COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD BRIEFED ON ACTIVITIES OF UNITED NATIONS AGENCIES, NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION

HR/CRC/99/41
22 September 1999


Several United Nations agencies and a non-governmental organization (NGO) briefed the Committee on the Rights of the Child this afternoon on activities pertaining to child rights and on their cooperation with the Committee.

Issues discussed included the preparation of reports, action based on concluding observations and recommendations, and standards on child labour, among other things.

The Committee was addressed by representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO); United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); International Labour Office (ILO); and "NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child".

When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. Thursday, 23 September, it will take up a second periodic report of the Russian Federation.

Discussion

MARCUS STAHLHOFER, of the World Health Organization (WHO), said his organization had been aiding the country reporting process by carefully avoiding duplication of methods in dealing with questions related to children. WHO was also working towards playing an important role in the preparation process of country reports. For the time being, the organization intended to raise awareness of its staff at country level and fulfil their specific needs in the field with regard to child rights.

Regarding follow-up measures, the organization would make known the concluding observations and recommendations of the Committee to WHO staff in the field. However, the agency had not enough knowledge of the role it should play in that regard. He hoped that WHO would adopt general guidelines for this process.

LESLEY MILLER, of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said her agency had been engaged in assisting Governments in the process of the preparation of their country reports. It also identified problems in given countries concerning children and defined programmes with Governments. UNICEF's participation in the preparation process had given it the opportunity to deal with other issues related to the rights of children. Field presence of UNICEF was important in assessing the general situation of children in a country during the process of preparation of reports. Concerning the Committee's backlog in considering reports, the representative said the panel had made a significant and serious effort to resolve the problem.

The UNICEF representative said that because of the absence of permanent missions in Geneva, some Governments had been reluctant to send delegations from their capital cities to present reports. Subsequently, the burden of arranging transportation and hotel reservations some times fell on UNICEF. For example, Mali would come before the Committee next week to present its initial report, but it was able to come only with assistance from UNICEF, including the payment of transportation and hotel expenses.

YOSHIE NOGUCHI, of the International Labour Office (ILO), said the Committee's concluding observations and recommendations on country reports were a valuable source for the work of her office. International standard setting on labour and technical cooperation were among the main roles of ILO, which also attached great importance to standards on child labour.

She said that since March of this year, the new ILO Director-General, Juan Somavia, had been making some changes, giving high priority to child-labour aspects. He would continue ILO cooperation with the Committee. Some countries had not yet ratified the ILO Convention 138 on child labour, yet the elimination of child labour was one of the main principles that countries should apply in their national development efforts.

LAURA THEYTAZ-BERGMANN, of the "NGO Group for the Convention of the Rights of the Child", said that States in central Africa, the Middle East and island countries had been problematic in fulfilling their reporting obligations according to the Committee's guidelines. The NGO Group, taking into account the needs of the Committee, had been providing information from the field. In addition, with the additional funds it expected to receive next year, the group would translate NGO documents from the language of submission to English.

During discussion, some Committee members suggested that the Committee should pay more attention to the manner in which different countries cooperated or participated in ILO programmes, including technical cooperation. They also proposed that the various institutions working in favour of the rights of the child regularly present to the Committee reports on activities undertaken in the field. It was also suggested that ways be envisaged in which the Committee could benefit from the information gathered by UNICEF country offices throughout the world. UNICEF offices could perhaps transmit information to the Committee on child rights for the Committee’s consideration of not only scheduled reports but also of situations in countries whose reports had not yet been submitted.