Children’s rights: UN Committee to review Benin, El Salvador, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mauritania, Niger, and Saudi Arabia and to hold a Day of General Discussion

Children’s rights: UN Committee to review Benin, El Salvador, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mauritania, Niger, and Saudi Arabia and to hold a Day of General Discussion

GENEVA (13 September 2018) – The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child will meet in Geneva from 17 September to 5 October to review children’s rights in the following countries: Benin, El Salvador, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mauritania, Niger, and Saudi Arabia. It will also host a special all-day event, known as Day of General Discussion, on children human rights defenders, with the participation of children.

The Committee, which is composed of 18 independent experts, monitors how the 196 States that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and/or its two Optional Protocols are complying with their obligations.

The sessions will be held on the following schedule in the ground floor conference room of Palais Wilson in Geneva:

On Friday 28 September, the Committee will hold its 2018 Day of General Discussion, a special all-day public event, on the theme of “Protecting and empowering children as human rights defenders”, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Room XVII at Palais des Nations.

A Child Advisory Team supported the Committee in organizing the event, and all the discussions will be moderated by a child advisor and an adult member of the Committee. Around 300 participants are expected to attend, including numerous children human rights defenders from all regions of the world. More information on the Day of General Discussion (#DGD2018) is available.

The recommended hashtag for the session will be #CRC79 and the sessions will be webcast live.

More information about the work of the Committee.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child will publish its findings, known as concluding observations, on Wednesday, 10 October 2018, which can be found here.

A news conference to present the findings is scheduled for 13:30 the same day at the Palais des Nations in Geneva (room to be confirmed). 

For more information and media requests, please contact Julia Gronnevet jgronnevet@ohchr.org / (+41) 22 917 93 10

ENDS

The Committee on the Rights of the Child monitors States parties’ adherence to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols on involvement of children in armed conflict and on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The Convention to date has 196 States parties. The Committee is made up of 18 members who 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.

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