HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS URGES THAT HIGH PRIORITY BE GIVEN TO END VIOLATIONS OF CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

MORNING

HR/CRC/98/3
6 January 1998


Mrs. Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, today said that violations of the rights of the child were still widespread
and urged that high priority be given to address the problems of children who
were victims of sale, sexual exploitation and child labour.

Mrs. Robinson, who was addressing the Committee on the Rights of the Child,
said that 1998 was an important year as the international community
commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. She said that the protection of children must be central to the
commemorative activities.

Committee Chairperson, Mrs. Sandra Mason, expert from Barbados, said that
since the Committee had been formed in 1991, it had urged that the protection
of children be central to all Governments. Mr. Youri Kolosov, Committee
Expert from the Russian Federation, called on every State to undertake
necessary measures to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Maldives had been scheduled to send a delegation to the Committee today
to discuss its report on how it was implementing the Convention on the Rights
of the Child. Mrs. Mason said the Committee had not heard from the Maldives
and had to assume the delegation was not showing up. The 191 States parties
to the Convention are obliged to present periodic reports to the Committee on
how they are implementing the Convention.

Mrs. Mason said that the Committee took into account that some countries with
scarce resources could not afford to send delegations to Geneva. Committee
experts discussed the viability of considering the situation in the Maldives based
on the report and in the absence of the delegation. The Chairperson said that
the issue would be discussed in private. The Committee then heard about the
activities of its experts during the intercessional period.

The Committee is made up of 10 independent human rights experts who
monitor the implementation of the Convention. The Committee will discuss in
private its methods of work for the rest of today and all day Wednesday. At 10
a.m. on Thursday, 8 January 1998, it will start consideration of a report
presented by the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya on how it implements the Convention.

Statement of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

MARY ROBINSON, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, said that 1998 was an important year for human rights as the
international community commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. She said there was a need to redouble efforts to
make human rights a reality world-wide, to prevent human rights abuses, to
build a global partnership for human rights and to ensure that human rights,
along with peace, democracy and sustainable development, formed the guiding
principles of the twenty-first century.

Mrs. Robinson said that the protection of children must be central to the
commemorative activities. She said that violations of the rights of the child were
still widespread, and that particular attention and high priority would continue to
be needed to address the problems of children in especially difficult
circumstances, notably victims of sale, sexual exploitation and child labour, as
well as to the special disadvantages affecting the girl child.

The High Commissioner noted that Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his report
of last July entitled "Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform",
called for the placing of human rights at the centre of the United Nations
activities. She said that she attached great importance to cooperation with the
United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other United Nations agencies
and programmes to give new impetus to work for child rights. The Committee
was to be congratulated on its pioneering contribution to the "Rights of the Child
Approach" which UNICEF had adopted.

Mrs. Robinson drew the attention of the Committee to several resolutions which
were adopted by the General Assembly at its 52nd session. These included a
resolution entitled "The Girl Child" in which States were urged to take all
necessary measures and institute legal reforms to ensure the full and equal
enjoyment by the girl child of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and to
take effective action against violations of these rights and freedoms.

She noted that two inter-sessional working groups of the Commission on
Human Rights for the elaboration of draft optional protocols to the Convention
on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography on the one hand
and on involvement of children in armed conflicts would meet in Geneva from
19 to 30 January and from 2 to 13 February 1998 respectively. She said that
the Committee might wish to contribute to the activities of those working groups
by making oral or written statements.