COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD OPENS TWENTY-FIRST SESSION

HR/CRC/99/19
17 May 1999


The Committee on the Rights of the Child met briefly this morning to open its spring three-week session, hearing an update on the activities of related human-rights bodies and reviewing the status of pending and overdue country reports.

Francisco José Aguilar Urbina, Chief of the Support Services Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, brought the Committee up to date on related activities, noting that the Commission on Human Rights had held a special meeting on the implications of the marginalization of children and announcing that in July the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) would hold a ceremony to celebrate the tenth anniversary of adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. He added that two new professional staff members had joined the Office of the High Commissioner to aid in implementation of the Office's Plan of Action for the Convention; and that an independent study of human-rights treaty bodies was being carried out by two consultants.

A secretariat representative reported that two initial reports and three periodic reports had been received since the Committee's fall session. Over the panel's eight-year history, he said, 156 reports had been received
-- 133 initial and 23 periodic -- and 98 had been considered. Some 57 initial and 100 periodic reports were overdue, he added.

Three Experts of the Committee made the standard solemn declaration required of new and re-elected members.

The Committee will reconvene at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 18 May, to elect officers. It will take up an initial report of Barbados at 11 a.m.