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21 September 2000
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CRC
25th session
21 September 2000
The violence inflicted on children by State institutions will be the subject of a day-long discussion at the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Friday, 22 September.
Orphans, children abandoned or removed from their parents because of abuse, and children with disabilities are sometimes the victims of mistreatment while in the care of the State. Children living and working in the streets often suffer the worst human rights violations: in a number of countries they are sometimes targeted for assassination, under the tolerant or even encouraging eyes of public security forces. Many children around the world are also the target of cruel and inhuman treatment and torture when they come into contact with the security forces and the judicial system.
This dire situation prevails despite the fact that the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the human rights instrument accepted by the largest number of countries, explicitly requires States to give special protection to children deprived of their families. Participants in Friday's debate -- including the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on Torture, Sir Nigel Rodley, representatives of United Nations agencies and bodies, and more than 70 non-governmental organizations and individual experts, are expected to propose recommendations for adoption by the Committee on the Rights of the Child to guide its work and that of States parties and other actors in addressing and preventing State violence against children. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson will open the discussion.
The Committee, currently meeting in Geneva's Palais Wilson, traditionally holds a thematic debate during its autumn gathering. The first such discussion was held in 1992 and led to the study by Graça Machel that helped call international attention to the plight of children affected by armed conflict. The study in turn led to the establishment of the mandate, discharged presently by Olara Otunnu, of Special Representative of the Secretary-General on children in armed conflict. It also resulted eventually in the adoption by the General Assembly in May 2000 of a new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Optional Protocol raises the age limit for recruitment and for involvement of children in armed conflict to 18 years.
For more information on the discussion on State violence against children, please visit the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, www.unhchr.ch.
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25th session
21 September 2000
The violence inflicted on children by State institutions will be the subject of a day-long discussion at the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Friday, 22 September.
Orphans, children abandoned or removed from their parents because of abuse, and children with disabilities are sometimes the victims of mistreatment while in the care of the State. Children living and working in the streets often suffer the worst human rights violations: in a number of countries they are sometimes targeted for assassination, under the tolerant or even encouraging eyes of public security forces. Many children around the world are also the target of cruel and inhuman treatment and torture when they come into contact with the security forces and the judicial system.
This dire situation prevails despite the fact that the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the human rights instrument accepted by the largest number of countries, explicitly requires States to give special protection to children deprived of their families. Participants in Friday's debate -- including the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on Torture, Sir Nigel Rodley, representatives of United Nations agencies and bodies, and more than 70 non-governmental organizations and individual experts, are expected to propose recommendations for adoption by the Committee on the Rights of the Child to guide its work and that of States parties and other actors in addressing and preventing State violence against children. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson will open the discussion.
The Committee, currently meeting in Geneva's Palais Wilson, traditionally holds a thematic debate during its autumn gathering. The first such discussion was held in 1992 and led to the study by Graça Machel that helped call international attention to the plight of children affected by armed conflict. The study in turn led to the establishment of the mandate, discharged presently by Olara Otunnu, of Special Representative of the Secretary-General on children in armed conflict. It also resulted eventually in the adoption by the General Assembly in May 2000 of a new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Optional Protocol raises the age limit for recruitment and for involvement of children in armed conflict to 18 years.
For more information on the discussion on State violence against children, please visit the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, www.unhchr.ch.
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