12 January 2010 - CRINMAIL CRC 22
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This list provides specific information on the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Updates are sent during CRC sessions and on an ad hoc basis. Please feel free to forward these updates to others who may be interested. To contribute, email us at [email protected].
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CRC: 53rd session opens [news]
Members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child arrived for the 53rd session facing a heavy workload. Over the coming weeks, the Committee will split into two chambers in order to deal with a large backlog of reports. It will examine State party reports from Mongolia, Paraguay, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Estonia, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, Ecuador, El Salvador and Norway. Under the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC) the Committee will examine the reports of Mongolia, Estonia, Sierra Leone, Ecuador and El Salvador. Under the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC) it will consider the State party reports of Mongolia, Sierra Leone, Israel, Ecuador and Liechtenstein.
The session began with the adoption of the agenda and the programme of work.
Ms. Mercedes Morales, officer-in-charge of the Human Rights Treaties Division at the OHCHR, talked about notable developments since the last session. She talked of the bid to establish a communications procedure under the CRC - an Open-ended Working Group (WG) met from 14 to 18 December 2009. Ms. Morales noted that the Guidelines for Alternative Care of Children had been welcomed by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 2009. She talked about the upcoming events related to the Committee’s work, including the annual day on children, which will be held during the 13th session of the Human Rights Council and will focus on sexual violence.
In relation to the harmonisation of treaty body working methods, Ms. Morales mentioned that the 10th Inter-Committee Meeting (ICM) took place in November 2009 to discuss the follow-up to concluding observations and communications procedures. The 10th ICM was attended by Mr. Fillali and Mr. Puras who represented the Committee. The 11th ICM will take place at the end of June 2010 and will focus on the treaty-specific reporting guidelines and list of issues. Ms. Morales remarked that during the 12th session of the HRC, the High Commissioner for Human Rights had launched a plea to States to reflect on how best to streamline and strengthen the treaty body system. An informal meeting had taken place in Dublin (November 2009) and was attended by past and present members of the treaty body system. The meeting resulted in the adoption of the Dublin Declaration which, was a first step in the process of reflection.
Ms. Morales remarked that the Committee had a heavy agenda in two parallel chambers, as it would be considering 18 reports from 12 States parties. In addition, the Committee will be discussing its working methods and will have meetings with UN agencies as well as NGOs. In conclusion, Ms. Morales noted that while holding sessions in two chambers provided a temporary measure to address the backlog, the Committee was encouraged to reflect on measures and working methods to reduce the workload in future. In relation to the Open-ended WG, Ms. Lee highlighted the lack of translation provided for this inter-governmental meeting and the delay it caused.
Ms. Maja Andrijasevic-Boko, the Secretary of the Committee, announced that since its last session the Committee had received 13 reports, including eight under the Convention and five under the Optional Protocols. Second periodic reports were received from Guinea Bissau and Namibia, and combined second, third and fourth periodic reports were received from Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada and Myanmar. The Committee had received a total of 576 reports, and had considered 419. There were five outstanding initial reports: from the Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, Tonga and Tuvalu. Reports on the OPAC had been received from Slovakia and Thailand, and Belarus, Slovakia and Thailand had submitted their reports under the OPSC.
Ms. Lee noted that the report from the 20th anniversary event will be adopted during the session. There will be no day of general discussion in 2010 to allow for the examination of pending reports. In addition the Committee will discuss the development of general comments on articles 2 and 19. Ms. Lee added that the first joint Working Group of the Committee on the CRC and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women will take place on 23 January.
Finally, Ms. Lee remarked that the Committee hoped that the 10th anniversary of the two Optional Protocols would further strengthen their implementation.
Further information
For more information, contact:
NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child
1, rue de Varembé, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland
Telephone: +41 (0) 22 740 4730
Fax : +41 (0) 22 740 1145
Email : [email protected]
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=21516
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Alternative reports for Committee session 53 [publication]
State reports
BURKINA FASO
CAMEROON
ECUADOR
EL SALVADOR
MONGOLIA
NORWAY
PARAGUAY
TAJIKISTAN
Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
ECUADOR
EL SALVADOR
ESTONIA
MONGOLIA
SIERRA LEONE
Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict
ECUADOR
ISRAEL
LIECHTENSTEIN
MONGOLIA
SIERRA LEONE
For more information, contact:
UN OHCHR - Committee on the Rights of the Child
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
CH 1211 Geneva 10
Tel: +41 22 917 9000 ; Fax: +41 22 917 9022
Website: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/index.htm
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=21515
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Event information for the 53rd session [event]
The 53rd Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child is taking place from 11 to 29 January at the Palais Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Committee will examine reports from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mongolia, Norway, Paraguay, and Tajikistan on their implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In addition, the Committee will review reports on the implementation of the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC) for Ecuador, El Salvador, Mongolia, Estonia and Sierra Leone and reports on the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC) for Ecuador, Israel, Liechtenstein, Mongolia and Sierra Leone.
A special CRC news page devoted to the activities of the Committee on the Rights of the Child has been set up on the CRIN website in partnership with the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The page provides summaries of the Committee sessions by country, UN press releases, NGO press releases, information about the Day of General Discussion, Decisions, General Comments and other activities of the Committee.
States Parties reports submitted by governments to the Committee on the Rights of the Child are available in English, French and Spanish on the website of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Word and PDF formats.
Alternative Reports submitted by NGOs to the Committee on the Rights of the Child are made available on the CRIN website in partnership with the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The reports can also be searched by country, Committee session or by organisation. Note that alternative reports are posted on the CRIN website as they are received.
Further information
For more information, contact:
UN OHCHR - Committee on the Rights of the Child
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
CH 1211 Geneva 10
Tel: +41 22 917 9000 ; Fax: +41 22 917 9022
Website: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/index.htm
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=21507
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Complaints Mechanism: Report from the UN Working Group
This is a compilation of the daily updates that were produced during the UN Working Group meeting on the communications procedure. The meeting took place from 16 to 18 December in Geneva.
Read the web version, or download the PDF
For more information, contact:
Child Rights Information Network
East Studio, 2 Pontypool Place, London, SE1 8QF
Tel: +44 (0)207 401 2257
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.crin.org
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Report on the 52nd session of the Committee [publication]
The NGO Group on the CRC has published its latest report on the 52nd session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child which took place from 14 September to 2 October 2009.
During its 52nd session the Committee examined the combined 3rd and 4th consolidated periodic reports of Pakistan and the Philippines, the 2nd periodic report of Qatar, the 4th periodic report of Bolivia and the 2nd periodic report of Mozambique under the Convention. Under the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC), the Committee examined the initial report of Poland and Yemen, and the initial reports of Poland and Turkey under the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC). All country reports prepared by the NGO Group on the individual sessions are available at http://www.childrightsnet.org/.
The CRC session report includes information on examination of the State party reports under the Convention and OPs, including overview of the dialogue with the Committee as well as Concluding Observations of the Committee and other UN mechanisms, such as UN treaty bodies, HRC's UPR and where necessary, information on the country visits of Special Procedure mandate holders.
Feedback on this new way of reporting is welcome.
Further information
For more information, contact:
NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child
1 rue Varembé, 1202 Geneva
Tel: + 41 22 740 47 30; Fax: + 41 22 740 1145
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.childrightsnet.org
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=21442
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