RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Child Rights Make Slow Progress Says UN

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

KALA-ALLA, Sri Lanka, Jul 16 1999 (IPS) - The UN Child Rights Convention will be 10 years old next year but its progress has been hampered by the failure of countries to push through reforms, a top UN envoy said during a visit to this tiny village this week.

Dr Nafsiah Mboi, chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) said cultural barriers and traditional concepts, in countries where the domination of the parents override the rights of children, impede the progress of the CRC.

“One of the commonest problems of the treaty is ignorance and the inability of governments or state parties to enact legal reforms after ratifying the treaty,” she said.

So far 191 countries have ratified the CRC, the exceptions being the United States and Somalia. Moboi said her committee was planning a two-day workshop in Geneva for state parties, child rights activists on Sep. 30 to analyse the progress of the convention.

“We have also asked UNICEF to do a study in some countries – with big and small populations – on the impact of the convention. We want to find out whether there has been an impact on children or not. We need to know the why and how of successful implementation and of not so successful cases,” she said.

Mboi’s visit to the tiny village of Kala-alla, about 30 km from Ratnapura town, to see the progress made by a child rights programme of Sarvodaya, one of Sri Lanka’s big non-governmental organisations (NGOs), was most unconventional.

Moved to tears by the rousing reception accorded by laughing and delighted children who flocked around her at the village school, Mboi tearfully thanked the people “from the bottom of my heart”.

Sri Lanka was Mboi’s first visit to a member country of the United Nations, since she assumed charge in May this year of the Geneva-based Committee, of which she is the first Asian head.

A paediatrician in Indonesia, like other members of the UN Child Rights Committee, she is a part-time worker and not bound by UN rules and its giant bureaucracy. As a result while the committee has the freedom to offer constructive criticism of even UN agenices, she is very informal in style.

During a dialogue on child rights with the audience of children, parents and teachers, Mboi called on stage 13-year old Ruvini Thaksila, who had participated in the short plays and dances performed before the UN envoy.

She asked the girl for her reaction to one of the plays that was put up in which children are told by parents to study, and not waste time with friends or in playing.

“I feel play is as important as study. Our parents tell us that only studies are important,” young Thaksila countered. Promptly her mother was called on to the dais. “No I think children should study. That is our primary responsibility as parents,” she said.

As an excited audience watched, Mboi then asked Thaksila’s father for his comments. “To me both are important,” he said to roars of approval and cheers from the children.

Mboi spontaneously hugged the family and told the audience that this was what child rights’ was all about. “A child has a right to be happy, to play, to study and to be listened to and understood,” she said.

Thanks to Sarvodaya, pre-school and primary teachers at this school have been trained in child rights by its Legal Services unit, as part of a countrywide programme to promote the rights of the child. Child rights issues are the theme of the dances and plays.

Only a few countries have enacted legal reforms after ratifying the CRC. In many countries, especially developing ones, governments don’t know where to place the child in terms of government structures, Mboi confided.

“Some have it in foreign affairs, in social affairs or some coordinating body, which does not work at all. Administrative and coordination is weak,” she said. Ratifying the convention is the easiest part but finding resources or enforcing laws takes much longer.

Sri Lanka’s record of legal reforms in child welfare is perceived to be good and in recent years the government has introduced new legislation or enhanced punishment against exploitation of children for sexual or labour purposes but quite typically, enforcement is weak.

The setting of the state-run Child Protection Authority, which became law in November 1998, has been delayed by financial allocations and other problems. It is hoped that it will start

working in September or October this year.

Implementation of the CRC will be the chief task of her committee, Mboi said. “We hope to be more proactive and offer advise to state parties on how to implement child-friendly solutions.”

On issues like sexual exploitation, domestic child labour or slavery which are high on the agenda, the Committee has formulated plans of action.

The committee has no mandate to ensure governments implement what they promise. “There is little we can do other than discuss these issues with delegations at the three sessions that are held each year,” she said.

UN agencies, like UNICEF or the High Commissioner for Human Rights, also follow up with governments. The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) last three conventions were on children while the World Health Organisation (WHO) has coupled together child and adolescence health.

“The UN family is more child rights conscious and child rights aware and that is one way of ensuring follow up action on the Convention,” she said, optimistic about the campaign for child rights.