Summary: February 26, 2001: Eighth Meeting of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Intervention by Ms. Johanna Brismar Skoog, Permanent Mission of Sweden on behalf of the European Union (New York)
Mr. Chairman,
On behalf of the European Union, I would like to make the following remarks with regard to the important task of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the associated countries Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, as well as the EFTA countries, members of the EEA Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway align themselves with this
statement.
In 1995 State Parties adopted an amendment to article 43(2) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to extend the number of seats in the Committee from 10 to 18 in order to deal with the increasing workload faced by the Committee. We note with great concern that the Committee is now facing a back-log of 60 reports, which results in an unaccapble waiting period of approximately two years from the submission to the revision of reports from states parties. For the amendment to enter into
force a two-thirds majority of the 191 treaty partners have to sign it. Up to today, 96 have done so. The European Union calls upon all States Parties to accept, as a matter of priority, the extension of the Committee membership in order to enable it to respond in an effective and transparent way to its ever-increasing workload.
We have noticed with satisfaction that a number of countries representing different parts of the world have presented highly qualified candidates for the five seats that were up for election this year. It is our hope that some of the candidates that were not elected today should have a seat in an extended Committee in a near future. Their working capacity is needed.
In this context, the European Union would also like to stress the need of providing the Committee with adequate resources. It is important that the Secretary-General ensures the provision of appropriate staff and facilities from the United Nations regular budget for the effective and expeditious performance of the functions of the Committee. Furthermore, we would like to encourage member states to provide voluntary resources for the Plan of Action in support of the Committee and its
secretariat.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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