CHILDREN: UN Committee Evaluates Relations with Governments

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jan 2 1998 (IPS) - Good relations must be always be maintained where children are concerned, even when the relationship between the parents is difficult, as the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has found in dealing with governments.

The state of their relationships will come under the magnifying glass again next Monday, when the UN Committee will embark upon its first session in a year deemed crucial for the future of the entity.

After six years of monitoring the application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Committee will be receiving reports from the member states for the second time in 1998.

The degree of respect for the Convention described in these reports will provide some idea of the success of the behaviour of the Committee towards the governments, at a time when some independent organisations are calling for greater confrontation.

But a seminar evaluating the work of the committee, held at the end of the last session of the entity, last October, supported the attitude assumed with the governments by the 10 independent experts making up the committee.

The seminar was called by the non-governmental organisation Defence for Children International (DCI) to discuss the committee methods and determine whether the “honeymoon is over.”

Bulge Ogun Bassani, assistant director of the UNICEF Regional Office for Europe, said the Committee had carried out “very effective work” and called for “constructive dialogue” with the governments.

The Committee members also propose the continuation of this style of relations with the member states. Brazil’s Marilia Sardenberg, one of the panel of 10 experts, proposed a “constructive and non-confrontational method.”

Bassani said “the governments feel they have been put in the corner, like children.” Those who work with them “know how difficult it is.” And in order to smooth over these difficulties, the UNICEF official suggested meetings with governments be held behind closed doors.

Meanwhile, Ben Schoneveld, from the World Organisation Against Torture (SOS-Torture), criticised the Committee for not transmitting clear messages even when it makes recommendations.

When the report for Bangladesh was examined, last May, “there was no clear message” from the committee on the serious problems the government of this Asian country has with the native communities. “The tortured children can’t wait,” said Schoneveld.

Marie-Francoise Lucker-Babel, a lawyer working in DCI Swiss Section, said it was a shame the Committee had given no clear statement on family planning in China, where, she said, the liberty to abort was so extreme that it amounted to “a type of infanticide.”

The most widespread objection to the working methods of the Committee referred to its lack of definition of the priorities for children, said Yuri Hirano, from the Federation for the Protection of Children’s Human Rights, Tokyo.

Hirano praised the work of the committee but condemned the organisation for not offering specific criteria with which to determine “the greater interests” of children, which come before those of society and the parents.

But despite the criticisms, “the universal coverage achieved by the Convention is partly due to the work of the Committee, said Sardenberg when stressing that no other international treaty had achieved so many ratifications – 191 out of a total of 193 States.

The United States must still ratify the treaty – something it is expected to do in the near future, and Somalia has neither signed nor ratified as yet. The Convention protects the rights of some two billion children.

In its first session of the year, from January 5 to 23, the Committee will examine the reports from the Maldives, Libya, Ireland and the Federation of Micronesian States.

The greatest expectation from the first session is based on the Committee statement on the situation in Libya, where it will tackle the issue of the economic embargo on the Arab nation and its effect on the state of children.

In recent weeks, UN entities and officials have been critically studying the effects of economic blockades and reprisals on the human rights of the populations of the countries affected.

The UN Economic, Social and Cultural Organization did this in November when it discussed the report on Irak. Similarly, the UN special rapporteur for Burundi, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, objected to the embargo on this African country.

However, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child avoided making a direct reference to the US economic and financial embargo on Cuba when the entity dealt with the report from this Caribbean nation last June.