UN Committee to review Latvia’s record on children’s rights

GENEVA (7 January  2016) – Children’s rights in Latvia will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 12 and 13 January in sessions that will be webcast live.

Latvia is one of the 196 states that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and so is required to undergo regular examinations of its record by the Committee of 18 independent experts.

The CRC members will hold discussions with a government delegation from Latvia on how the Convention is being implemented. The CRC will also examine how Latvia is doing with regard to two other important legal instruments: the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (OPSC) and the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC). The Committee will base its evaluation on the delegation’s replies, as well as information from civil society groups.

These are among the possible issues to be discussed: Discrimination against children with disabilities; discrimination against children from minorities, including Roma; data on and response to violence against children, including in the family;  sexual abuse of children in mental health institutions; slow development of foster family network, number of children in institutional care; high rate of child mortality due to accidents and suicide; high rate of teenage pregnancy; number of children with no official nationality; state support for children in vulnerable situations; trafficking in girls and boys, within and outside Latvia.

The full list of issues and Latvia’s submitted written report can be found here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=924&Lang=en

The CRC’s meetings with the delegation will take place in Room XXIV at Palais des Nations in Geneva at the following times
Tuesday 12 January: 15:00-18:00
Wednesday 13 January: 10:00 – 18:00
The sessions are public and will be webcast here: http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.

The CRC will hold a news conference to discuss its findings on Latvia and the other countries being reviewed - Senegal, Iran, Oman, France, Ireland, Haiti, Peru, Maldives, Zimbabwe, Maldives, Zambia, Benin, Brunei and Kenya – at 12:00 on 4 February at the Palais des Nations. The findings, officially called concluding observations, will be published on 4 February here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=924&Lang=en

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Liz Throssell (+41 (0) 22 917 9466/ +41 79 752 0488 ethrossell@ohchr.org

Media accreditation for the Palais des Nations:   http://unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpPages)/70991F6887C73B2280256EE700379C58?OpenDocument

To learn more about the Committee on the Rights of the Child, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx

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