ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL APPROVES DRAFTS ON RIGHTS OF CHILD; FILLS REMAINING SEATS ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

Press Release
ECOSOC/5889

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL APPROVES DRAFTS ON RIGHTS OF CHILD; FILLS REMAINING SEATS ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

In a resumed organizational session, the Economic and Social Council this afternoon filled the four remaining seats in the Commission on Sustainable Development. The Council also approved a draft resolution on two draft optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, at the request of the Commission on Human Rights. It recommended that the two optional protocols, after adoption by the General Assembly, be open for early signature and ratification or accession.

The four members elected to the Commission on Sustainable Development were Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal. The members elected to the Commission in an earlier Council meeting on 3 May were: India, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Republic of Moldova, Slovenia, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Austria, France, Iceland and Switzerland.

According to the draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on involvement of children in armed conflict, States parties shall ensure that members of their armed forces under the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities, and ensure that persons who have not attained that age are not compulsorily recruited into the armed forces. Armed groups distinct from the armed forces of a State should not, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities persons under the age of 18 years. States parties shall take all feasible measures to prevent such recruitment and use, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit and criminalize such practices.

The optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, calls on each State party to ensure the full coverage under criminal or penal law of acts and activities involving the offering, delivering or accepting, by any means, a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation of the child; transfer of its organs for profit; and engagement of the child in forced labour. Also covered are improperly inducing consent, as an intermediary, for the adoption of a child in violation of applicable international legal instruments on adoption; offering, obtaining, procuring, or providing a child for child prostitution; and producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling or possessing child pornography for the above purposes.

Makarim Wibisono (Indonesia) serves as President of the Economic and Social Council.

The next meeting of the Council will be announced in the Journal.

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