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

GENEVA (6 January 2016) – Children’s rights in Senegal will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 11 and 12 January in sessions that will be webcast live.

Senegal 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 Senegal on how the Convention is being implemented. The CRC 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 based on social status or caste;  female genital mutilation; child and customary marriage; lack of access to inclusive education and health care for children with disabilities; criminalization of abortion; child labour; efforts to remove talibé children, often mistreated, exploited and used as beggars, from control of Koranic teachers; measures to prevent and eliminate sexual exploitation and trafficking of children;  demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of child victims of the armed conflict in the Casamance region.

The full list of issues and Senegal’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 the Palais des Nations in Geneva at the following times
Monday 11 January: 15:00-18:00 (14:00-17:00 in Dakar)
Tuesday 12 January: 10:00-13:00 (09:00-12:00)
The meetings are public and will be webcast here:  http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.

The CRC will hold a news conference to discuss its findings on Senegal and the other countries being reviewed - Iran, Oman, Latvia, France, Ireland, Haiti, Peru, Maldives, Zimbabwe, 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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