Promotion and protection of children rights in the spotlight

Children’s Rights Project head at the Community Law Centre, Prof Benyam Dawit Mezmur, is one of the 18 independent experts that took part in the 68th Session of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child held in Geneva in January 2015, where he serves as a Vice-Chairperson.

The Committee met to review the promotion and protection of children's rights under the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and/or its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and the Optional protocol on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The State Party Reports considered during the session were from Cambodia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, The Gambia, Iraq, Jamaica, Mauritius, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkmenistan, Tanzania and Uruguay.

According to Prof Mezmur, “every session that the Committee holds is a reminder of the fact that, even 25 years after the entry into force of the Convention, the implementation of children’s rights in both developed and developing countries remains work in progress”. This as a backdrop, the Committee exercises its monitoring role by engaging with States Parties and other stakeholders in a constructive manner, he added.

While all State Party Reports are treated equally by the Committee, it is possible to decipher that the Report from Iraq and the constructive dialogue held with its delegation has attracted the most media attention during the 68th Session. This is mainly as a result of the reported human rights and child rights atrocities committed by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which include “several cases of mass executions of boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and burying children alive”.

There are currently 195 States that have ratified the Convention, including South Africa, making it the most highly ratified human rights instrument in the world. South Africa has also just recently submitted its combined report to the Committee on its implementation of the Convention, which currently awaits scheduling by the Committee for examination.