UN: Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Summary: Every year, the Secretary-General of the UN submits an update on the status of the CRC at the annual meeting of the General Assembly. This report is to be presented as part of agenda item 63 on the promotion and protection of the rights of the child.

Summary

The General Assembly, by its resolution 44/25, adopted the Convention on the
Rights of the Child. The Convention was opened for signature in New York on
26 January 1990 and entered into force on 2 September 1990, the thirtieth day after
the deposit with the Secretary-General of the twentieth instrument of ratification or
accession. As at 1 July 2008, the Convention had been ratified or acceded to by 193
States.

By its resolution 54/263, the General Assembly adopted two Optional Protocols
to the Convention. As at 1 July 2008, the Optional Protocol on the involvement of
children in armed conflict, which entered into force on 12 February 2002, had been
ratified by 121 States and signed by 123 States and the Optional Protocol on the sale
of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which entered into force on
18 January 2002, had been ratified by 127 States and signed by 115 States.

I. Introduction

1. In its resolution 62/141, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-
General to submit to it at its sixty-third session a report containing information on
the status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The present report is
submitted in accordance with that request.

II. Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

2. As at 1 July 2008, the Convention on the Rights of the Child had been ratified
or acceded to by 193 States and two States had signed the Convention.1

3. As at 1 July 2008, the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in
armed conflict had been ratified by 121 States and signed by 123 States and the
Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography
had been ratified by 127 States and signed by 115 States.1

III. Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

4. During the reporting period, the Committee on the Rights of the Child held its
forty-sixth to forty-eighth sessions at the United Nations Office at Geneva, from
17 September to 5 October 2007, from 14 January to 1 February 2008 and from
19 May to 6 June 2008, respectively.

5. The Chairperson of the Committee will present her oral report to the General
Assembly at its sixty-third session and will inform the Assembly of the Committee’s
request to work in two chambers beginning in October 2009. The decision of the
Committee, adopted after it was informally advised of related financial implications,
is annexed to the present report. The Committee will reconfirm its decision upon
receipt of the full statement of programme budget implications from the Programme
Planning and Budget Division of the Secretariat.

6. In conformity with rule 75 of its provisional rules of procedure, the Committee
on the Rights of the Child has decided to periodically devote one day of general
discussion to a specific article of the Convention or to a theme related to the rights
of the child in order to enhance understanding of the content and implications of the
Convention. At its forty-sixth session, the Committee devoted a day of general
discussion to the subject of the allocation of resources for the rights of the child in
accordance with article 4 of the Convention. Following the general discussion, the
Committee adopted a set of recommendations (see CRC/C/46/3).

Annex

Decision of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to request approval from the General Assembly at its sixty-third session to work in two chambers (Adopted on 6 June 2008).

In view of the number of States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which now stands at 193, and to its Optional Protocols on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which now stand at 126 and 120, respectively, and their reporting obligations, the current status of submission of reports and the projected future submission of reports, the Committee on the Rights of the Child is convinced that effective and timely implementation of its responsibilities under article 44 of the Convention and articles 8 and 12 of its Optional Protocols require that it be granted more meeting time during 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Currently, the number of reports awaiting review stands at over 80, and the average delay between submission and consideration is close to three years. The Committee has continued to keep its working methods under review and seeks to consider 10 reports at each session. The decision of the Committee, adopted at its thirty-seventh session in 2004, to work in two chambers was implemented in 2006.

In the course of that year, the reports of 48 States parties were considered and the
backlog of reports awaiting review was eliminated, thereby encouraging the
submission of overdue reports by many States parties. In order to address the current
backlog and to encourage timely reporting, so as to ensure appropriate monitoring
of the Convention and its Optional Protocols, the Committee has concluded that it
would require eight additional weeks of meetings of its sessions and four additional
weeks of pre-sessional meetings, which would be convened from mid-2009 to 2011.

The Committee therefore requests the General Assembly, at its sixty-third session, to approve the present request and to provide appropriate financial support to enable the Committee to work in two chambers as of October 2009 for its fifty-third pre-sessional working group and as of January 2010 for its fifty-third session. The functioning of the two chamber system would be in place for four sessions until the Committee’s fifty-sixth session in January 2011.

The Committee would consider the reports of States parties during its regular sessions, in two parallel chambers, each consisting of nine members of the Committee, taking due account of equitable geographical distribution, thereby increasing the number of reports of States parties to be examined from 10 to 16 per session, which, over four sessions, would result in an increase in the number of reports considered from 40 to 64 reports.

The Committee would meet for 10 working days during each three-week session in parallel chambers and in parallel working groups for the duration of its one-week pre-sessional working groups.

Further information

• Relevant documents for the 63rd session of the GA
• The United Nations and Child Rights (CRIN)
• The General Assembly and Child Rights (CRIN)
• News feed on child rights and the CRC