Extraordinary 84th CRC session in Samoa

New! The Committee announced that it is planning to send a taskforce to the region to hold discussions with relevant stakeholders, including children, on how to tackle the key issues identified during the extraordinary session in Samoa (corporal punishment, child justice, sexual violence and abuse, and climate change). The mission is tentatively scheduled in November 2023.

In March 2020, the Committee on the Rights of the Child held an in-country/region session for the first time ever in the Treaty Bodies system in Apia, Samoa. Check the Committee’s press release!

Child Rights Connect coordinated and collaborated with partners including OHCHR, UNICEF, Pacific Commonwealth Equality Project Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) and the UN Resident Coordinator in Samoa for civil society, including children, to maximise this unique opportunity of the Committee’s presence and activities in the region!

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  • Programme of Activities

    Aside of the country sessions, there were capacity-building opportunities, events, trainings and other activities for civil society and crucially, children, to participate!

Child Rights Connect activities in Samoa

Child Rights Connect was present in Samoa and our main goal was to strengthen civil society in the Pacific from the grassroots level in a long-term, sustainable way. We launched a call to mobilization and organised capacity building activities for civil society including children: pre-session and session debriefings, a training on CRC reporting, briefings for children.

Child Participation

The session in Samoa allowed Committee members to hear directly from children. “By being in Samoa we will be able to hear first-hand from a wide cross-section of people, including many children directly, regarding children’s rights” said CRC Chair Luis Pedernera. Read Children provide insight and advice at CRC meeting in Samoa.

Child Rights Connect also provided specialised assistance on child participation in the planning of activities and selection of children and produced resources for children to engage in this extraordinary session (see below Resources for Children!)

  • In preparations for the session, the Committee members recorded video messages on behalf of the Committee for children in Samoa to engage in the session (see below).
  • Child Rights Connect prepared with OHCHR a joint child participation strategy and a developed a child participation methodology to assist in the preparations for child participation.
  • The Committee held a meeting with children from Samoa. Six children moderated the interactive discussions on children’s rights, and more than 80 children contributed as panelists and members of the audience. Watch the webcast. Child Rights Connect delivered a briefing together with the CRC Secretariat for the children.
  • The Committee held a public meeting on the 30th anniversary of the Convention with 80 children participating.
  • The Committee engaged in an event on Climate change, where they discussed with 11 Child Activists of the Pacific. Child Rights Connect supported colleagues from the OHCHR Office in Fiji to prepare the child activists to meet with the CRC Committee.

 Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) review report

© UN Photo / Alvaro Hoyos

All photos Samoa CRC Event

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