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

GENEVA (11 January 2017) – Children’s rights in Estonia will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on 17-18 January in sessions that will be webcast live. Estonia 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 Estonia 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:
·    High rates of sexual abuse;
·    Rise in suicide rates among adolescents;
·    Increased detention of asylum-seeking and refugee children;
·    Favourable public attitudes toward corporal punishment;
·    Shortage of child protection workers;
·    Inclusive education;
·    Children in detention.

The full list of issues and the country’s submitted written report can be found here.

The discussions will take place at Palais Wilson in Geneva on 17January from 15:00-18:00 (16:00-19:00 in Tallinn) and 18 January from 10:00-13.00 (11:00-14:00). The meetings are public and will be webcast here:  http://webtv.un.org/live/ .

The findings, officially known as concluding observations, will be published on 8 February here.

ENDS

For media requests please contact:
Nicoleta Panta,  +41(0) 22 9179310 / npanta@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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