GENEVA (19 May 2016) – Children’s rights in Slovakia will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on 24 and 25 May in sessions that will be webcast live. Slovakia 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 Slovakia on how the Convention is being implemented. Members will base their evaluation on the delegation’s replies, as well as information from civil society groups.

Among the possible issues to be discussed:

• Independence of the Children’s Commissioner’s institution;
• Measures to protect Roma and LGBTI children from hate speech, violence and discrimination;
• Continued segregation of Roma children in the education system;
• Effective investigation of all cases of Romani girls who were sterilised;
• Steps to transfer children from residential institutions to family environments;
• Ban on corporal punishment within the home;
• Inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream schools;
• Sexual health and reproductive health and rights of adolescents;
• Situation of refugee and asylum-seeking children.

The full list of issues and Slovakia’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 in Palais Wilson in Geneva on Tuesday 24 May from 15:00-18:00 and Wednesday 25 May from 10:00-13:00. The meetings are public and will be webcast at http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.

The Committee will hold a news conference at 12:00 on 9 June at the Palais des Nations in Geneva to discuss its findings on Slovakia and the other countries being reviewed – Samoa, Nepal, UK, Pakistan, Gabon , Bulgaria 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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