Prof Mezmur becomes chair of Committee on the Rights of the Child

Community Law Centre’s Prof Benyam Mezmur who is also the head of the Children’s Rights Project was elected as chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child during its sixty-ninth session this week in Geneva.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child is the body of 18 Independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by its State parties. It also monitors implementation of two Optional Protocols to the Convention, on involvement of children in armed conflict and on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

All States including South Africa parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented. States must submit an initial report two years after acceding to the Convention and then periodic reports every five years. The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of “concluding observations”.

Prof Jaap de Visser, director at the Community Law Centre, congratulated Prof Mezmur on behalf of the centre. “It is with great pride and excitement that I can announce that our own Benyam was elected as Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. We wish him all the best with this critically important task. He will be a great chairperson, I'm sure and the Committee stands to benefit from his experience and skills.,” he said.

Yasmeen Muhamad Shariff, Sara de Jesús Oviedo Fierro, Renate Winter and Amal Aldoseri were elected as Vice-Chairpersons.