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 Co-Convenor of the Subgroup), and Roberta Cecchetti (Save the Children Representative in Geneva and Co-Convenor of the Subgroup). 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 UK supports the aims of this Call for Action. Working to improve the lives of those denied the full enjoyment of their human rights - not least children, who are so often left vulnerable - is a profound responsibility for us all". Ian McCartney, UK Minister for Trade and Human Rights 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. Further information
[For more detail on this, read Roberta Cecchetti's presentation]
Placing the rights of the child on the Human Rights Council agenda - informal discussion
to devote two days a year - or 4% of its sessions time - to children's rights
to ensure a child rights perspective is adopted throughout the work of the Council, and in particular in the Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
to implement a process for meaningful child participation in the work of the Council
Previous Call for Action (May 2006)
Countries
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