HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS WELCOMES RATIFICATION AND ENTRY INTO FORCE OF OPTIONAL PROTOCOL ON SALE OF CHILDREN

26 October 2001



United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson has welcomed Romania's ratification on 18 October of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The ratification, the tenth, will lead to the entry into force of the Optional Protocol on 18 January 2002.

The Optional Protocol complements the Convention by providing a non-exhaustive list of acts and activities to be criminalized by States Parties in order to fight these violations of the human rights of children.

'The Optional Protocol is of fundamental importance given the global increase in the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography', the High Commissioner said. 'Closer collaboration among States is urgently needed to combat these activities that often take place across national borders'.

The High Commissioner urged Governments who have not yet ratified the Optional Protocol to do so without delay. Sixty-eight States have already signed it without proceeding to ratification. 'It would be a very good signal of their commitment in the weeks before the Second World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children which will gather in Yokohama, Japan, from 17 to 20 December 2001', she said. She also called on States to ratify the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, adopted by the General Assembly on 25 May 2000 but ratified by only seven States so far. Ten ratifications are also needed for its entry into force.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child will be in charge of monitoring progress achieved by States parties in implementing the Optional Protocol on the sale of children. States will submit to the Committee an initial report two years after ratification. Thereafter, they will include detailed information on the Protocol in their periodic reports on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.



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