Summary: October 11, 2000: Statement by Mrs Marine de CARNE, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations. Rights of the Child (New York)
Madam Chair,
Last September, at the Millennium Summit, many Heads of State or of Government put their signatures to two new international instruments concerning children: the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child concerning the involvement of children in armed conflict, and the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
The 15 Member States of the European Union have signed these two Protocols and have made the commitment to ratify them as soon as possible. More than fifty other States have done the same. The European Union considers this an extremely important development for the rights of the child. These two new legal texts relate to two areas in which children's rights are brutally and deliberately violated, leaving deep-seated, ineradicable scars.
It is encouraging that the international community has risen above the differences in national situations to agree on a clarification and improvement of the existing rules in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, by raising the age for involvement in armed conflict and for compulsory recruitment to 18 years, and by adopting a common definition of prostitution, pornography and the sale of children.
It must now give reality to these commitments by implementing the texts, in compliance with the spirit of the Convention to which they are adhering. It is also important that the international community should continue discussion and action to protect children exposed to these violations of their rights.
The European Union would like to salute certain initiatives in this connection:
- Concerning children in conflict situations:
It welcomes the fact that the Security Council has taken up the question, first in August 1999 and again this year, and it expresses the hope that the Security Council will continue to give further attention to this matter. It takes note with satisfaction of Resolution 1314 on children in situations of armed conflict. That Resolution opens up new prospects for reinforcing the action of the international community. I am thinking for example of control of illegal trade in natural resources, and
trade in small arms and low-calibre weapons in all its aspects. In this context, the European Union hopes that the United Nations Conference which is to consider this problem in 2001 will result in concrete action by the international community.
It is also important that regional initiatives should provide support in a practical and suitable manner for the commitments undertaken at world level. Here, the European Union hails the interest shown by the OAU and the countries of Africa in the problem. The European Union also welcomes the recent developments in the OSCE, aimed at giving the rights of the child a more important role in its work. It has taken an active part in the preparation of an OSCE document on the protection and
promotion of the rights of the child, in particular in armed conflict situations.
The recent conference in Winnipeg on children caught in armed conflict also enabled participants to reaffirm their commitments and to map out the basis for an action programme with a view to the Special Session of the General Assembly devoted to children. It is important that the international Community should initiate global action relating in particular to: education, which can be an alternative to recruitment; the fight against AIDS, which particularly affects children caught up in
conflicts; greater participation by children in defining and implementing humanitarian programmes concerning them; and prosecution of the perpetrators of violations of children's rights.
This picture would not be complete without a reference to the many individuals who have poured their energy into serving this cause, such as Ms Graça Machel, or the special representative of the Secretary-General, Mr Olara Otunnu, who works tirelessly to mobilise the international community, and many NGOs and international organisations which, like UNICEF, are doing remarkable work in the field.
- Concerning the sexual exploitation of children, much also remains to be done to get past the stage of intentions. Too many children in the world are still caught up in prostitution, often as a result of poverty, always by the action of adults who use them for their own ends, whether sexual or economic. In a globalised world, this sort of exploitation in addition takes forms which are increasingly insidious and difficult to combat: ever more sophisticated cross-border criminal organisations,
the many possibilities opened up by the Internet where child pornography is concerned, and also the establishment of prostitution networks, sex tourism, and so on.
In all these areas, the European Union takes the view that the heightened awareness and developments of recent years, particularly thanks to the Stockholm Congress on sexual exploitation of children, must continue. Although it is important that many countries have adopted laws enabling them to combat sexual exploitation of children in all forms, and notably the behaviour of their nationals outside their own frontiers, much remains to be done in an area with complex legal and social
implications. In this context, the European Union believes it is important to work simultaneously on several fronts: the fight against poverty, prevention of trafficking, prosecution and sentencing of the persons responsible, education and training of the sectors and persons involved and rehabilitation of the child victims. As is the case for children in armed conflicts, mobilisation must involve all parties concerned. In particular, measures need to be taken to reinforce international
cooperation, through multilateral, regional and bilateral arrangements as appropriate. It is also important that the private sector (the tourist industry, Internet servers) be mobilised and adopt responsible attitudes. In this respect, the campaign conducted by ECPAT ("end child prostitution and child pornography and traffic of children for sexual purposes") must be praised, and the forthcoming Yokohama conference, which will review action taken in this sector since Stockholm, will be an
important opportunity to make further progress.
Sexual exploitation is unfortunately not the only form of exploitation which concerns children. It is important to consider situations in which children, with disregard for the fact that they are human beings, are treated as objects in transactions by adults: forced exploitation of their labour or their bodies in all forms, child victims of traditional forms of servitude or modern forms of slavery, adoptions without regard for international rules, and so on. It is important to continue
discussion and identification of these practices. In this context, the European Union hails the work done by Ms Calcetas-Santos, the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children.
Madam Chair,
The signing of these two Protocols is a good example of what the mobilisation of the international community should do to apply and advance the rights of children. It also illustrates the relevance and vitality of the instrument to which these texts refer and which underpins their application - I am speaking of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The European Union considers it of the greatest importance that the countries which have committed themselves to these two Protocols should in
the same way undertake to implement the main Convention, and for those who have not yet done so, to ratify it.
The implementation of the Convention presupposes full and complete adherence to it, and the European Union is concerned by the extent of the reservations tabled with regard to this instrument. It will continue to come out firmly against reservations which are contrary to the aim and spirit of the Convention, and to request their withdrawal.
The European Union also wishes to salute the great work done by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. It is concerned by the inadequacy of the Committee's human and financial resources to complete its task properly; a task which will be increased by the new obligations facing it in verifying the application of the two Optional Protocols. It is thus even more important and urgent to ensure that the amendment to Article 43(2) of the Convention, enabling enlargement of the Committee from ten
to eighteen experts, is implemented, and accordingly that those States which have not yet done so give their consent to it.
Madam Chair,
The European Union wishes to emphasise how important it is for it to be recognised that a child afflicted with a physical or mental disability should be able to lead a decent life in full, in conditions guaranteeing the child's dignity and self-sufficiency, and allowing its active participation in the community.
Madam Chair,
I would like now for a few moments to consider a subject which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has had occasion to discuss, namely the administration of justice with regard to the young. Children are by nature vulnerable beings whose personality is still being formed. It is therefore necessary that penal legislation and prison administrations take account of this, and that measures be taken to bring these into line with the guarantees specified in the Convention and the principles
developed by the United Nations in this field. In particular, privation of liberty as applied to children should be a measure of last resort, and should be for the shortest possible period.
The European Union wishes to take this opportunity to launch a particular appeal to those countries, few as they are, which at present retain the death penalty for minors, in contravention both of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the almost universal application of which should have the force of authority, and of Article 6(5) of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The European Union also wishes to express its concern at the use of torture on children, and calls on all States which have not yet done so to ratify the United Nations Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Madam Chair,
The elementary rights of children cannot be fully respected while poverty afflicts many regions of the world. The European Union considers that the realisation of the economic, social and cultural rights of children is of the greatest importance for their development. The Resolution on children submitted jointly to the UN General Assembly by the GRULAC and the European Union traditionally contains a chapter on the tragic fate of the street children, children whose extreme poverty, together with
the negligence and abuse to which they are victims, are in themselves a denial of all the rights of these children who are vulnerable to all forms of violence, torment, exploitation and abandonment.
It is of the utmost importance that strategies to combat poverty and including children should be vigorously developed. The European Union salutes in this respect what has been achieved by UNICEF, and at a global level by the UNDP. In this context, all children and young people should be given the opportunity to participate in decisions which affect their lives, and this should also include development policies.
The European Union calls on the international community, the United Nations, the States and the NGOs to combine their efforts to suppress the AIDS epidemic which affects children especially cruelly. The European Union emphasises the need for children infected with this disease to be protected against all the forms of discrimination to which they might be subjected, and to be listened to. It points to the urgent need to identify measures and good practices in all fields, including the crucial
one of education, and to formulate national policies designed to prevent and combat AIDS.
First among the rights without which children cannot build their future is the right to education, especially primary education. As the "Education for All" conference held last April in Senegal pointed out, this is an important factor in combating exclusion. The education of girls is of particular importance. If it is regularly pursued and not interrupted by premature dropping out, the schooling of girls is essential to ensure their fulfilment and more generally to advance the cause of women,
the gender equality and the development of societies.
The European Union also takes this opportunity to give a reminder that it is desirable for children's education to include education in human rights, tolerance, citizenship and the working of democracy. The education of children is the way to prepare the behaviour of tomorrow's adults.
Madam Chair,
In the same way as the right to education must be an integral part of development strategies, the eradication of child labour, to which the international community has dedicated itself, in particular by the adoption of ILO Convention No 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, must be treated in the context of the fight against poverty, of which child labour is at once a cause and a consequence. The European Union would like to salute the achievement of the ILO in this field,
notably through the IPEC programme. It calls on as many countries as possible to ratify and implement the Convention, and to work to combat this scourge, with the support of the international community, including the part of the private sector concerned by the problem.
Madam Chair,
Not one year later, we find ourselves again in South Africa to renew our commitment to combat racism and xenophobia. Children, too, are victims of these evils and the European Union believes it important to reaffirm here that:
- discrimination and displays of racial hatred involving children must be condemned with the greatest determination;
- it is vital to educate children in tolerance, in the fight against manifestations of racism and against negative stereotyping.
The European Union would like young people, especially through NGOs, to be mobilised and to contribute actively to the conference.
Lastly, the European Union anxiously awaits the Special Session of the General Assembly on the follow-up to the Summit for Children to be held in September 2001. That Session will be a major opportunity to assume new commitments and project new measures to help children for the coming decade. The European Union wishes to make an active contribution to it, in order to make progress on the various issues to which I have referred.
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