The seventeenth meeting of the States Parties of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was held at UN Headquarters, New York on 29th June 2018. The agenda, inter alia, included the election of nine (9) members for the Committee on the Rights of the Child (Committee) to replace those who will complete their terms on 28 February 2019.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the body of 18 Independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by its States parties. It also monitors implementation of two Optional Protocols to the Convention, on involvement of children in armed conflict and on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
This election held special significance for Samoa as its candidate, Justice Vui Clarence Nelson whose term finishes in February 2019, was competing with 13 other candidates for a second four-year term. Justice Nelson is the current Vice Chairperson of the Committee and the Coordinator on the Working Group on the Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure.
After five months of concerted outreach bilaterally, regionally and via UN groupings, coordinated by Samoa’s Foreign Ministry and its overseas Missions and spearheaded by Samoa’s Mission to the UN, Justice Vui was re-elected for another 4-year term after scoring the second highest number of votes during the election.
The newly elected members to the Committee are as follows;
- Ms Hynd Ayoubi IDRISSI Morocco 160
- Mr Vui Clarence Nelson Samoa 155
- Mr Bragi GUDBRANDSSON Iceland 155
- Ms Suzanne AHO-ASSOUMA Togo 143
- Mr Philip D JAFFE Switzerland 137
- Mr Gehad MADI Egypt 127
- Ms Aissatou SIDIKOU Niger 123
- Ms Faith MARSHALL-HARRIS Barbados 119
- Mr José Angel RODRIGUEZ REYES Venezuela 119