release

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xxxxxxxxxxCOMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD
OPENS THIRTY-SIXTH SESSION
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17 May 2004

Hears Statement by Representative of Secretary-General

The Committee on the Rights of the Child, this morning, began its
thirty-sixth session at the Palais Wilson in Geneva by adopting its
agenda and programme of work and hearing a statement by a
Representative of the Secretary-General.

Jane Connors, a Representative of the Secretary-General, told the
Committee that the newly appointed United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights Louise Arbour was expected to take up her duties on
1 July 2004.

Concerning the Secretary-General's reform plan, Ms. Connors drew
attention to the strategy developed by the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights to improve the integration of human
rights into the activities of United Nations agencies at the country
level by which human rights advisers would be placed in each of the
147 United Nations country team offices worldwide. Among other
things, Ms. Connors indicted that the sixtieth session of the
Commission on Human Rights decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on
trafficking in persons, especially in women and children.

Ms. Connors updated Committee Members on the Secretary-General's
study on violence against children, indicating that the Independent
Expert leading the study, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, had addressed the
session of the Commission on Human Rights and participated in several
side events, including one with children.

Concerning the submission of reports by States parties, the Secretary
of the Committee, Paulo David, provided the following information:
since the previous session of the Committee, eight new reports had
been submitted to the Committee, including one initial report; as of
today, 181 initial reports, 86 second periodic reports and 11 third
periodic reports had been received by the Committee, of which 227 had
been reviewed by the Committee; ten initial reports and 92 second
periodic reports were overdue. Concerning the status of the two
optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on
the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography, as of today, 72
States parties had ratified each of the two.

When the Committee meets at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 18 May, it will begin
its consideration of the initial report of El Salvador
(CRC/C/65/Ad.25).



Statement by Representative of the Secretary-General

JANE CONNORS, a Representative of the Secretary-General, drew
attention to the Secretary-General's appointment of Louise Arbour as
the next High Commissioner for Human Rights who was expected to take
up her duties on 1 July 2004. She underlined the Secretary-General's
agenda on reform outlining his report of 2002 "Strengthening the
United Nations: an agenda for further change" which led to the Plan
of Action developed by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights to improve the integration of human rights into the activities
of United Nations agencies at the country level. In December 2003,
the inter-agency Plan of Action was distributed to all United Nations
Country Teams, 147 worldwide, and a detailed three-year
implementation strategy affecting the Office and other parts of the
United Nations was expected to be finalized within the coming weeks.

A key part of this strategy was the placement of a human rights
adviser in all United Nations country teams. Among the actions
adopted by the Office of the High Commissioner to implement this Plan
was the implementation of a training programme for the United Nations
country teams and the preparation of Country Profiles which gave an
overview of a country's interaction with the international human
rights system, including the recommendations of the human rights
treaty bodies; the first phase of training for this programme would
begin during 2004 and 2005.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was currently
finalizing draft guidelines for an expanded core document and
proposals for harmonized reporting guidelines and methods of work
which would be presented to the third inter-Committee meeting in June
this year. The hope was that the meeting would move forward the
process of streamlining the reporting system, thereby strengthening
the system from the point of view of treaty bodies, States parties
and individuals at the national level. Ms. Connors noted that the
Office of the High Commissioner was also conducting activities aimed
at promoting the implementation of treaty body recommendations at the
country level. In that regard, last week a training workshop was
organized in Geneva on "Strengthening the implementation of human
rights treaty recommendations through the enhancement of national
protection measures". The objectives of the workshop were to increase
the involvement of national actors in the treaty reporting and
implementation process and to increase the participation of civil
society in the work of the treaty bodies, particularly with respect
to follow-up recommendations of treaty bodies.

Ms. Connors highlighted that the Committee on the Protection of All
Migrant Workers and Members of their Families held its first session
in Geneva from 1 to 5 March this year, noting that the Migrant
Workers Convention entered into force in July last year; the
Convention had so far been ratified by 25 States.

In the context of the Commission on Human Rights, Ms. Connors said
the proposal for the Committee on the Rights of the Child's work to
be conducted in two chambers had been included in the Committee's
biennial report to the General Assembly and would therefore be
discussed at the forthcoming fifty-ninth session of the General
Assembly in New York. Moreover, the Commission had decided to appoint
a Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women
and children.

Ms. Connors updated Committee members on the Secretary-General's
study on violence against children, indicating that the Independent
Expert leading the study, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, had addressed the
session of the Commission on Human Rights and participated in several
side events, including one with children. In that regard, Ms. Connors
paid tribute to the international non-governmental organization Save
the Children which had prepared a tool kit on child participation and
conducted training sessions on the issue. Activities related to the
study were underway including a recently organized workshop by the
non-governmental organization Innocenti Centre which, among other
things, considered the draft outline for the study.

Ms. Connors highlighted the upcoming session of the Committee,
indicating that during this present session it would review the
situation of nine States parties, discuss working methods, prepare
for its September general discussion day on implementing child rights
in early childhood and discuss possible general comments to be
drafted in the future. The Committee would also meet with several
partners, including with representatives of the Inter-American Child
Institute and representatives of the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) and non-governmental organizations, among others.



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