6 February 1998


Mr. John Mills, the media officer for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that on Tuesday, he had omitted to mention something that had been well previewed - that Mr. Enrique Ter Horst had joined the Office as the Deputy High Commissioner. Mr. Ter Horst would be the officer-in-charge whenever Mrs. Robinson was away.

The High Commissioner was back in Geneva. Mr. Mills pointed out that next Monday, Mrs. Robinson would address the Working Group on a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. After talking to Mr. Nils Eliasson, the Chairman of the Working Group, this morning, Mr. Mills said that for the moment, there was no consensus on an age limit for participation in hostilities, for recruitment into armed forces, or for recruitment by non-governmental armed groups. However, those discussions were continuing.

Mr. Mills said that copies of Mrs. Robinson's speech to the Working Group would be made available. Mr. Eliasson was not confident that the meeting would last until the end of the next week, and had indicated that it could end as early as Monday afternoon. Whenever the meeting finished, Mr. Mills would inform correspondents a couple of hours beforehand and the Chairman would be willing to brief correspondents when the meeting ended.

In response to a question, Mr. Mills said that the meeting was public and was taking place in Room XVI. He said Mrs. Robinson would speak at 10.30 a.m. on Monday.

Yesterday, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, had a message read on his behalf in which he strongly supported the proposal to raise the minimum age in the three categories mentioned earlier to 18 years. He said one of the worst abuses of children was their use as combatants. He urged all delegates to join a consensus.

Asked which countries were opposing the consensus on minimum age, Mr. Mills said there were a number of countries which had reservations and that the United States was opposed to raising the age for military service to 18.

In response to a question on the latest developments concerning the move of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Palais Wilson, Mr. Mills said there had been hope that something would be happening in March, at least in terms of a dedication. But this hope had always been qualified as needing the final approval of the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly which dealt with financial issues. The Fifth Committee did discuss the issue in December, but it did not resolve it beyond saying that it would re-address the issue at its first resumed session this year at the beginning of March. So nothing more would be said on whether the Office might or might not move until the Fifth Committee gave the final green light. Asked which countries had blocked the move, Mr. Mills said that the Department of Public Information press release which was put out at the time of that session included the countries which had raised some concerns. He said he would not use the word "blocking" to describe their position.

Asked if he was saying that the Chairman of the Working Group on the draft optional protocol was prepared to end the meeting early next week without a consensus, Mr. Mills said that was not the case. When he spoke to the Chairman this morning to get an idea of their progress, the Chairman expressed his concern and said that the meeting could end quite early next week rather than continue until the end of next week.

In response to a question on whether the Office of the High Commissioner had received an answer from the Mexican Government to the letter sent by the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Mr. Bacre N'diaye, Mr. Mills said he would check to see whether there had been a response to the communications sent.

In response to a question on how the new structure of the Office differed from that of the former High Commissioner, Mr. José Ayala- Lasso, Mr. Mills confirmed that this was the week when the restructuring of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was taking effect. People were being given new assignments and there was quite an intensive process of people moving around in terms of their functions and roles. As for the difference between now and when Mr. Ayala-Lasso was still in office, he said that the restructuring that was underway was the result of the process which Mr. Ayala-Lasso had put in place. Details of the restructuring of the Office into three branches could be found in various documents.

Asked if the new Deputy High Commissioner would meet with the correspondents, Mr. Mills said that he had already mentioned this to Mr. Ter Horst. The new Deputy had said that he would be happy to meet the press at some stage, but begged for their indulgence and asked for a couple of weeks in the job before he does so. The correspondent noted that the High Commissioner had met with the press two days after she came to Geneva, and asked if the new Deputy was scared to meet the media. Mr. Mills said this was not the case at all.