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

GENEVA (7 September  2016) – Children’s rights in Nauru will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on 13 and 14 September  in sessions that will be webcast live. Nauru 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.

Among the possible issues to be discussed between Committee members and a government delegation from Nauru are:
·    Taking the best interests of the child into account  in decisions regarding asylum-seeking and refugee children;
·    Implementation of the open centre policy for asylum seekers and refugees, including the current living conditions of refugee and asylum seeking children in the Regional Processing Centres;
·    Availability of adequate health services, including psychological and psychosocial care, for asylum-seeking and refugee children;
·    Measures to protect child victims and witnesses of sexual abuse and physical assault;
·    Provision of sexual and health services, including HIV/AIDS services;
·    Measures to implement the Juvenile Justice Bill of 2015.

The full list of issues and Nauru’s submitted written report can be found here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1041&Lang=en

The discussions will take place at Palais Wilson in Geneva on 13 September from 15:00-18:00 (1:00-4:00 in Nauru on September 14) and on 14 September from 10:00-13:00 (20:00-23:00 in Nauru). The meetings are public and will be webcast at http://webtv.un.org/. 

Committee members will base their evaluation on the delegation’s report and replies, as well as information from civil society groups.

The Committee will publish its findings on Nauru and the other countries being reviewed –Sierra Leone, New Zealand, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Suriname - on 6 October here:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1041&Lang=en

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Ravina Shamdasani 41 22 917 9169 / rshamdasani@ohchr.org or Cécile Pouilly 41 22 917 9310 / cpouilly@ohchr.org

Media accreditation:     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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