Maldives secures agreement on new UN Child Rights Treaty

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

The Maldives has secured a decision at the United Nations to begin drafting a new international human rights treaty that will boost the human rights of the world’s children by allowing them to have recourse to international protection mechanisms. Efforts to create such a treaty have foundered for more than 20 years due to quarrels between UN Member States. The Maldives has, for the past month, chaired negotiations at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to break the impasse. The result was a unanimous decision today by States to back the new treaty and begin a drafting process.

Speaking after the Council’s vote, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Dr. Ahmed Shaheed said: “The mere fact that the Maldives was asked to chair and be lead negotiator in talks to secure agreement on this vital new international treaty speaks volumes for the high regard in which the Maldives, led by a new Government with a strong commitment to democracy and human rights, is now held by the international community. The fact that we were then able to then overturn 20 years of disappointment by negotiating and securing unanimous support for a decision to begin drafting the treaty demonstrates the Maldives’ growing international influence. This new treaty will be a major boost to global efforts to protect the rights of children – the most vulnerable and the most important part of our society”.

The treaty, which will take the form of an optional protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), will create a procedure whereby children who are being abused or their representatives (such as national child protection NGOs, lawyers, and doctors) could seek assistance from international human rights protection mechanisms when domestic institutions are failing to offer protection.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child entered into force in 1990 and has since become the most widely ratified international human rights convention, with almost universal endorsement. The Maldives ratified the Convention in 1991. Yet despite the importance of the treaty, it remains the only major human rights convention that does not have a dedicated complaints procedure allowing violations to be reported to the UN human rights protection mechanisms. Efforts to establish such a procedure have been ongoing for 20 years but have never progressed due to disagreement between States.

The Maldives and a core group of other supportive countries including Egypt, Kenya, Finland, France, Thailand, Uruguay, Chile, Slovenia and Slovakia, have worked at the current session of the Human Rights Council to finally break this deadlock by negotiating, tabling and adopting a resolution which would establish an intergovernmental working group charged with drafting the new treaty.

Reader Comments

  1. Thank GOD – my children have been the product of a Chief Judge that has placed them in harms for far too long!!!!!! Truly a Godsend from our international brotherhood – A very concerned and excellent Mother!

    Posted by Bella | April 9, 2010, 1:23 am

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