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[30 June 2013] - Speakers at a roundtable called upon the Bangladeshi government on Saturday 29 June to sign and ratify the Third Optional Protocol (OP3) to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) saying it will provide an additional tool to children seeking legal protection against human rights violation. The Child Rights Committee of the National Human Rights Commission and the Advocacy Group on signing and ratification of OP3-CRC organised the roundtable at BRAC Inn in the city. Ratification of the OP3 will allow children or their representatives to lodge a complaint with the Child Rights Committee, the 18-member independent experts' panel that monitors implementation by State parties of the CRC and any OPs to which they are a party. Presently there is no scope to bring complaints to the attention of the UN CRC other than the periodic reporting process which cannot address individual situation. The OP3-CRC establishes a channel of complaints for children whose rights have been violated through violence, sexual exploitation, or lack of access to justice. However, such complaints would go ahead only after all the available domestic remedies are exhausted. The Advocacy Group includes six organisations namely Action Aid Bangladesh, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), Plan Bangladesh, Save the Children, World Vision Bangladesh (WVB) and two networks namely Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF) and Child Rights Governance Assembly (CRGA). CRGA and Plan Bangladesh are serving as the Secretariat. Secretary of the ministry of women and children affairs Tariq-ul-Islam was the chief guest while Kazi Reazul Hoque, Full Time Member, National Human Rights Commission, chaired the roundtable. BLAST presented the position paper followed by discussion where representatives of different NGOs, INGOs, and UN agencies working for the promotion of child rights took part. Bangladesh, one of the first 20 countries to sign and ratify the CRC in 1990, has also signed and ratified the two Optional Protocols to the CRC in 2000. FURTHER INFORMATION:
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