Opening address by Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights at the 59th session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child

Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished Members of the Committee,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the 59th session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and extend to all of you my very best wishes for the New Year. With all the work and challenges lined up for the new year, 2012 already feels no longer “new”. Let us join efforts to make the most of its promises and momentum for human rights, for children’s rights.

Optional protocol on a communications procedure

Allow me to recap some of the latest developments that relate to the work of the Committee as you start your 59th session. At long last, children have now joined the ranks of full-fledged rights-holders empowered to bring their complaints about violations of their rights to an international body! As you well know, on 19 December 2011, the General Assembly approved a new Optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which establishes a communications procedure. This protocol will allow you to receive individual complaints regarding violations of the Convention, as well as of its two optional protocols on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and make specific recommendations for action to the State responsible. You will also be able to initiate inquiries into grave and systematic violations of the Convention and its first two optional protocols. Children are now able to benefit from the full range of international protection procedures to safeguard their rights to eventually bring an end to all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation of children.

The High Commissioner and the Office will be diligent in calling upon all States to move expeditiously toward the ratification of the third Optional Protocol to enable it to enter into force as soon as possible, and on all partners that work for the benefit of children – national, regional and international – to build capacity, awareness and support for the Optional Protocol.
The Committee now has exciting work before it to develop innovative Rules of procedure to operationalize the Optional Protocol. I understand that you will aim to prevent the manipulation of children by those acting on their behalf under the Protocol through child-sensitive procedures and safeguards, as well as ensure the accessibility of the communications procedure to children and their representatives. We look forward to seeing the entry into force of the Optional Protocol after the 10th ratification.

Another topic that holds much promise is treaty body strengthening

The treaty body strengthening process has reached a decisive stage. The series of meetings and statements on the treaty body strengthening process, which began in Dublin in November 2009, culminated in the “Dublin II” wrap-up meeting of 10-11 November 2011. Representatives of the convening organizations of all the consultations held to date attended this meeting, as did the Chairpersons of seven treaty bodies, accompanied by several more treaty body members participating in their personal capacity. The Committee was ably represented by your Vice-Chairperson, Ms. Yanghee Lee. In Dublin, I saw the painstaking process of drawing together the results of this long reflection process, providing a strategic synthesis of the proposals that had emerged, as well as presenting clear recommendations to all relevant stakeholders. The Outcome Document was shared with you in electronic format in December and is now available in your files. Concrete recommendations are addressed to treaty bodies, States and OHCHR, respectively. Since the reflection process began, we have been confronted – now with greater frequency and interest – with the question of what will come next. While the issues might seem complex, our response is simple. There are recommendations for all stakeholders. All must do their part to reflect on what is expected of them and on what they can and wish to implement. Many recommendations cannot stand on their own but depend on others implementing the recommendations addressed to them. In this light, I would like to invite the Committee to reflect in earnest the recommendations that have emanated from Dublin II and to consider their applicability to your Committee. I recall that all treaty body experts were invited to engage in a closed online discussion about the various proposals.

Some States have felt that the consultation with States was too brief to address all the issues in their full complexity and thus asked for more time for consultations. The High Commissioner will thus facilitate another informal consultation for States in Geneva on 7-8 February 2012 and in New York on 2-3 April 2012. The High Commissioner will then publish her report on the strengthening of treaty bodies in May or early June 2012.

Meeting of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances
On another milestone development for the TB system, since your last session, the much anticipated tenth human rights treaty monitoring body was created. The ten inaugural members of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) were elected on 31 May 2011 and held their first session here in Geneva from 8 to 11 November 2011.

Child-related activities

With regard to the engagement of the Human Rights Council, following its resolution 16/12, the High Commissioner presented a report on the protection and promotion of the rights of children working and/or living on the street for consideration at the next session of the Human Rights Council. In her report, the High Commissioner invites the Committee to develop a general comment on "non discrimination and children in street situations", so as to provide more detailed guidance to States parties to the Convention on using a holistic, rights-based approach to support children in street situations. The report draws on a large number of submissions made by States, national human rights institutions and civil society, as well as on the results of an expert consultation organized by OHCHR last November in which both you, Mr. Chairperson, and one of your members, Ms. Herczog, participated.

The next Human Rights Council’s annual day of discussion on the rights of the child, scheduled for 8 March 2012, will be devoted to children and the administration of justice. The agenda and speakers for the panels are currently being finalized. In preparation of the discussion, an expert consultation on the prevention and responses to violence against children within the juvenile justice system will be held on 23-24 January in Vienna, where the Committee will be represented by Ms. Sandeberg. The meeting is being jointly organized by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) on Violence against Children, and OHCHR. The SRSG on Violence against Children will brief the March session of the Council on the results of this meeting.

Secretariat support
While the situation concerning the timely availability of translations of essential documents has slightly improved, problems continue with respect to the translation of Replies to the List of Issues. I would like to sincerely thank our colleagues in UNICEF who have again helped with the informal translation of some documentation for this session.

Greening of the UN

I would like to congratulate you most sincerely on your efforts to help us to protect the environment by using the CRC Extranet and thus reducing the quantity of paper to be printed for your folders. This is an important first step towards paperless sessions.

The present session

This session will indeed be a busy one! You will consider thirteen States party reports in all: seven on the main Convention (the initial reports of Cook Islands and Niue and the periodic reports of Azerbaijan, Madagascar, Myanmar, Thailand and Togo); three initial reports of Azerbaijan, Thailand and Togo under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and the three initial reports of Azerbaijan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Thailand under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on children involved in armed conflict.

Allow me to conclude by wishing you a very successful and productive 59th session.

Thank you.