GENEVA / NEW YORK (20 November 2012) – Five top United Nations child
rights experts* today urged world Governments to adopt more active
measures to protect children from all forms of violence, prevent the
perpetration of crimes against children and to bring to justice those
responsible for child sexual exploitation and for the recruitment and
use of children in armed conflict.
On Universal Children’s Day, the UN experts highlighted the urgency
of achieving universal ratification and effective implementation of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and its three optional protocols.
“These treaties are key to the safeguard of children’s rights and their
effective protection from violence, abuse and exploitation in peace and
conflict,” the experts stressed.
In May 2010 the UN Secretary-General launched a two-year global
campaign for the universal ratification of the first two Optional
Protocols by 2012 with the joint support of his Special Representatives
on Violence against Children, and for Children and Armed Conflict; the
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Special Rapporteur on
the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, in
cooperation with UNICEF and the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights.
Since the launch of the campaign, 24 Member States have ratified the
Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child
Pornography which is now in force in 161 countries; and 18 States have
become party to the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in
Armed Conflict amounting to a total of 150 ratifications.
In
December 2011, the General Assembly adopted the third Optional Protocol
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, introducing a
communications procedure to enable children to obtain redress for the
violations of their rights.
“The multiple ongoing conflicts with the involvement of children and
the heightened vulnerabilities brought about by the ongoing financial
and economic crisis underscore the importance of the ratification of the
Convention and its three Optional Protocols as integral safeguards for
children,” said Jean Zermatten, who currently heads the UN Committee on
the Rights of the Child. “Accessing to the third protocol to the
Convention on a complaint procedure is essential to strengthen child
rights protection and to combat impunity for child rights violations.”
“There can be no room for complacency in our struggle to eliminate
violence against children,” stressed Marta Santos Pais, Special
Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence against Children.
“We are nearing the goal of universal ratification, strengthening
children’s protection from violence and bringing to an end impunity for
incidents of sexual abuse and exploitation. Ratification is a crucial
step but only the start of a demanding process of implementation.”
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children
and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, highlighted that there are still 44
States that have not ratified the protocol on child soldiers. “I urge
conflict-affected countries to ratify this treaty as a matter of
urgency, and those at peace and with no standing armies to follow suit,
in a global effort to end the inhuman practice of child recruitment and
use,” she said.
“It is extremely encouraging to note the pace of progress achieved
since the beginning of the ratification campaign ", said Ms. Najat
Maalla M’jid, UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography. “However, in spite of the numerous
initiatives undertaken to combat these phenomena, the sale and sexual
exploitation of children in countries of all regions persist and reach
sometimes alarming levels. States and the whole international community
should spare no efforts to prevent children from being treated as
commodities”, she pointed out.
For Susan Bissell, UNICEF’s Chief of Child Protection, “these legal
instruments are critical to our efforts to protect all children,
everywhere. Incorporating these standards into national legal
frameworks, and raising awareness about them are all part of a process
of social change that is so critically important,” she added. “UNICEF
supports states in their translation of laws into actions that protect
children in order that they may live and grow safely, and with dignity.”
On 20 November, Universal Children’s Day, the five child rights
experts insisted on the crucial need to place child rights as a priority
in the policy agenda and to implement all necessary measures to ensure
the effective promotion and protection of the rights of all children,
without discrimination.
(*) Jean Zermatten, Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of
the Child; Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative of the UN
Secretary-General on Violence against Children; Leila Zerrougui, Special
Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed
Conflict; Najat Maalla M’jid, UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography; and Susan Bissell,
UNICEF’s Chief of Child Protection.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm
The three Optional Protocols:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc-sale.htmhttp://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc-conflict.htmhttp://treaties.un.org/doc/source/signature/2012/CTC_4-11d.pdf
For additional information and media requests, please contact Imma Guerras-Delgado ( + 22 928 9249,
iguerras-delgado@ohchr.org) or Bernadette Arditi (+41 22 917 9210/
Barditi@ohchr.org)
For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 /
xcelaya@ohchr.org)
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that World Philosophy Day would be celebrated every third Thursday of November.
