Children's Rights at the United Nations: Issue 98

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28 March 2013, issue 98
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CRINMAIL 98:

March at the UN

In this issue:

To view this CRINMAIL online, click here.

Human Rights Council (HRC)

After an eventful four weeks in Geneva, the Council concluded its 22nd session on Friday with the adoption of 35 resolutions.

Children's rights at the Council are always given the most prominence during its March session, which features the Council's Annual Day on the Rights of the Child. The theme for the Annual Day this year was 'children's right to the highest attainable standard of health', which included discussions varying from universal health care to the post-Millennium Development Goals process. CRIN reported live for the week of the Annual Day, highlighting which children’s rights issues were - and were not - being discussed. 

In addition to children's right to health discussions, the Council also looked at birth registration, juvenile justice and violence against children. Human rights defenders, torture and freedom of religion also featured heavily during the Council’s 22nd session. Below is a snapshot of the outcomes.

  • Right to health

Following the Annual Day on the Rights of the Child, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on children’s right to health. Although the resolution pays attention to important but largely uncontroversial issues, it does make some interesting and progressive points from a children’s rights perspective. We reported live from the discussions, and we are pleased to see that the resolution has not lost the bulk of the rights references mentioned during those discussions.

The resolution calls on States to ensure that children have access to relevant information on substance abuse, as well as sex and reproductive education. Unfortunately the Council does not explicitly say that sex and reproductive education ought to include information about LGBT issues, but it does mention abortion – although with the caveat that this only applies when abortion is not against the law.

The Council also makes the important link between violence against children as a violation of their right to health, and calls on States to ensure that children are protected from all forms violence in all settings. Here the Council stresses the need to protect children deprived of their liberty from all forms of violence – including corporal punishment. Click here for CRIN’s campaign against corporal punishment and other forms of inhuman sentencing.

You can read CRIN’s report on the Annual Day here , as well as our thoughts on the resolution discussions the following day here. The full resolution can be found here.

While on the right to health...

The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) published its General Comment No. 15 on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health (Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child) during the Committee's 62nd session. 

The Comment has a development focus, covering aspects like prevention of child mortality and the need for universal health care. But there are some important children's rights references. In particular, the Comment states that children must be afforded the right to be heard when it comes to States' obligations to consult on health services.

The Committee also recognises the need to consider children’s evolving capacities to make independent decisions about their health, and says it will support policies that give children, parents and health professionals rights-based guidence on the important issues of consent and confidentiality.

You can read the full Comment here.

  • Juvenile justice

Next year’s Human Rights Council’s Annual Day on the Rights of the Child will be on access to justice for children. This is terrific news as it is an important issue so often ignored. Put simply: Children’s rights cannot be guaranteed unless children can access child-friendly legal avenues. Otherwise, there is no assurance that violations can be stopped or that children can seek remedies (including compensation) when their rights are abused.  

Also during the 22nd session, the Council adopted a resolution calling for a panel discussion on the rights of children of parents sentenced to the death penalty during the 24th session (September 2013). More here.

  • Birth registration

Back in March 2012, for the first time in its history, the Council adopted a resolution entirely dedicated to the issue of birth registration and legal identity for all without any discrimination. A year later, during the 22nd session this March, the Council adopted a further resolution expressing concern at the high number of persons throughout the world whose birth is not registered. The Council is urging States to identify and remove barriers that impede access to birth registration. More here.

  • Human Rights Defenders

A landmark resolution was adopted by the Council urging States to acknowledge publicly the important and legitimate role of human rights defenders in the promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

Disappointingly, despite last year’s report by the Special Rapporteur (SR) on human rights defenders paying particular attention to the rights of youth and student human rights defenders, children are not mentioned in the resolution. More here. You can read the resolution here.

Read the new handbook tackling reprisals against human rights defenders launched by the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), here.

  • Other outcomes from the 22nd session

- A resolution on torture and other cruel and degrading treatment and punishment, tabled by Denmark, focuses on rehabilitation and redress.

- A resolution regarding freedom of religion or belief condemns all forms of violence, intolerance and discrimination and extends the mandate of the Special Rapporteur (on freedom of religion and belief) for a further three years.

  • Countries in the spotlight during the 22nd session

The Council adopted a resolution calling on the Government of Sri Lanka to conduct an independent investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by both Government and Tamil forces during the country’s notorious civil war. Human rights defenders lobbying for international support for the resolution were harassed by the Sri Lankan Government, according to the International Service for Human Rights.

