GENEVA (18 May 2016) – Children’s rights in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on 23 and 24 May in sessions that will be webcast live.  The UK 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 the UK on how the Convention is being implemented. Members will base their evaluation on the delegation’s replies, as well as information from the UK Children’s Commissioners and civil society groups.

Among the possible issues for discussion:
·    Child poverty and the impact of recent welfare reforms on children’s rights;
·    Excessive use of force by police against children, including stop-and-search checks;
·    Increase in number of children placed in care, and lack of stability in care arrangements;
·    Measures to meet increase in demand for mental health services for children;
·    Taking best interests of the child into account in decisions involving migrant, asylum-seeking or refugee children;
·    Child sexual abuse and exploitation;
·    Recruitment of 16 and 17-year-olds into the Army;
·    Impact of UK’s international development cooperation on privatization of education in recipient countries.

The full list of issues and the United Kingdom’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 Monday 23 May from 15:00-18:00 (14:00-17:00 in the UK) and Tuesday 24 May from 10:00-13:00 (09:00-12:00). The meetings are public and will be webcast at http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/. 

The Committee is due to hold a news conference at 12:00 on 9 June at Palais des Nations in Geneva to discuss its findings on the UK  and the other countries being reviewed – Samoa, Nepal, Slovakia, Pakistan, Gabon, Bulgaria and Luxembourg. The CRC will publish its findings, officially known as concluding observations, 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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