CRC COMMITTEE ELECTIONS 2012: Interviews with candidates

Submitted by crinadmin on Thu, 01/11/2012 - 14:40

Summary: Lobbying is underway to fill nine vacancies on the Committee on the Rights of the Child. States parties will elect candidates in New York on 18 December 2012. New members will replace those whose term will expire on 28 February 2013. CRIN has been interviewing candidates ahead of the elections to find out who is most suited for the job.

Interviews with the candidates

CRIN has contacted all candidates for the 2012 elections of nine Members of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to take part in an interview. We are asking them about their experience in children's rights, what they think they can contribute to the Committee, what they think about key issues, their vision for the Committee and, importantly, how they see NGOs' role.

To date, six out of 16 candidates have agreed to share their views. Read their interviews by clicking on the links below.

Ms. Renate WINTER (Austria): CV / Interview
Mr. Benyam Dawit MEZMUR (Ethiopia): CV / Interview
Ms Sara DE JESÚS OVIEDO FIERRO (Ecuador): CV / Interview [English / Español]
Mr. Peter GURAN (Slovakia): CV / Interview
Ms Suzanne AHO (Togo): CV / Interview (in French)
Mr. Awich POLLAR (Uganda): CV / Interview

You can read about the remaining candidates below:

Ms Amal Aldoseri (Bahrain): CV
Mr. Wanderlino NOGUEIRA NETO (Brazil): CV
Ms. Congo ZONGO HARIGUIETTA (Burkina Faso): CV
Ms. Maria Rita PARSI (Italy): CV
Mr. Edward Bandawe TWEA (Malawi): CV
Ms. Yasmeen Muhamad SHARIFF (Malaysia): CV
Ms. Kamla Devi VARMAH (Mauritius): CV
Ms Fareeda Abdulla AL OBAIDLY (Qatar): CV
Ms. Olga A. KHAZOVA (Russia): CV
Ms. Hadeel AL ASMAR (Syria): CV

Visit the webpage of the Committee on the Rights of the Child for further information.

The election process

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is the most powerful children's rights body in the world. It not only has the authority to influence governments' compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), but also to interpret and expand on the provisions set in the CRC. In the future, it will even be able to examine individual complaints relating to violations of children's rights.

Elections to the Committee on the Rights of the Child take place every two years. Committee members are elected for a term of four years.

In the 2012 ections, States parties will cast their votes in December 2012 at the UN General Assembly in New York. Some current members have put themselves forward for re-election.

For further information, please contact the NGO Group, which supports NGOs in this process. You can email Lisa Myers at [email protected].

Terms due to expire

In February 2013, the terms of nine members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child will expire. These include: