In March 2020, the CRC Committee will hold an additional session in Samoa to review the States of Cook Islands, Micronesia and Tuvalu, and the pre-session of Kiribati!

This will be the first in-country session ever organised by a Human Rights Treaty Body! It is indeed a great opportunity for Pacific Islands countries to engage with the CRC Committee, where engagement of the State and civil society is not strong.

Child Rights Connect welcomes the efforts of the CRC Committee to better connect with child rights stakeholders on the ground and we will be there to monitor this initiative!

Should you be working with any national human rights and children’s rights organisations in Asia-Pacific, please let us know at crcreporting@childrightsconnect.org since we are exploring possible capacity building activities.

Find below some background information and facts on the child rights reporting in the region from our 2019 study on the Global Status of Engagement in CRC Reporting:

  • Regionally, there are fewer national civil society reports from Africa and Asian-Pacific countries than from other regions.
  • The Committee has reviewed via video link the report of one Pacific island State during its 76th session (2017) and three Pacific island States during its 77th session (2018).
  • Of the 21 States that have not ratified the OPSC, 13 are small island developing countries with 9 from the Pacific (Cook Islands, Fiji, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu).
  • Of the 29 States that have not ratified the OPAC, 18 are small island developing countries with 10 from the Pacific (Cook Islands, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu).
  • It is extremely rare that the Committee does not receive information from civil society for the consideration of periodic reports. There are a number of countries however where there have been no reports submitted by national NGOs. The majority of these countries (10) are in Asia Pacific: Brunei, Iraq, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Marshall Islands, Oman, Niue, Nauru, Papua New Guinea