Sri Lanka’s human rights record was under further scrutiny during the adoption of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report. States, namely the United Kingdom and the United States, and a number of NGOs (including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Commission of Jurists and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development) voiced serious concerns about the human rights situation in Sri Lanka,  including sexual violence against women and children, an absence of freedom of expression and the Government’s lack of commitment to improve things.

The Council extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights in the country. The Council also extended the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, and asked the Commission to present written reports at the next two Council session (23rd in June, and 24th in September this year). Read the Commission on Syria’s latest update report.

In addition, an Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Mali was established with a one-year mandate and the Special Procedure mandates for Myanmar, Iran and Haiti were extended by one year.

Further Information

Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

Fourteen States had their UPR reports adopted during the 22nd session. In addition to Sri Lanka, mentioned above, States urged Zambia to review the definition of the child and the minimum age of criminal responsibility, and ensure access to easy and effective birth registration.

During a debate on the UPR, a number of States expressed concern with regards to Israel’s complete non-cooperation with the mechanism.

Also during the debate, 89 States made a  commitment  to submit a mid-term report during the second cycle of the UPR.

Upcoming session

The 16th Session of the UPR  will take place from 22 April - 3 May. The following States will be up for review:  Turkmenistan, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Tuvalu, Germany, Djibouti, Canada, Bangladesh, Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Cameroon and Cuba.

The reporting deadline has passed, but you can still get involved by using the UPR outcomes to advocate for children’s rights at a national level. We will be posting children’s rights extracts from the pre-review reports submitted by States, UN bodies and NGOs in due course.

Further Information on the UPR:


Special Procedures

Call for contributions: trafficking in persons

The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Ms Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, has called on States, regional organisations and civil society to comment on the Draft Basic Principles on the right to an effective remedy. The Principles clarify the concept of the right to an effective remedy and lists specific factors to take into account in the realisation of this right. The deadline for submissions is 15 May 2013. More details here.

Country visits

To find out about recent and upcoming visits, visit our main Special Procedures page.

Further Information


Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

Complaints Mechanism update

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is still the only UN human rights treaty without an active mechanism whereby individuals and groups of individuals can seek justice and remedies for rights violations directly from the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Optional Protocol 3 to the Convention (OP3) will allow this, but it still needs a further seven States to ratify before it can come into force. Germany ratified earlier this month, and we hope more will do so very soon.

For more on OP3, visit our campaign page or click here to find out more about the International Coalition campaigning for the procedure.

General Comments

In last month’s CRINMAIL, we included the recently published General Comment (GC) on Child Rights and Business. As well as the GC on the right to health (mentioned above), the Committee has now also published General Comment No. 17 on the right of the child to rest, leisure, play, recreational activities, cultural life and the arts. Read the text here.

The Committee has yet to publish the fourth of the General Comments adopted during its recent session, on the best interests of the child. Keep an eye out on the Committee’s webpage.

Upcoming CRC Session

Israel and Rwanda are among the States set to be reviewed during the 63rd session, which opens on 27 May. You can find the alternative reports in our database.

Further Information


Other UN Treaty Bodies

Recent

Pakistan and Greece were among the eight States examined by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women during its 54th session. More here.

Upcoming

The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) will undertake two official visits to Libya (8 - 17 May 2013) and Spain (23 - 30 September 2013). During its 4th session (8 - 19 April), Uruguay will be the first State to be examined. Find out how you can engage with the Committee here.  

Call for contributions

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is calling for submissions for its General Discussion on Women and Girls with Disabilities to be held on 17 April 2013 in Geneva. The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2013. More details here.

Further Information

To find what treaty bodies are saying - or not - about children’s rights in your country, type your country name at the end of www.crin.org ; for example, for India, type:www.crin.org/india.


UN Security Council

UN Member States have succeeded in adopting a new UN Declaration to combat violence against women and girls, despite strong divisions over the content between some Muslim and Western nations.

The new Declaration was adopted recently in New York during the latest session of the Commission on the Status of Women. More here.

 


Useful Resources and Contacts

Useful Resources

Contacts and Organisations

As always, you can keep up to date with all our coverage of children’s rights at the UN by clicking on the following links:

If you have any feedback on our new CRINMAIL, please write to us at [email protected].


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