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Geneva, 9 April 2003


59th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights

Item 13 (rights of the child)

Statement by
Mr. Jakob Egbert Doek
Chairperson, Committee on the Rights of the Child



Distinguished chairperson and members of the UN Commission on Human Rights

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the CRC Committee I like to thank the UN Commission for this opportunity to brief its members on some of the recent and most important developments regarding the implementation and monitoring of the CRC. This opportunity is particularly welcome because the CRC Committee is very much aware of and highly appreciates the Commission’s support for the realization of children’s rights.

Just as an example and an important one, I like to refer to the support of your Commission for the recommendation of the CRC Committee to the General Assembly to ask the Secretary General to conduct an international study on violence against children.
The Committee received with great satisfaction the information that Mr. Pinheiro has been appointed as the international expert for this study. Violence against children is wide spread, happens in all States Parties to the CRC and is committed not only by strangers or State’s agents, but also by parents and other care takers, persons the children depend upon for their healthy and harmonious development.

The CRC committee intends to be involved in this study and supports Mr. Pinheiro as much as possible. The Committee also counts on your Commission’s ongoing interest in and support for this international effort to develop the most effective ways and means to prevent, reduce and ultimately eliminate all forms of violence against children.
Since the last session of your Commission the CRC has adopted two General Comments, one on the Role of Independent National Human Rights Institutions in the promotion and protection of the rights of the child (CRC/GC/2002/2; 15 November 2002) and on HIV/AIDS and the rights of children (CRC/GC/2003/3; 12 March 2003).

The Committee also discussed the proposals of the Secretary General for reform of the reporting and monitoring of Human Rights. The suggestion to introduce the possibility of submitting one single or omnibus report, raises many questions which need a full and in depth consideration to assess the viability of such report. The CRC Committee fully agrees with the Secretary General – and many others – that improvements of the efficiency and effect of the existing Human Rights reporting and monitoring system is necessary and should be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

We should undertake concrete measures to better harmonize and coordinate the monitoring activities of the Treaty Body. At the same time, the States Parties should develop a more efficient reporting system e.g. by establishing a computerized system for the collection of information data that cover all the major human rights treaties. Such system could considerably facilitate adequate and timely reporting. The reform of the existing reporting and monitoring system is a matter of both the States Parties and the Treaty Body and only a well-coordinated and well-targeted cooperation with the support of all relevant UN entities, in particular the OHCHR, can produce the necessary improvements.

The CRC Committee hopes to conclude its current discussion on this reform and present concrete recommendations to the HCHR after its next session in May/June 2003.
Convinced that improvements are necessary and possible, the CRC Committee intends to contribute to the best of its capacity to the efforts to make Human Rights reporting and monitoring more efficient and effective.

Finally: in its next Session the CRC Committee will meet for the first time in its new composition of 18 members. The enlarged membership provides welcome and necessary opportunities to improve the guidance the Committee should provide to States Parties in their efforts to implement the CRC inter alia by issuing General Comments. It also allows the Committee to better deal with its growing workload, in particular the initial reports on the two Optional Protocols. Under each of these Protocols more than 40 States Parties are expected to submit their initial reports before the end of 2004.

Finally, the Committee very much wants to use the enlarged membership to considerably reduce the current backlog. In the discussion so far the Committee feels that this can be done best by examining States Parties in two parallel chambers meeting at the same time during its regular sessions. It would increase the number of reports examined per year from the current 27 to 48 and eliminate the backlog in about 4 to 5 sessions.

The Committee, aware of the various problems that have to be solved and of which funding is the most difficult one, will explore, as a matter of priority, the feasibility of this system examining of reports of States Parties. It is perhaps an unconventional approach, but in order to do justice to the States Parties’ efforts to periodically report, the Committee should examine these reports within the shortest time possible. Therefore we should not shy away from unconventional and creative solutions.

I am convinced that this new CRC Committee will continue and strengthen its contribution to an efficient and effective monitoring of t he implementation of the CRC. The new CRC Committee counts on the Human Rights Commission for support in this regard.
Only with the involvement and support of your Commission and other UN entities, NGO’s and civil society at large, we can build a world fit for all children.