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

GENEVA (26 May 2016) – Children’s rights in Bulgaria will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on 30 May in sessions that will be webcast live. Bulgaria is one of the 196 States that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and so is required to be reviewed regularly by the Committee of 18 independent experts.

Committee members will hold discussions with a government delegation from Bulgaria on how the Convention is being implemented. They will base their evaluation on the delegation’s replies, as well as information from civil society groups.

Among the possible issues for discussion:
·    Public spending on children, including targeted budgets for marginalised children and those in vulnerable situations;
·    Outcomes of investigations into deaths of children with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in institutions;
·    Measures to identify child victims of neglect and abuse in institutions, foster care and families;
·    Measures to tackle discrimination against Roma children;
·    Maternal and infant health services, especially for Roma families;
·    Protection of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, prevention of detention of asylum-seeking families in reception centres;
·    Action taken to tackle sale of children for adoption.

The full list of issues and Bulgaria’s submitted written report can be found here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=987&Lang=en

The discussions will take place at Palais Wilson in Geneva on Monday 30 May from 10:00-13:00 (11:00-14:00 in Sofia) and from 15:00-18:00 (16:00-19:00.) The meetings are public and will be webcast here:  http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.

The Committee is due to hold a news conference at 12:00 on 9 June at the Palais des Nations in Geneva to discuss its findings on Bulgaria and the other countries being reviewed – Samoa, Nepal, the UK, Slovakia, Pakistan, Gabon and Luxembourg. The findings, officially known as concluding observations, will be published on 9 June here:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=987&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 – please see:    http://unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpPages)/70991F6887C73B2280256EE700379C58?OpenDocument

Background

Members of the CRC are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Committee’s concluding observations are an independent assessment of States’ compliance with their human rights obligations under the treaty. To learn more about the Committee on the Rights of the Child: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx

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