World ‘not yet on track’ to ensure children a better future: UN rights chief

Statement by Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the opening of the 80th Session Committee on the Rights of the Child (2343rd Meeting). The Committee on the Rights of the Child is the body of 18 Independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by its State parties. It also monitors implementation of two Optional Protocols to the Convention, on involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC) and on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (OPSC).
In her opening address to the 80th Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in Geneva – which reviews the records of Member States according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child - the High Commissioner noted that 2019 marked the pact’s 30th anniversary, and that it was “by far the most widely ratified human rights treaty”.
Despite this almost universal recognition, and the fact that it had “driven significant progress in many countries” with laws passed to protect youngsters in “virtually every State party”, Ms Bachelet insisted that “not all States Parties ensure, to the maximum extent, the survival and development of all children everywhere”.
And in an appeal to listen to youngsters’ “ideas, innovations and solutions”, she insisted: “In almost every context, children are still viewed as passive recipients of care, their voices dismissed or ignored.”
This week, the UN panel of 18 independent experts is set to review the reports of Bahrain, Belgium, Guinea, Italy, Japan and Syria, in exchanges with representatives from the countries involved.
Tragically, there is still much to be done before we realise the four core principles of the Convention: non-discrimination, the child's best interests; right to life, survival and development and right to be heard - Michelle Bachelet, UN Rights Chief
Turning to another powerful human rights platform – the 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which world leaders adopted in September 2015 - “we are not yet on track” to deliver on its promises, the High Commissioner insisted.
“Based on current trends, more than 60 countries will miss the SDG neo-natal mortality target,” Ms. Bachelet said, citing a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimate that 60 million children under five, will die between 2017 and 2030 from preventable causes.
On trafficking and slavery, the High Commissioner explained that children were “particularly vulnerable” to its worst manifestations: forced labour – involving some 5.5 million youngsters - domestic slavery, sexual slavery and forced marriage.
Testimonies collected by the staff and other UN bodies “clearly indicate that child migrants and internally displaced children, in every region, are at heightened risk”, she said, “and as you know, these populations are growing sharply”.
Quoting from a recent study by a UN Special Rapporteur – or independent rights expert - Ms Bachelet noted that the share of children trafficked for the purpose of forced labour “is increasing, and the share of children involved in forced labour is particularly high”.
The High Commissioner also cited data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), indicating that one in three detected victims of trafficking was a child.
Victims included almost double the number of girls than boys, she continued, while the trafficking of children for sexual exploitation “greatly facilitated by digital technologies, which create new marketplaces and streamline the organisation of trafficking networks”.
And on the “millions of girls” who become mothers while they are still children, Ms Bachelet underlined that the practice damaged their health and entrenched a destructive cycle of poverty.
Read the statement: