At the opening of the 95th CRC session, Child Rights Connect delivered a statement on behalf of its network:

Distinguished members of the Committee, representatives of UN agencies, ladies and gentlemen,

As a strategic partner of the Committee, Child Rights Connect stands ready to continue to support the work of the Committee to implement the rights set out in the Convention and its Optional Protocols. 2024 is an important year for both us and the Committee in that regard.

  1. To begin with, 2024 marks the 35th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 10th anniversary of the Optional Protocol on a communications procedure.
  2. Intimately linked to OPIC and to ensuring that child rights are enforceable and not just commitments on paper, we very much look forward to supporting the Committee’s development of General Comment 27 and the associated Day of General Discussion. We especially hope to be able to support the engagement of children to share their views and recommendations with the Committee. We believe that this new General Comment presents an extremely good opportunity to establish a close link with the Secretary-General’s Common Agenda and his Guidance Note on mainstreaming children’s rights throughout the work of the UN. We greatly appreciate the key role that the Committee is playing in advancing the mainstreaming of children’s rights in the UN system and look forward to seeing how the Committee’s Task Force implements the Guidance Note.
  3. Related to this, the 2024 will be a test for the implementation of the Guidance Note for the mobilisation of the UN system to collectively strengthen and elevate a shared UN agenda on children’s rights. We greatly appreciate the work that the Committee is doing to place children at the centre of the Summit of the Future and we call for continued efforts in this direction. Building on last month’s commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we re-emphasise the importance of actively involving children in the process and integrating children’s rights into the Pact for the Future and its annexes. This is a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to develop the frameworks of multilateralism so that they are fit for the future.
  4. Finally, this year is significant for Child Rights Connect as we will be developing and adopting a new Strategic Plan for the five-year period for 2025 to 2029. I look forward to sharing more about this with you tomorrow during the annual meeting of Child Rights Connect with the Committee.

Before closing, we would like to reiterate our repeated call for the Committee to hold an annual meeting with civil society organisations, during which the Committee could share updates and priorities for the year and CSOs can share information on emerging trends and challenges that may impact on the Committee’s work and mandate.

I thank you.

 

Alex Conte

Executive Director

child rights connect