Twenty States sign new Optional Protocol
Asiya Prog Dev
Subject: CRINMAIL 1265
From: Child Rights Information Network <in...@crin.org>
Twenty States sign new Optional Protocol!
Twenty States sign new Optional Protocol! Twenty States have signed the
third Optional Protocol of the Convention of the Rights of the Child for a
complaints mechanism, which opened for signature yesterday at the Human
Rights Council in Geneva. Slovakia has always been a strong supporter of the
initiative, even early on when few States were backing it. The other
European signatories to the Optional Protocol are Slovenia, Serbia, Austria,
Belgium, Italy, Finland, Spain, Luxembourg, Germany, Portugal and
Montenegro. The Latin American signatories are Peru, Uruguay, Chile and
Costa Rica. Meanwhile Morocco and Mali remain the only two African
countries to sign so far, and the Maldives the only Asian country.
Highlighting that this is only the beginning of the process, Lisa Myers from
the NGO Group for the CRC hailed the importance of the new complaints
mechanism, saying it sends "a powerful signal of States' commitment to
children", adding that "for rights to have meaning, international redress
must be available." The Optional Protocol will remain open for signature in
New York for other States to sign.
Next stage: ratification! For a template letter to encourage your State to
ratify, prepared by the NGO Group for the CRC, letter in English is attached
herewith.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________