This page is background information, last updated in May 2002 and still available for reference. For the latest on the Special Session on Children, please go to the Special Session index.

FIRST GLOBAL MEETING OF INDEPENDENT HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS FOR CHILDREN

Statement to United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children

The first global meeting of independent human rights institutions for children - children's rights commissioners and children's ombudspeople - was held in New York on the eve of the Special Session, 7 May 2002. The meeting agreed the following statement for presentation to the Special Session:

"We cannot tolerate another decade of non compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We will continue to work hard within our States to make sure that governments honour their obligations under the Convention. After decades of international standard-setting activities and ratifying human rights treaties, governments must now focus on their full implementation. Having rights on paper means little or nothing when they are not known about or cannot be enforced.

"We commit ourselves to working with children, with governments and parliaments, with child-led groups, with other international human rights organizations and with non-governmental organizations to hold international agencies and governments accountable for their obligations under international law.

"We call on governments and the United Nations system to:

· do nothing that undermines the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
· fully implement the Convention;
· mainstream and give priority to children's rights;
· establish effective independent human rights institutions for children, compliant with the Paris Principles;
· place the rights and best interests of children at the core of national legislation and international decision-making;
· develop laws and procedures which enable children themselves to secure effective remedies for breaches of their rights.

"We reaffirm that all rights recognised by the Convention on the Rights of the Child are the rights of all children and should be guaranteed without any discrimination whatsoever. To guarantee respect for the rights of children in Somalia and the US, we strongly urge them to join the 191 other states which have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We call on governments to ensure that they honour their obligations towards children under all other international treaties.

"We believe that children in each country need an independent human rights institution to promote, protect and monitor their human rights. More than 30 states have established these institutions, either free-standing commissioners or ombudspeople for children, or focal points within national human rights institutions or general ombudsman offices. Our institutions have demonstrated an ability to ensure a children's perspective in law and policy development and to increase respect for children and their views.

"The importance of these institutions has been endorsed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which has also recognised the valuable contribution we can make to the implementation of the Convention and its reporting process. Similarly, in the coming period we will promote and monitor progress in our countries towards meeting the goals set following the Special Session on Children.

"The UN Secretary-General, in his review of the follow-up to the World Summit on Children held in 1990, notes how far states are from meeting their obligations under the Convention and fulfilling the promises made at the World Summit. The report - We the Children - also notes progress in establishing independent human rights institutions for children. It suggests that existing institutions should be assessed "to shed light on the difference they can make to children's lives and to inform the establishment of new ones". We strongly support the Secretary-General's proposal that standards for these institutions be developed, building on the standards for national human rights institutions that were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993.

"Making children's rights and best interests a primary consideration, as the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires, means that international agencies and governments must carefully consider the impact of all their actions and inactions which may affect children. States need to develop a culture of respect for children's rights, as well as to review law and procedures to fulfil the rights of the child and address effectively any breaches of these rights.

"A key role for independent human rights institutions for children is to develop respect for the views of children. Our offices maintain close contact with children and we are able to demonstrate to government and others ways of consulting and working with children. We act as a channel for children's views. These institutions are not only working reactively on children's rights violations; we also work proactively towards more child-friendly societies, in which children's rights can pass from rhetoric to reality.

"The aim of our first Global Meeting, held on the eve of the Special Session, has been to consider how we can be actively engaged in the follow-up to the Special Session for Children. We have discussed how we can help to ensure that children in every state have access to an independent human rights institution and promote the development of standards for these institutions, building on the Paris Principles on the status of national human rights institutions which were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993. We also discussed how institutions in states across the globe can share information and strategies to ensure we are effective watchdogs with and for children and can provide a collective voice in favour of children's rights.

"Finally, we call on the UN system to give formal recognition to independent human rights institutions to enable them to be active participants in all UN proceedings."

New York, 7 May 2002