Violence against children: UN Adopts Resolution on the Rights of the Child

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Summary: The United Nations General Assembly votes on a Resolution on the Rights of the Child which includes recommendations on the outcome of the Secretary-General's Study on Violence Against Children that was presented to the GA in October 2006.

Every year, the General Assembly hears updates on the situation of children’s rights and adopts an omnibus resolution based on these updates. This year, the GA heard reports from the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, on the follow-up to the Special Session on Children, and on the Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

As Professor Pinheiro, the Independent Expert leading the Secretary-General’s Study on Violence Against Children, presented his final report to this year’s session of the GA, a section of the Resolution is dedicated to violence against children. Even though the Resolution does not specifically reflect all of Pinheiro’s recommendations, the GA says it ‘welcomes the Independent Expert’s Study and takes fully into account its recommendations’.

Save the Children said they also welcomed the Independent Expert's report and would "continue their global fight against violence and lobby governments and the International community to urgently ban all forms of violence against children, including sexual abuse and exploitation, corporal punishment and all other forms of degrading punishment, wherever they occur.”

Further on, the GA commends the Independent Expert on the ‘unprecedented level and quality of participation by children’. Roberta Cecchetti who spoke on behalf of the NGO Group Subgroup on Children and Violence, emphasised Professor Pinheiro’s strong leadership in the process and said that “the content of the Study would not be the same if that level and quality of participation had not been encouraged, sustained and defended.”

Finally, she said “we encourage all States to take stock of such an experience and create space for the participation of girls and boys in designing and implementing policies to prevent and respond to violence against children.”

Even though the Study Report recommends the appointment of a Special Representative to the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Violence Against Children, the GA does not make any decisions on this issue, but invites Professor Pinheiro to ‘give support to the first year of effective follow-up to its recommendations […] to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-second session a report on progress made in the initial phase of the follow-up and to anticipate the necessary strategy for follow-up to the implementation of the study’.

Both the NGO Group Subgroup on Children and Violence, and the NGO Advisory Panel to the Study have been campaigning for such an advocate to be appointed by the GA, referring to the establishment of the SRSG on Children and Armed Conflict as an outcome of Graça Machel’s report. Roberta Cecchetti said “we as NGOs, are ready to continue to support the Independent Expert and all the stakeholders in the implementation of the recommendations."

Save the Children said they “will also continue to advocate for the appointment of a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on the Elimination of Violence against Children, with the mandate and resources required to provide leadership and oversight of the issue.”

The Resolution received 176 votes in favour, with no abstentions. Only the United States voted against the Resolution, for a number of reasons, including the fact that they are not a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Finally, the General Assembly requested that next year’s resolution should focus on violence against children. This year’s Resolution had focused on children living in poverty who had no access to nutrition or sanitation facilities.

Further information:

Issues: 
Child participation

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