Committee on Rights of Child Concludes Forty-Fifth Session
6/12/2007 1:39 PMThe Committee on the Rights of the Child today concluded its forty-fifth session, issuing its conclusions and recommendations on the situation of children in Slovakia, the Maldives, Uruguay and Kazakhstan, all of whose reports on efforts to comply with the Convention on the Rights of the Child were considered during the session. The reports of Sudan, Guatemala, Ukraine and Bangladesh on efforts to comply with the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and the reports of Monaco, Norway, Sweden and Guatemala on the involvement of children in armed conflict, were also considered, and concluding observations issued on them.
Four new members of the Committee were sworn in at the beginning of the session: Agnes Akosua Aidoo of Ghana; Luigi Citarella of Italy; Maria Herczog of Hungary; and Dainius Puras of Lithuania. In addition, at its first meeting a new Bureau was elected: Committee Expert Yanghee Lee, of the Republic of Korea, was elected as Chairperson; Kamel Filali of Algeria, Rosa Maria Ortiz of Paraguay, Awich Pollar of Uganda, and Jean Zermatten of Switzerland were elected to serve as Vice-Chairpersons; and Committee Expert Lothar Krappmann of Germany was elected as Rapporteur.
The Committee's next session will be held from 17 September to 5 October 2007 at the Palais Wilson in Geneva. Scheduled for consideration are the reports of Sierra Leone and Venezuela. Under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Bulgaria, France and Spain will present reports. On the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the reports of Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Qatar, Spain and Syria are scheduled to be examined.
Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
Ukraine
After reviewing the initial report of Ukraine, the Committee noted with appreciation Ukraine's ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 2006; its ratification of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in 2006; the creation, within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, of a department to combat offences relating to trafficking in persons in 2005; the entry into force of the Organizational and Legal Conditions for the Social Protection of Orphans and Children Deprived of Parental Care (Implementation) Act in 2005; and the ratification of the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its two protocols, on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and against the smuggling of migrants, in 2004.
The Committee was concerned that the general principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child had not been taken into account in the design and implementation of the measures adopted by Ukraine under the Protocol. It was in particular concerned that children’s views were not given due consideration in all matters affecting them. The Committee recommended that Ukraine speedily adopt its National Plan of Action and that it develop a specific plan of action aimed at measures needed to prevent and suppress the crimes of sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. It also recommended that adequate and earmarked resources be allocated for the development of training materials and courses in all parts of the country for all relevant groups of professionals involved in the implementation of the Optional Protocol. Furthermore, the Committee recommended that Ukraine make the provisions of the Optional Protocol widely known, particularly to children and their families.
The Committee noted that Ukraine had allocated funds for the programme to support foster care. However, it regretted that Ukraine did not provide adequate budgetary allocations for support to families, and that there was a disproportionate allocation to programmes that institutionalized children. The Committee was concerned at the absence of a separate juvenile justice system that could deal with children victims of the crimes related to the Protocol. It was also concerned about the information that child victims of crimes covered by the Optional Protocol were often stigmatized, socially marginalized and might be held responsible, tried and placed in detention. The Committee recommended that Ukraine ensure that child victims of exploitation and abuse were neither criminalized nor penalized, and that all possible measures be taken to avoid the stigmatization and social marginalization of these children. In that connection, the Committee was concerned that the status of the victim was not well defined in the Ukrainian Criminal Code, and that legislation did not provide clear and sufficient sanctions for physical and psychological pressure during interrogations of child victims. Furthermore, the Committee was concerned that sanctions, even where adequate, were mostly not enforced. Regretting that there were still numerous corruption-related obstacles to a transparent procedure for legal adoptions, the Committee urged Ukraine to accede to the Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoption. It also recommended the establishment of a 3-digit, 24-hour, toll-free helpline to assist child victims and their families and that that service be supported with adequate and quick psychological and practical arrangements so as to protect children from becoming victims of sale, child prostitution and child pornography.
Excerpt from: "Committee on Rights of Child Concludes Forty-Fifth Session," Press Release, The United Nations Office at Geneva, 8 June, 2007.
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