1 December 2006 - Child Rights and the new Human Rights Council 15
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- NGO side event: report on the informal discussion on child rights at the HRC
- Plenary: Louise Arbour on the child rights situation in Haiti
- 4th session: President's Statement and dialogue on children and violence
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NGO side event: report on the informal discussion on child rights at the HRC
On Wednesday, 29th November, the Subgroup on the Human Rights Council (NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child), held an informal discussion in Geneva on “Placing the rights of the child on the Human Rights Council agenda”, during the resumed Second session of the Human Rights Council (HRC). Thirteen country delegations and over 20 NGOs participated in the discussion; five UN agencies were also present.
The discussion focused on the Subgroup’s recent Call for Action to make children’s rights visible on the agenda of the newly established Council. Eric Sottas, Director of OMCT was chairing the discussion, which opened with presentations on the work of the Subgroup and on the background of the Call for Action by Allison Phillips (Director of the NGO Group for the CRC), Simone Ek (Senior Adviser at Save the Children Sweden and Convenor of the Subgroup), and Roberta Cecchetti (Save the Children Representative in Geneva).
The Call for Action's main recommendations to the Council are:
The aim of the Call for Action, said Roberta Cecchetti, is for child rights NGOs to engage in the process of institution building of the Human Rights Council to make it fit for children from the outset, and avoid having to adapt its methods of work, once decided, to children’s needs. The Call for Action therefore identifies gaps and needs and presents concrete steps to make the Council fit for promoting and protecting children's rights, and involve them in this work.
All those who took the floor welcomed the principles of the Call for Action, its useful and concrete suggestions, as well as its timely launch - while Special Procedures are under review and consultations are held on the new Universal Periodic Review mechanism.
The Finnish representative stressed the fact that the new Council gave us the opportunity to be creative and innovative, and she encouraged other missions to give weight to the Subgroup's suggestions contained in the Call for Action. However, she added that, while many members would support the idea of child participation in the Council, they had no guidance on how to implement it practically, and avoid simply having a tokenistic statement. She therefore invited NGOs to come forward with ideas.
The representative from the Uruguay delegation said that Uruguay shared the spirit of the Call for Action including some specific aspects of it, such as the idea of devoting two days a year to child rights, and the idea of child participation, which, she said, is "not only possible but also enriching". She added that an interactive dialogue should be focused solely on children's rights. Finally, she told participants that Uruguay and the group of Latin American and Caribbean States were of the opinion that more thought should be given to the idea of linking up the work of the Council and the work of the General Assembly on children's rights.
Jennifer Grant, Child Rights Advocate at Save the Children UK and member of the Subgroup, announced that the Subgroup would soon write another paper outlining the vision and principles for child participation in the Council. However, she added that the Subgroup will not be able to design any mechanisms for participation until it has a clear idea of the outcomes of the Working Groups.
The UNHCR participant commented on the Call for Action, and said that child rights topics discussed at the Council should be selected early to allow all stakeholders to plan and participate efficiently. UNHCR for example would want to know when displacement is being discussed. He also suggested that legal standards forming the basis of the UPR should also include general human rights standards (see Call for Action, 2.2.2).
The representative from the UK mission also expressed support for the overarching aims of the Call for Action, and its goal to ensure that the rights of the child are discussed during the HRC. However, he raised concerns about child participation and how to avoid tokenism. He therefore invited contributions from panellists with experience of successful child participation scenarios within other UN mechanisms.
Bharti Mepani, Child Participation Advisor at Save the Children UK, took the floor to tell participants about child participation at the recent Day of General Discussion held by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, on 15 September 2006. Although Palais Wilson, in Geneva, was maybe not the best arena, the children made themselves heard and participated effectively in the discussion alongside CRC members and NGOs. A report on lessons learnt will be produced and presented to the Committee in January. Follow-up work focuses on systematising child participation with the Committee's work. Bharti's advice to the Subgroups was to think about (a) the information that children will need to get involved in the work of the Council, (b) defining the framework and principles of child participation at the HRC before thinking about methods.
Caroline Bakker, from UNICEF, expressed UNICEF's support for the Call for Action, and pointed to similarities with the UNICEF statement delivered at the 1st session of the Human Rights Council in June. She said that we needed to come up with concrete and focused outcomes which allowed for follow-up work. On child participation, she added that UNICEF was happy to support the future work of the Subgroup.
Roberta Cecchetti concluded by saying that the Human Rights Council needed to go beyond what the Convention on the Rights of the Child says. The current process for drafting and adopting the GA Resolution on the rights of the child is cumbersome and often consists in finding the lowest common denominator to reach consensus. This means that new instruments often end up below current CRC standards. What we need, she said, is to advance those standards, without challenging the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
On behalf of the Subgroup, Allison Phillips thanked everyone for their support for this continuing process, which will require a lot of thought and careful work. The Subgroup will carry on producing more detailed papers on specific aspects of the Call for Action, and she welcomed suggestions and contributions from all. A statement is currently being drafted on UPR to be delivered at this session. Inputs are also welcome.
The Subgroup will hold a similar event at the Spring session of the Human Rights Council, to be held from 12 March to 6 April 2007.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=11634
Further information
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Plenary: Louise Arbour on the child rights situation in Haiti
In her address to the Human Rights Council, on 29th November, Louise Arbour, High Commissioner for Human Rights, offered an overview of her recent missions to Haiti, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Germany and Canada.
She mentioned her particular concern for the child rights situation in Haiti: "The situation of children in the country is particularly dire. Children are often targets of violence and their access to adequate education and health care is severely lacking. Moreover, minors in conflict with the law are most harshly affected by dysfunction and the many weaknesses of the judicial and detention systems. I stressed with the authorities the crucial importance of paying close attention to children's rights."
Read Louise Arbour's speech in full.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=11658
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4th session: President's Statement and dialogue on children and violence
At the Subgroup event on Wednesday, Uruguay announced that the Statement of the President of the Human Rights Council on children's rights would be postponed until the next (4th) session of the Council (12 March to 6 April 2007). This provides an opportunity to work on a more substantive document. Uruguay, in charge of the drafting, welcomes inputs and contributions from NGOs.
In addition, President De Alba agreed to hold a substantive dialogue on the UN Study on Violence against Children at the 4th session. The dialogue is likely to take up half a day.
The first draft (A/HRC/2/L.33) of the Presiden't Statement was presented at the 2nd session of the Human Rights Council, but has not yet been adopted. The Secretariat has produced a chart of draft resolutions, statements and decisions to be voted on at the 3rd and 4th sessions.
Further information
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This update has been produced by CRIN, in collaboration with the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Subgroup for the Human Rights Council. To subscribe, unsubscribe or view archives, visit http://www.crin.org/email.
Further information about the Human Rights Council is available on the CRIN website at: www.crin.org/chr. To submit information, contact Isabelle Guitard on iguitard@crin.org. CRIN, c/o Save the Children, 1, St John's Lane, London EC1M 4AR, UK.
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