HIGH COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE CONVENES DAMASCUS SEMINAR ON IMPLEMENTATION OF CHILD RIGHTS COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

15 December 2003

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is organizing a workshop on the implementation of concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in Damascus, Syria, from 17 to 19 December. The meeting will bring together participants from Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

The Committee issues concluding observations after it reviews whether a country is respecting the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The observations include an assessment of the situation in the given country and recommendations on how to improve the application of the treaty.

In his address to the Damascus meeting, acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan recalls that the main objective of the human rights treaty body system is to ensure human rights protection at the national level through implementation of the human rights contained in the treaties. Mr. Ramcharan notes that the Convention on the Rights of the Child has achieved near-universal adherence, having now been accepted by an unprecedented 192 States.

The seminar will be attended by Government officials, civil society organizations, the national human rights institution of Jordan and United Nations agencies.