The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child met with representatives of ECPAT-USA and other NGO delegates from the United States this week in Geneva, Switzerland. The Committee’s job is to offer recommendations to governments to improve their efforts to stop the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. This week, the Committee was reviewing the United States government. As part of that review, NGOs submitted information for the committee to take into consideration so that it is fully informed when it offers recommendations to the U.S. government.
The NGOs submitted three different reports.
1) Sixty two organizations submitted signed on to an “Alternative Report” developed by ECPAT-USA.
2) The Children’s Studies Center of Brooklyn College in New York City submitted a separate report specifically measuring how New York State complies with the commitments made by the U.S. government to eliminate the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
3) The Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago and the Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights at the University of Chicago submitted a report about the sale of children for labor.
The U.S. government had previously reported to the Committee about its efforts to protect children. After this session, the Committee sends additional questions to the U.S. government. In January government representatives will meet with the Committee face to face and then the Committee will make its recommendations. ECPAT-USA uses those recommendations as guidelines for our advocacy for the protection of children. Please click here for more information about the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and what it does.
Pictured from left to right: Maria Woltjen, Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, Katherine Kaufka Walts, Loyola U. Chicago Center for the Human Rights of Children, Jonathan Todres, Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law, Gertrud Lenzer, Director of the Children’s Studies Center at Brooklyn College, and Carol Smolenski, Executive Director of ECPAT-USA, in front of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.