Submitted by Victor on
[2 October 2015] - The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has welcomed Somalia’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 1 October 2015 and repeats its call for universal ratification of the Convention.
“We applaud Somalia for ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as the 196th State to do so,” the Chairperson of the Committee, Benyam Dawit Mezmur, stated.
“Ratification is an important step that brings with it a commitment towards implementation,” he added.
The Convention, which is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty, sets out a number of children’s rights including the right to life, to health, to education and to play, as well as the right to family life, to be protected from violence, to not be discriminated, and to have their views heard.
While the Convention was adopted just over 25 years ago, the rights it contains are as important today as in 1989.
The Committee repeated its call for universal ratification of the Convention and said that it looked forward to engaging with the United States, the last State in the world left to ratify the Convention.
The Committee also urged States to ratify the three legal instruments that address specific areas of children’s rights, namely the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; the involvement of children in armed conflict; and enabling children to bring complaints of serious violations of their rights to the Committee.