Two resolutions concerning the rights of the child were recently approved in the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly. The Omnibus Resolution, which contains the mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG-CAAC) was adopted on November 22nd and, as expected, renewed the SRSG’s mandate with no major changes for a period of three years.
The second resolution, “Strengthening of the coordination of the United Nations system on child protection” was tabled by the Thai government and adopted in its final form on November 21st. The final resolution reiterates the importance of all relevant actors of the UN on child protection to continue to carry out their functions in an independent manner and to fulfill their respective mandates. It further underlines the importance of sustained, adequate resources and support for the work of the UN system on the promotion and protection of the rights of the child.
In October, the Permanent Mission of Thailand introduced a draft of the resolution which proposed the creation of a new annual comprehensive report on UN child protection activities, as well as an evaluation of these activities to assess the level of satisfaction of Member States. It also suggested that UNICEF should coordinate all child protection activities within the UN system. While less comprehensive, the final resolution does ask for a report on UN coordination to the GA and an interactive dialogue at the General Assembly session in 2013, at which point, further advocacy will be needed to ensure that points dropped from the initial zero draft in 2011 are not reintroduced in a renewed version of the resolution.
