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Summary: CRIN is contacting all candidates standing for election to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in December 2010. 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.
Maria Herczog, 56, from Hungary, has been working in child protection and child welfare for 25 years. She studied economics and then completed a doctorate in sociology. She was a member of the team that trained the first social workers in Hungary in 1986 and has now taught different areas of social work for 25 years. She has also served on the board of the International Federation of Social Workers for six years and is now President of Eurochild. She has been a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for four years. Click here to download Maria's full CV. Can you tell us about your experience in children's rights? I have carried out research on a range of children's issues of child ever since. I was invited as to carry out research and to teach in Western Australia in 1989-90 where I learnt a lot. I was very excited by the Australian system; they have a much more radical approach to social care there than in our region. In Central and Eastern Europe we have followed a pedagogical model which is patronising and basically means we have to teach people what to do; convincing even professionals about the importance of empowerment and participation is hard! Which issue in children's rights do you feel needs more attention? I also firmly believe that we need to focus more on children's rights in the early years and on supporting parents to help children realise their capacities. Children are just not taken seriously enough by their parents and the professionals who work with them. If we could better fulfil children's rights in their early years, I believe everything else would follow and that children would be more aware of their rights as they grow up. This would also mean providing a lot more support to parents to increase their knowledge of and skills in parenting. Why do you want to serve on the UN Committee? What do you think you can contribute to the Committee's work? Sometimes our meetings with government delegations can also be challenging; some countries are more open to questions and comments while others feel they have to defend themselves and their policies, so you have to learn a sense of diplomacy too! A second reason I am excited about the next few years is that I am chairing the committee which is drafting a general comment on child abuse and neglect and want to have the chance to go further with this and there are many other plans to be fulfilled. I have learnt more about how the Committee's work can improve by working within the European Union as an outgoing member of the European Economic and Social Committee and as President of Eurochild where we are working on the EU's child rights strategy. I feel it is essential that the EU strategy is based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as its general comments. As part of this, I have been through all the Concluding Observations for European countries in an EU funded research project on children who leave care and I'm sad to say I found very little. I have since been asking all countries what they are doing for children leaving care as preparation is also an integral part of their care. I am currently working with a group of colleagues from different countries to write an article about children leaving care. on What is your vision for the UN Committee? It is always a dilemma to know whether to focus on one's own region or learn more about others. When the Committee is in the process of examining a country report, it appoints one rapporteur from the region of the country under review and another from a different region. I have been the rapporteur for Ecuador and Bhutan so far and will be the rapporteur for Burundi in the upcoming session. It is a tall order to be an expert on 193 countries and sometimes you can ask a question that betrays this to the government delegation! What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the Committee? The limited time at our disposal is a particularly sensitive subject where children's participation is concerned. We would need so much more time and space to properly support this. If you were not working in children's rights, what would you be doing? Sum up children's rights in one word
My passion for children's rights was sparked when I was appointed as a consultant by a regional authority in Hungary to work on policies for deprived children in the 1987. It was then that I became aware of the heartbreaking situation of children in institutions in Hungary at that time. I was the among the first people in Hungary to talk about the need to close down the institutions for children under three and find other solutions for them. It was a very tough time for me personally because the media turned what I was saying into a scandal. On television programmes, so-called experts would denounce these ideas, saying that if the institutions were to close, the streets would be full of abandoned babies. It was hard to persuade people otherwise, but an opportunity arose when I was asked to make recommendations about what should happen to an institution which was falling down and the first three homes were closed in 1988. This is where my economics background helped me: I was able to say that not only was closing down the institution and training foster carers for the children better from a children's rights perspective, but that it would also cost less and be much more effective. Things gradually began to change, but even now we still have 30 homes for infants in Hungary...
Social exclusion and poverty-related exclusion are pressing children's rights issues in Europe – you only have to read about the policies discriminating against Roma children which have been instituted by governments across Europe to see that. Some politicians in Hungary have recently said that segregating Roma children in schools is in their best interests! Poverty and exclusion also means the lack of opportunities for children to develop their evolving capacities as they lack the minimum conditions to do so.
I want to serve on the UN Committee again because I feel that I couldn't give enough in my first four years. Much of this time is a learning experience, even if you are already aware of how the UN system works. I was very impressed when I had presented Hungary's alternative report to the Committee in 2005 – one year before I was elected, and saw the influence of the work of the Committee on Member States.
I feel that the work we have done together as a Committee has really developed over the last four years and I am excited about the next four. It has not always been easy; imagine the difficulties in reaching a consensus among 18 members who come from different disciplines and different cultures on many sensitive issues!
NGOs need more support from us to follow-up Concluding Observations. Latin America has a better system than many other regions. I know that UNICEF and some of the NGOs club together to fund Committee members to make country visits, for example. I hope that as President of Eurochild I can contribute to developing child rights indicators for Europe and help strength the region's interaction with the Committee.
The Committee faces a challenge of resources as well as limited time for discussion because all its members have other jobs, although really - and maybe this is too ambitious – the Committee should be a full-time job especially if follow-up of the implementation of the Concluding Observations and technical assistance could be part of it. We are also working with other UN treaty bodies toe harmonise our work better to make it more efficient and help the Member States to prepare more comprehensive and coordinated reports.
The way politics is going right now I would say I would open a bakery – at least that way at the end of the day I would have left-overs to contribute in that way to the social system! No, in reality, I can't imagine doing anything else. I love what I do.
If I were to sum up children's rights in one word, I would say dignity.