Committee on the Rights of the Child

Fifty-ninth session

Summary record of the second part (public)* of the 1697th meeting**

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Friday, 3 February 2012, at 12.10 p.m.

Chairperson:Mr. Zermatten

Contents

Closure of the session

The second part of the meeting (public) was called to order at 12.10 p.m.

Closure of the session

1.The Chairperson said that, at its fifty-ninth session, the Committee had considered 12 reports, including 6 reports submitted under the Convention (Azerbaijan, Myanmar, Madagascar, Togo, Thailand and the Cook Islands), 3 initial reports submitted under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (Azerbaijan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Thailand) and 3 initial reports submitted under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (Azerbaijan, Togo and Thailand). The Committee had adopted concluding observations on each of them.

2.The Committee had taken part in some 30 meetings and consultations during the session, with representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, including Save the Children, Plan International, World Vision and the International Commission of Jurists.

3.Ms. Aidoo (Rapporteur) said that the Committee had met several members of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to discuss treaty body strengthening and rules of procedure for the third Optional Protocol to the Convention on a communications procedure.

4.The Committee had met members of the Petitions Team of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, with whom it had conducted fruitful exchanges on developing rules of procedure. Those meetings had also provided the opportunity to study the communications procedures put in place by both the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

5.With regard to treaty body strengthening, the Committee had discussed the Dublin II outcome document, which it had unanimously endorsed. Furthermore, it had discussed with the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child follow-up to concluding observations and the participation of children in the work and sessions of the Committee, in the light of the research work led by the NGOs on those issues. That meeting had also been an opportunity to discuss the process of signing and ratifying the third Optional Protocol.

6.In addition, the Committee had reviewed and adopted the recommendations of the Day of General Discussion 2011 on the rights of children of incarcerated parents. A working group had been set up to prepare the Day of General Discussion in September 2012, which would be dedicated to the rights of children in the context of international migration.

7.Various working groups were actively participating in the preparation of several general comments, including the prospective general comment No. 14 on the best interests of the child (Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 3). The Working Group on child rights and the business sector had met in February 2012 with its partners to work on developing a general comment; the Working Group on the right to rest, leisure, play and participation in cultural and artistic life (art. 31) was actively working on a general comment on the right of the child to rest and leisure, the first version of which should be completed in 2012.

8.Shortly before its fifty-ninth session, the Working Group on the general comment on the right to health (art. 24) had led discussions with a range of partners, including the World Health Organization, Plan International, Save the Children and World Vision, to identify the scope of the general comment and to evaluate its progress.

9.The first draft of the general comment on harmful practices, which was being prepared by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, should be finished by the autumn of 2012 and its final version should be completed by the winter of 2013.

10.On 7 and 8 February 2012, Ms. Lee and Mr. Kotrane would participate in consultations with the States parties on the treaty body strengthening process and, on 11 and 12 February, several Committee members would take part in an expert consultation on the responsibility of actors in implementing the Convention, with other representatives from international organizations and NGOs. Within the framework of the pre-sessional working group, Committee members would shortly enter into discussion with United Nations partners and representatives of national human rights institutions and NGOs to assess the situation of the rights of the child in nine States parties, in preparation for the sixtieth and sixty-first sessions of the Committee.

11.The Chairperson said that the Optional Protocol on a communications procedure, adopted on 19 December 2011, was open to signature and would enter into force as soon as it had been ratified by 10 States parties. An official ceremony should take place on 28 February in the context of the work of the Human Rights Council.

12.He recalled that by 5 January 2012, the Committee had, since its foundation, received a total of 528 reports of States parties under the Convention, 90 under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and 75 under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

13.The pre-sessional working group would meet from 18 to 22 June 2012, in preparation for the sixty-first and the sixty-second sessions of the Committee. The sixtieth session would be held from 29 May to 15 June 2012.

14.He also welcomed the recent appointment of Ms. Ortiz, a former member of the Committee, to the post of General Rapporteur for the rights of the child on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and wished her every success in her new position.

15.Lastly, he declared closed the fifty-ninth session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The meeting rose at 12.35 p.m.