Committee on Rights of the Child concludes fifty-ninth session

Committee on the Rights of the Child
PROVISIONAL ROUNDUP

3 February 2012

Adopts Concluding Recommendations on Reports of Azerbaijan, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Myanmar, Madagascar, Togo, Thailand and the Cook Islands

The Committee on the Rights of the Child today concluded its fifty-eighth session and adopted its report and its concluding observations and recommendations on 12 country reports from seven countries. During the session, the Committee examined six reports on implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which consisted of the initial report of the Cook Islands and the periodic reports of Azerbaijan, Madagascar, Myanmar, Thailand and Togo. It also considered the initial reports of Azerbaijan, Thailand and Togo under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and the initial reports of Azerbaijan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Thailand under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on children involved in armed conflict. Niue had been scheduled to present its initial report on the Convention, but it was postponed.

The Committee will issue its concluding observations and recommendations on all reports on Monday 6 February 2012 and will be available at the following link. They will be summarized in a Round-Up press release which will be issued the same day.

Agnes Akosua Aidoo, the Committee Rapporteur, said that Committee members had been very active during the session, attending meetings and briefings and continuing work on General Comments. Important meetings were held with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on treaty body strengthening and the third Optional Protocol on a communications procedure; for the latter the Committee was keen to ensure that the best interests of the child and child friendliness were reflected in the rules of procedure. The Committee held its periodic meeting with the NGO Group discussing child participation and other matters. It also decided that the 2012 Day of General Discussion, to be held in September, will be on the rights of all children in the context of international migration.

In closing remarks, Jean Zermatten, the Committee Chairperson, summed up the activities of the Committee, noting that during its fifty-ninth session Committee members had officially adopted 12 reports following dialogue with the State parties. Mr. Zermatten said that the Committee had decided it was unable to receive any more General Comment requests before it had concluded the five General Comments it was currently working on. Concerning the process of the harmonization of the work of the treaty bodies, the Chairperson said the Committee had unanimously agreed to support the “Dublin II document.

The Committee’s sixtieth session will be held in Geneva from 29 May to 15 June 2012, when it will consider the reports of Algeria, Australia, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and Viet Nam under the main Convention; the reports of Australia, Greece and Nepal on the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, and the reports of Australia and Greece on the Optional Protocol on children in armed conflict will also be considered.

Documentation for the fifty-ninth session of the Convention on the Rights of the Child can be found on the Committee’s webpage.

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For use of the information media; not an official record