COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD OPENS SEVENTEENTH SESSION

Morning
HR/CRC/98/2
5 January 1998


Committee Adopts Agenda

The Committee on the Rights of the Child, the expert panel in charge of
monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
opened its seventeenth session this morning and adopted its agenda.

Committee Chairperson, Ms. Sandra Mason, said that Mrs. Mary Robinson,
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, will address the
panel Tuesday morning.

In the brief opening session, the Committee adopted its agenda and then held a
private session to discuss its programme of work. Ms. Mason pointed out that
the Committee will discuss cooperation with other United Nations bodies
throughout the session, including meetings devoted to one-to-one discussions
with UNAIDS, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and
non-governmental organizations. During its three-week session, the Committee
will discuss the promotion and protection of children's rights in the Maldives, the
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Ireland and the Federated States of Micronesia. It will
also discuss methods of work and other matters.

As part of its discussion of methods of work, the Committee will follow-up on
its General Discussion held October 6 1997 on the plight of the world’s
estimated 100 million children with disabilities. United Nations bodies,
specialized agencies, non-governmental organizations and individual experts
participated in the discussion which focused on the human rights of children with
disabilities in all aspects of society, including their rights to life, development,
and to participate fully in education.

The countries scheduled to come before the Committee at this session are
among the 191 that have ratified or acceded to the Convention which is the
most widely accepted human rights instrument ever, protecting the rights of
approximately 2 billion children worldwide.

When it reconvenes tomorrow at 10 a.m., the panel will hear the intervention of
Mrs. Robinson before taking up a report from the Maldives on how the
Convention is implemented in the country. (For further information on the
seventeenth session of the Committee, please see Press Release
HR/CRC/98/1).