Written statement submitted by the Asian Indigenous

Distr.
GENERAL

E/CN.4/2004/NGO/136
8 March 2004

Original: ENGLISH

English only

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixtieth session
Item 13 of the provisional agenda

RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Written statement* submitted by the Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network (AITPN), a non-governmental organization in special consultative status

The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

[1 February 2004]

UNICEF and CRC Committee are ignoring ethical questions

On 21 January 2003, at its 35th session the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child examined the most voluminous report in the history of the United Nations treaty bodies, the first periodic report of the government of India. . CRC/C/93/Add.5 The first periodic report consists of about 500 A-4 size pages. After the pre-sessional hearing, the government of India submitted another 62 pages reply. With over a half a dozen NGO alternate reports, the members of the Child Rights Committee had an uphill task to effectively examine the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The voluminous first periodic report of the government of India has reportedly been written with the financial support of the UNICEF. While this practice is not specific to India, UNICEF provides financial support to hire professionals to write the periodic reports of the governments all over the world.

If one were to go by the first periodic report of the government of India, it would not be an understatement to assert that India is a model State on the rights of the child. It provides no information on torture of children. The violation of the right to life in India is restricted to female infanticide. Despite Union Home Ministry providing information about internal armed conflicts in 14 out of 28 states, . http://www.mha.nic.in/annual-2002-2003/ch-3.pdf there is not a single reference to armed conflicts. The internal armed conflicts in India appear passé –the government of India's first periodic report only refers to armed conflict in Punjab that ended almost a decade ago!

UNICEF's response:

Asian Centre for Human Rights, a NGO based in New Delhi in its alternate report, The Status of Children in India, as well as in its oral submission on 9 October 2003 before the CRC Committee raised the ethical issue of financing such voluminous report as it fails to highlight the situation of children in India. UNICEF's representatives stated that it facilitated dialogues between the NGOs and governments. As some UN agencies hide under the veil of secrecy, only UNICEF officials in Delhi are aware as to whether it financed hiring of professionals and publication of such a voluminous report.

The Chairman of the CRC Committee, Jacob Egbert Doek, in his oral reply on 9 October 2003 effectively stated that the submission of any periodic report is better than "no report" while considering the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by a State party. Therefore, UNICEF should continue with the process of financing the writing of the periodic reports.

However, both the UNICEF and the Committee on the Rights of the Child need to make ethical choices based on past practices on consideration of the periodic reports by the treaty bodies.

UNICEF's role in the implementation of the CRC:

Article 45 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that "in order to foster the effective implementation of the Convention and to encourage international co-operation in the field covered by the Convention, the specialized agencies, the United Nations Children's Fund, and other United Nations organs shall be entitled to be represented at the consideration of the implementation of such provisions of the present Convention as fall within the scope of their mandate. The Committee may invite the specialized agencies, the United Nations Children's Fund and other competent bodies, as it may consider appropriate to provide expert advice on the implementation of the Convention in areas falling within the scope of their respective mandates. The Committee may invite the specialized agencies, the United Nations Children's Fund, and other United Nations organs to submit reports on the implementation of the Convention in areas falling within the scope of their activities".

UNICEF primarily remains a service-providing agency akin to the humanitarian organisations, which provide assistance in non-controversial but important areas such as the realisation of access to highest attainable standards of health, right to education, right to food etc. After 14 years of adoption of the CRC, UNICEF is yet to develop ways to address many of the civil and political rights issues - juvenile justice, torture, extrajudicial execution, rape and the status of children requiring special measures of protection. UNICEF does address some of these problems especially in the States, which are in crisis such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia etc. However, it is yet to develop methodologies to address such problems in countries, which are stable. UNICEF rarely reports on these issues before the CRC Committee.

While Specialised Agencies such as UNICEF or the Secretariat of the United Nations bodies to train and increase expertise of the government officials to enable them to submit the periodic reports. However, hiring of individual professionals or professional agencies to collate information and write the periodic report subject to final approval of the government concerned is an altogether different issue. Most governments deal in jargon in their periodic reports. However, hiring of individual professionals or professional agencies increases the use of jargon exponentially. In the first periodic report of the government of India, some of the NGO activities are cited as if the government implemented them. It is another matter that government uses repressive measures to suppress the grumble of discontent of the NGOs working with children caught in armed conflict situations. The ethical question is whether UN agencies should finance or support the government to be economical with the truth. It is a matter of choice – an ethical one.

There is no doubt that UNICEF in exceptional cases needs to provide financial assistance to countries such as Laos, Samoa etc. However, to assist countries such as India which is a nuclear power and possesses ballistic missiles is unjustifiable. UNICEF has failed to evaluate its programmes on supporting the governments to write their periodic reports.

CRC Committee and other treaty bodies

Undoubtedly, the Committee on the Rights of the Child can claim itself as the most busy Committee with almost universal ratification of the CRC and large number of reports submitted and pending to be considered. Considering that most States default in submitting the periodic reports to other treaty bodies, the CRC Committee may construe it as a sign of its effectiveness.

In reality, other UN treaty bodies such as Human Rights Committee, CERD Committee, CEDAW Committee and Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are not as fortunate as the CRC Committee because of the lack of support from the UN agencies, many governments have not submitted their periodic reports. Therefore, submission of the periodic reports to the CRC Committee apparently have more to do with UNICEF's support for writing such periodic reports rather than the governments' commitment to implement the CRC or effectiveness of the CRC Committee.

The questions would arise as to whether other treaty bodies have been rendered ineffective because of the lack of support from United Nations Specialised Agencies such as UNICEF to provide assistance for writing periodic reports. While many States do submit their periodic reports, treaty bodies have been considering implementation of the conventions without the periodic reports with available information on hand. For example, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, which ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1974, has not submitted its reports to the CERD Committee for the last 18 years. However, in response to the CERD Committee's decision (CERD/C/63/Dec.1) under early warning measures in August 2003, the government of Lao has reportedly submitted its response to the CERD Committee. . http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/db7b6b31f5a50cf2c1256dff005346a4?
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Therefore, what the treaty bodies need to do is to develop guidelines as to after sending of how many reminders to a State party, implementation of the treaty by the concerned State party will automatically be considered without the periodic report. At the same time, the CRC Committee should develop General Comment on Article 45 to ensure that even if UNICEF funds the writing of the periodic reports under exceptional circumstances, true situation of children are properly reflected.

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* This written statement is issued, unedited, in the language(s) received from the submitting non-governmental organization(s).