CRC ELECTIONS 2010: Hiranthi Wijemanne (Sri Lanka)

Hiranthi Wijemanne, 67, from Sri Lanka, was trained as a public health physician in Sri Lanka and the United States. She has worked on children's rights and women's rights for over four decades. She is currently a consultant to the Ministries of Justice, Child Development and Women's Empowerment. Her previous roles included being chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority and a National Professional Official with UNICEF where she handled health, nutrition, early childhood development, primary education, child protection and children affected by the country's conflict. She has also undertaken consultancies for ILO and UNFPA.

Click here to read Hiranthi's CV in full.

Can you tell us a bit about your experience in children's rights?
I began my professional life as a public health physician, working mainly on maternal and child health issues. These included universal child immunisation, particularly polio eradication and infant nutrition. I was also involved in programmes related to early childhood development and home -based ECD in particular as well as programmes on primary education with a focus on the quality of education.

I was also involved in developing child-friendly schools, non-formal education as a preventative tool against child labour and education for children in conflict areas. Other subject areas included the protection of children from abuse and exploitation and children affected by the armed conflict, with an emphasis on the rehabilitation and reintegration of "child combatants".

Following my retirement from UNICEF in 2003, I was appointed chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority. I was also involved in support for children affected by the tsunami. I helped strengthen norms and standards for children affected by conflict, as well as mechanisms within government for monitoring children's rights. I was also involved in the establishment of policy guidelines for child combatants who had "surrendered".

More recently, I have been able to contribute to amending The Young Children and Person's Ordinance and the drafting of a code on child witnesses and victims.

Tomorrow I will travel to Geneva to participate in the discussion of Sri Lanka's third report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. I feel that whilst being glad that despite the 30 year conflict, Sri Lanka has been able to accomplish a lot for children. But there are still many child rights issues which have yet to be addressed. We definitely need a wider and stronger outreach and response to children affected by abuse and exploitation. Prevention is important. We also need a better mechanisms to access the views of children and methods of fostering their participation in rights. I feel positive about the future but we also need to examine each issue, and determine solutions, in depth.

Why do you want to serve on the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child?
It is not a case of whether I would like or not like to serve on the Committee! I have been involved in children's rights most of my working life. It was my government which nominated me, and I accepted the nomination as an honour. I felt that it was a recognition of what I had tried so hard to do for such a long time for children. Whether I get into the international Committee is not an issue for me personally as I will continue with my work for Sri Lankan children anyway!

What do you think you can contribute to the Committee's work?
My experiences and lessons learned from working in a developing country which underwent a 30 year conflict because of terrorism. It is in countries like ours that children have the most problems and experience rights violations. It is in developing countries that most families grapple with poverty and ignorance. Children then become the innocent victims of deprivation. Our legal and law enforcement systems function in a very different way to those of the West. There are also issues related to the application of customary law and civil law. I know the practical difficulties of working with both the political leadership and bureaucracy, and the efforts needed to persuade them to put children high on the national agenda. There are also challenges to obtaining children's views throughout the country. Protecting children in an armed conflict situation was very difficult. I think I have a lot of practical lessons to share from my work which are relevant to other developing countries. I have also travelled widely both within Sri Lanka and South Asia. All our countries share common roots and similar rights issues where children are concerned.

Which issue in children's rights do you feel needs more attention?
Definitely protection. We need to focus much more on protecting children from abuse and neglect. Mortality and morbidity issues have, to a large extent, been well covered as we have worked for a long time on health and nutrition. These issues were less complicated, less political, and have a strong technical basis. Protecting children from abuse is much more challenging. The roots of abuse lie in families, communities and involve cultural practices. It requires developing a wide range of strategies and getting many different sectors on board to focus on what really needs to done.

What has been the biggest achievement of your career?
I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in children's rights for so long, although my original career was in public health. Another is the opportunity to be involved in many different sectors. I have worked in the sectors of health, nutrition, education, justice and women's empowerment, among others. I was a member of the Presidential Task Force on Child Protection. After a year, I continued as a founder board member and Chairperson. It was very challenging. When we were tackling sensitive issues such as sexual abuse and child protection we were able to harness a great deal of support from law enforcement authorities, the judiciary and the political leadership.

What is your vision for the UN Committee?
I would hope that the CRC Committee can play a lead role not only in monitoring but in ensuring that member countries of the UN plan and develop policies and programmes which make a real difference to children. Some issues may be easier to accomplish while others are more challenging. We need to make greater use of the framework of the UNCRC and its Optional Protocols as a yardstick for policies and programmes for children. We also need to establish better mechanisms to monitor child rights, prepare reports on time and follow up issues more efficiently.

I would also like to be able to review what has been going on since the inception of the Committee, and develop some new ways in which the Committee would be able to accelerate rights based programmes for children. As the world has changed so much since the Convention came into force, the way the Committee functions may also need to change. However, I cannot comment until I take a fresh look at how it has been working. What the Committee does must ultimately help in the realisation of the rights of children in each member country of the UN.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the Committee?
I think the real problem for most developing countries lies in implementation. Ratifying the Convention is like signing a marriage certificate: It is a one-off act and the act itself is easy. But making it work is much harder - as most of us have realised!

I know there are also delays in receiving State Party reports. I have been involved in report preparation and the process took time. I believe the capacity to prepare such reports in government must be strengthened. It is also important to strengthen the database of information related to children. Such systems should involve civil society and children themselves as far as possible. The island-wide census planned for 2011 in Sri Lanka will be a useful database with more accurate information than we have had during the conflict period.

How do you think the Committee could work more effectively with NGOs?
I think there is always a need to strengthen links between the Committee and NGOs. Civil society has a field perspective which is very important. But I think there need to be better systems in place to harness their positive contribution.

If you were not working in children's rights, what would you be doing?
I would be working to help women and children of the poor. They need all the help we can give. At the end of the day, development is all about families. If they do well, the children will be fine and a country can develop. There would also be no conflicts if there were enough resources for everyone. I am from a developing country grappling with poverty and the problems created because of the prolonged conflict. That is more than enough for me to work on!

Sum up children's rights in one word
One word is difficult, so, let me put it in one sentence: Doing what is right for children.

pdf: http://www.crin.org/docs/Hiranthi_Wijemanne.pdf

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