* No summary record was prepared for the rest of the meeting.This record is subject to correction.Corrections should be submitted in one of the working languages. They should be set forth in a memorandum and also incorporated in a copy of the record. They should be sent within one week of the date of this document to the Editing Unit, room E.4108, Palais des Nations, Geneva.Any corrections to the records of the public meetings of the Committee at this session will be consolidated in a single corrigendum, to be issued shortly after the end of the session.GE.08-40116 (E) 160108 210108 UNITED NATIONS

CRC

Convention on the Rights of the Child

Distr.

GENERAL

CRC/C/SR.1285

21 January 2008

Original: ENGLISH

COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Forty-seventh session

SUMMARY RECORD (PARTIAL)* OF THE 1285th MEETING

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva,

on Monday, 14 January 2008, at 10 a.m.

Chairperson: Ms. LEE

CONTENTS

OPENING OF THE SESSION

STATEMENT BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

SOLEMN DECLARATION BY NEW MEMBER

ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA

SUBMISSION OF REPORTS BY STATES PARTIES

The meeting was called to order at 10.10 a.m.

OPENING OF THE SESSION

The CHAIRPERSON declared open the forty-seventh session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

STATEMENT BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Mr. SALAMA Chief, Treaties and Council Branch, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)) said that treaty body reform had remainedan important subject of discussion since the previous session of the Committee, and that OHCHR was planning to convene an organizational session of the Inter-Committee Meeting to highlight areas requiring harmonization. The harmonized guidelines on reporting that were applicable to all treaty bodies had been communicated to the States parties, and briefings had been held to explain their use. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had already adopted guidelines specific to its work, and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women had made some headway along the same lines. He encouraged the Committee to follow their lead, for example by providing guidance to States on ways of integrating information on the two Optional Protocols into the periodic reports that they submitted under the Convention.

The Human Rights Council had established the modalities and procedures for its universal periodic review mechanism, under which it would consider, along with the information submitted directly by the States and from other relevant stakeholders, a compilation prepared by OHCHR. The Committee, like other treaty bodies, should reflect on how its input could be put to good use in that regard. In order to review all 192 States within a four-year cycle, the Council’s working group on the universal periodic review would have to consider the human rights situation in 16 countries at each of three annual sessions.

During its sixth session the Council had also conducted a procedure for the review, rationalization and improvement of mandates.

Noting that the Committee was in the final stage of preparation of a general comment on the rights of indigenous children, he pointed out that the General Assembly had in September 2007 adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. During the sixty-second session of the General Assembly, at the close of the “World Fit for Children + 5” high-level meeting, more than 140 Government delegations had adopted a new declaration on children, which specifically referred to the importance of fulfilling obligations under the Convention and its Optional Protocols. The General Assembly had also received a strategic review report(A/62/228), which took stock of the progress made in the 10 years since submission of the report entitled The impact of armed conflict on children (A/51/306 and Add.1). The review report mentioned achievements such as the adoption of the Optional Protocol, and also detailed current needs and shortcomings.

At the General Assembly session, the independent expert for the study on violence against children had submitted a report on the first year of follow-up to the United Nations Study on Violence against Children. While the Study had raised awareness of the problem and had provided a structured framework for action, the report noted that efforts had been reactive, fragmented and insufficiently funded, which had compromised the sustainability and long-term success of work in that field. The report called for more investment in prevention, training, recovery and social reintegration services and data collection systems, and for the establishment of a post of Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children. The latter had also been recommended by the Third Committee of the General Assembly.

OHCHR had continued to conduct training workshops to strengthen local capacity and facilitate implementation of concluding observations, including one held in Geneva for participants from Guyana, Indonesia and the Philippines. Three more workshops of that kind were scheduled for early 2008.

Another workshop had been held in November 2007 for over 180 participants from the Governments and non-governmental organizations of eight French-speaking countries of the Economic Community of West African States, with representatives of the Governments and non‑governmental organizations of four other countries also taking part as observers. He expressed the hope that such technical cooperation would become more systematic and less dependent on financial resources.

Since the Committee’s last session, Burundi, Gabon and the Islamic Republic of Iran had become parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and Angola and Vanuatu had become parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.

SOLEMN DECLARATION BY NEW MEMBER (agenda item 1)

The CHAIRPERSON invited the new member of the Committee, Ms. AL-THANI, to make the solemn declaration contained in rule 15 of the Committee’s rules of procedure.

Ms. AL-THANI solemnly declared that she would perform her duties and exercise her powers as a member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child honourably, faithfully, impartially and conscientiously.

ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA (agenda item 2) (CRC/C/47/1)

The CHAIRPERSON, noting that the only change to the provisional agenda had been the cancellation of the submission of the State party report by Georgia, said that she took it that the Committee wished to adopt the agenda.

The agenda was adopted.

SUBMISSION OF REPORTS BY STATES PARTIES (agenda item 4)

Ms. ANDRIJASEVIC-BOKO (Committee Secretary) said that, since its last session, the Committee had received 23 reports: 14 under the Convention, none of which were initial reports, 5 initial reports under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Children in Armed Conflict and 4 initial reports under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. Among the 10 States parties whose reports were to be considered by the Committee at the current session, 6 had submitted written replies to lists of issues.

The public part of the meeting rose at 10.40 a.m.