Holy See: Children's Rights in the UN Special Procedures' Reports

Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports on the website here: http://www.crin.org/resources/index.asp.

Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity.

Reports:

• UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion

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UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion
Mr. Abdelfattah Amor
E/CN.4/2000/65 Chap. V

Country visit: 1 to 3 September 1999
Report published: 15 February 2000

Education: The following information is given in the 1997 edition of the Statistical Yearbook of the Catholic Church of the Central Statistical Office, for 30 June 1997:

…

Figures for schools are as follows:

• 58,244 nurseries with 5,112,570 children;

• 86,505 primary schools with 25,400,000 pupils ;

• 34,849 secondary or classical schools (first and second cycle) with approximately

13,900,000 students. (Paragraph 166)

It may be remembered that article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Childprovides that:

“States parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to:

...

(b) The development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations;

...

(d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin.”

The Special Rapporteur believes that religious matters related to the rights of the child constitute an area where appropriate initiatives should be undertaken as a matter of priority. This is why, in conformity with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the relevant international instruments and the resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly since 1995, the Special Rapporteur is pursuing his plan for an international school strategy on the question of tolerance and non-discrimination in relation to freedom of religion and belief in primary and secondary education establishments. (Paragraph 178)