Why was it necessary for the Committee to come back to the Pacific - you were here in 2020?
The 2020 visit was the 84th Extraordinary session, which the CRC held in Samoa, and at which it undertook a formal review of Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Tuvalu. This work would usually have been undertaken in Geneva - but the CRC Committee was keen try out the possibility of bringing the Treaty Body System closer to the people.
This visit is another opportunity to continue that exploration - three years after that review, three members of the Committee have carried out a Follow up visit. One member visited each of the three countries previously reviewed, sat down with government and non-government stakeholders, visited schools and programmes. Then, in the second week, 12 Pacific Island nations gathered in Samoa, for a workshop that provided a platform for the Committee to provide some guidance and feedback and for peer-to-peer learning through experience sharing.
What are some of the overall substantive issues for children in the Pacific noting that you visited more than one country in a region which is not homogenous?
We identified several common themes, and four that we looked at intensively during the workshop were: corporal punishment (hitting children at school and at home); domestic violence and sexual abuse; child justice
(how are children treated if they commit offences), and children's rights and climate change.
Did the committee note any dis or misinformation on child's rights being disseminated within the region?
Yes, we found that the Committee's message that smacking (however light) is violence, and that violence should not be used in parenting of children was misunderstood - and some participants admitted that they had been advising parents that smacking children is ok as long as it does not result in injury.
You met with children, why meet with them? What would they know being so young?
The reason that the CRC Committee meets with children as often as we can is because they are the rights bearers whose rights we uphold. Therefore, we want to hear directly from them. They know about their own lives - what is it is like to be a child living in the Pacific - this is the unique insight they provide. But also, they do have some ideas about rights and about issues such as protecting the environment. In the face of lethargy about things like plastic waste pollution, children are animated and enthusiastic. They can tell adults a thing or two! They know more than we think they do - and, while we do not expect them to have answers to the world’s problems, we do uphold their right to participate in decisions being made by adults that affect them.
What surprised or moved you - have you any anecdotes to share?
Yes - one participant told us that, following what she heard from the Committee at the 83rd extraordinary session, she stopped hitting her child. She is a senior government official, and committed to taking that inspiration forward, as a champion for children's rights, to change attitudes about smacking in her country. Another participant told us that the Committee's follow up visit has caused her to think about her 1-year-old child who already smacks others, because she has been smacked. She noted that if she stops smacking because of what she has heard, it will be necessary to change attitudes of others around her, because her child will learn smacking from other children who have been smacked.
On World Children's Day in Apia, Samoa, the Committee launched its new guidance on children's rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change, known as - briefly, what are the key points that the guidance explicitly addresses?
Putting it briefly GC 26 states the following:
- Sets out children's right to clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and links this to the Convention;
- Demonstrates all the rights that are affected- such as the right to health, the right to education - but also flags that children have a right to express their opinions freely and participate in decisions about the environment and climate change;
- Sets out the State's obligations to respect, protect and fulfill children's rights in relation to the environment - and indicates the responsibilities of business;
- Spells out children's access to justice that should allow them to complain about the effects of environmental degradation and climate change e.g. to ombudspersons or if necessary, to the courts;
- On climate change: Sets out specific considerations for prevention, mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, climate finance, international cooperation.
As such, does the Committee consider climate change a major child protection issue in the Pacific and what are some examples which increases their vulnerability?
Sea level rise, extreme weather events, difficulty in maintaining or rebuilding infrastructure, including safe sanitation and new diseases on the rise.
Head of UNICEF, Catherine Russell, on World Children’s Day - the same day you were launching General Comment No.26 in Apia - said in her speech that at no time since the CRC was adopted 34 years ago have children’s rights been in greater jeopardy, do you agree?
Yes, I do agree - because there is pushback against children's rights all over the world, a creeping resistance to the idea of children as rights holders, and major crises facing children such as war, forced migration and climate change.
COP28 is coming up soon do you think that policy makers see the face of a child, or hear the voice of child when they make decisions?
One of the things we discussed was what states can and should do to include children in more decision making, including through making them as members of delegations to COP. We heard that some states have done this in the past, and some are planning to take children to COP28 - but this could still be developed further.
In view of this do you hope the Committee's work on climate, children and Pacific will become part of this broader global conversation, and if so, what is your overall wish list, and your call to action, on behalf and alongside the children of the Pacific?
We throw our weight behind the call to action by children - especially those for whom this is a very real emergency, such as those in small island states.