AGENCIES, NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION BRIEF COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF THE CHILD ON ACTIVITIES

AFTERNOON


HR/CRC/99/35
1 June 1999



A series of international agencies and a non-governmental organization (NGO) informed the Committee on the Rights of the Child this afternoon of their activities and on developments and trends in the field of child rights.

Topics discussed included drug abuse, problems encountered by child refugees, the role of media such as the Internet as both a boom and a threat to the interests of children, and efforts to eradicate particularly abusive forms of child labour.

Addressing the Committee were representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); the International Narcotics Control Board; the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); the International Labour Office (ILO); UNAIDS; and ATD Fourth World.

The Committee is not expected to reconvene in public session until 11:30 a.m. on Friday, 4 June, at which time it will release its formal conclusions and recommendations on reports submitted to it by Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, Honduras, Benin, Chad, and Nicaragua.

Discussion

ADA MADUAKOH, of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said children were one of the policy priorities for UNHCR, as they made up over 50 per cent of refugee populations. Senior regional child policy officers had been appointed; among their main functions were designing and implementing policy and decision-making in reference to children; pilot projects had been started in refugee camps to teach conflict resolution and peace building, including training of youth groups.


In Europe, UNHCR, in cooperation with the European Union, had issued a booklet on good practices in dealing with refugee children separated from their parents, Ms. Maduakoh said. UNHCR also had developed training modules for its own staff, NGOs, and Governments to improve refugee operations involving children. Other programmes around the world were intended to enhance cultural development, teach tolerance, empower women and girls, and help former child soldiers.

HAMID GHODSE, of the International Narcotics Control Board, said the Board was the coordinating agency for the United Nations drug-control conventions and had existed since 1968; it was a treaty-based body, independent of Governments, with 13 members. It helped Governments to meet their obligations under drug-control treaties they had signed; it identified where weaknesses existed in international drug-control systems and sought to rectify them. It published an annual report and three technical journals; among recent articles was one referring to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to efforts undertaken to protect children from the sale and use of illicit drugs.

The Board felt that current efforts to stop drug abuse by children were insufficient; disturbing patterns had appeared, including a rise in injection of opiates by young people in Vietnam, and a rise in "crack" use in Mexico, along with other problems around the world. The Board would be interested to hear what sort of collaboration the Committee would consider useful in combatting drug abuse, Mr. Ghodse said.

BILGE OGUN BASSANI, of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said UNICEF had been invited by the Norwegian Government to participate in its Oslo Challenge Project, which was to study possible roles for the modern media and digital technology in enhancing children's rights, and also potential pitfalls for children's rights of such media. Case studies would be used; efforts would be made to make children good "consumers" of media and to train parents in the content and management of media. UNICEF had agreed to take part in the project and would participate in its steering group.

A second part of the Oslo Challenge would be a review of the impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the occasion of the Convention's tenth anniversary; a meeting would be held on the topic. It was expected that the Committee also would be asked to serve on the steering committee and to participate in the review of the impact of the Convention.

RIDARDO HERNANDEZ PULIDO, of the International Labour Office (ILO), said the current session of the International Labour Conference would include pursuit of a draft convention meant to abolish the worst forms of child labour. Replies to questionnaires on the subject sent out by the ILO, including replies from the Committee, had resulted in development of a draft that was a basic working document for a technical committee that would start deliberations tomorrow on the draft convention. The convention would condemn the worst forms of child labour; such forms still had to be defined, but child slavery, forced labour, trade in children, debt servitude, child prostitution, and the use of children for pornography would be included.

States ratifying the convention would be obligated to root out such forms of abusive child labour. Rehabilitation and related responsibilities also would be spelled out. The new text was not meant to replace ILO convention 138; that convention would remain one of the bases for combatting child labour.

MIRIAM MALUWA, of UNAIDS, said the HIV/AIDS epidemic continued to explode, and the impact on young people and children was worsening; in 1998, more than 3 million persons under age 25 had been infected, including 590,000 under age 15. In addition, by the end of 1997, it was estimated that 8.2 million children had lost their mothers to AIDS before they turned 15; there were an estimated 6.2 million orphans, more than 95 per cent of them living in sub-Saharan Africa.

TAMAR RENAUD, of UNAIDS, reviewed the 1999 World AIDS Campaign as it applied to children and young people, saying it was important to listen to such young people and understand what was important in their lives; learn from one another about respect, participation, support, and ways to prevent HIV infection; and live in a world where the rights of children and young people were protected and where those living with HIV/AIDS were cared for and did not suffer discrimination. Efforts to help young people in terms of AIDS had failed in part because children and young people had not been adequately involved in designing and implementing effective prevention and care policies and programmes.

MARIE-CLAIRE DROZ, of ATD Fourth World, said the founder of the organization had held the deep conviction that no child should go unloved, and the organization persisted in that conviction; the organization was preparing an international forum on the rights of children who were extremely poor; for years the organization had brought together children from every social stratum and had informed the rest of the world on the daily lives of such children. It had fought for decades to improve their situations.

The international forum would be held in Geneva in November and would be attended by children from 20 to 30 countries; among other activities, they would visit the Palais des Nations and the Palais Wilson where they would present a message to the High Commissioner for Human Rights.



CORRIGENDUM

In press release HR/CRC/99/20 of 18 May 1999, the second paragraph on page 2 should read as follows:

The Committee began the morning session at 11 a.m. by announcing the election of its Bureau after a private meeting. Elected Chairwoman was Nafsiah Mboi. Selected as Vice Chairpersons were Marilia Sardenberg, Esther Margaret Queen Mokhuane, and Ghassan Salim Rabah. Jacob Egbert Doek was appointed Rapporteur.