Committee on children’s rights urges the US and Somalia to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child Urges States to outlaw recruitment of child soldiers

NEW YORK (13 October 2010) – The Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Ms. Yanghee Lee*, has called upon Somalia and the United States to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The two are the only countries that have not ratified the 1989 Convention that sets out economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights as well as special protection measures for all persons under the age of 18 years.

“With the best interests of all children at heart, I would respectfully like to reiterate our appeal that these States ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child”, Ms. Lee told the United Nations General Assembly today. Ms. Lee also called upon countries that have not yet done so to ratify the two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC) and on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC).To date, 139 States have ratified the OPAC and 141 States the OPSC.

This year, the Committee and partners** launched a campaign to ensure universal ratification of the Optional Protocols by 2012 – the tenth anniversary of their entry into force – and to raise awareness about the States parties’ obligation to ensure that their national laws comply with the Protocols.

The OPAC sets out that children under the age of 18 shall not be recruited or used in hostilities and obliges States parties to prevent, prohibit and criminalize such practices.

“So far, very few States parties have explicitly criminalized the recruitment of children in their penal legislation”, observed Ms. Lee.

The Protocol also requires States to raise the age for voluntary recruitment of persons into the national armed forces. In line with the definition of the child under the Convention, the Committee encourages the minimum age for voluntary recruitment to be raised to 18 years. “The Committee regrets that several States continue to permit voluntary military recruitment of persons below 18 years,” said Ms. Lee.

Speaking about OPSC, Ms. Lee expressed concern that many States still have laws that criminalize children for prostitution, rather than treating them as victims of child prostitution.

On a positive note, she highlighted the ongoing elaboration of a third Optional Protocol which would allow children and/or their representatives to file individual complaints for violation of the rights of children as an “exciting and groundbreaking development towards the full realization of the rights of children.”

“An Optional Protocol establishing a communications procedure would constitute an important shift towards the recognition of children as subjects and holders of rights,” she said.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child monitors States parties’ compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols. Established in 1991, it comprises 18 independent experts in the field of children’s rights, nominated and elected by States parties to the Convention.

(*) Ms. Lee holds joint appointments in the Law School; the Department of Child Psychology and Education; and Department of Human Resources Development, at Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea. She has been a member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child since 2003 and was re-elected as its Chairperson in 2009, a position held since 2007. She is founder and President of the Korean Society for the Rights of Children with disabilities as well as Vice-Chair of the Korean Association for Child Studies, Co-Founder and Governing Board Member of Korean Council for Children’s Rights and serves on the Governing Board Member of the Korean Association for the Prevention of Child abuse and Neglect.

(**) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UNICEF, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG-CAAC), the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children (SRSG-VAC), and the Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.

Learn more about the mandate and activities of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/index.htm

Check the Convention on the Rights of the Child: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm

For more information on the Committee and media requests, please contact Fred Kirungi in New York (Tel:+1 917 367 3431/email: kirungi@un.org) or Susan Mathews in Geneva (Tel: + 41 22 917 9154 / email: SMathews@ohchr.org)