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UN Committee to review Gambia’s record on children’s rights

Jan 9, 2015, 10:53 AM

Gambia’s record on children’s rights will be reviewed by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on Thursday 15 January in sessions that will be webcast live.

Gambia is one of the 194 states that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and so is required to undergo regular examinations of its record before the Committee of 18 independent experts.

Among the possible issues to be discussed by the CRC and the delegation from the Gambian Government are: setting the legal minimum age of marriage at 18; prohibition of corporal punishment; steps to prevent and eliminate sexual exploitation of children; sanctions and policies to combat and prohibit FGM; eliminating discrimination against children with disabilities; resources allocated to health care for children; provision of free primary education.

The sessions will take place at Palais Wilson in Geneva from 10:00-13:00 (09:00-12:00 in Gambia) and 15:00-18:00 (14:00-17:00) on 15 January. They will be webcast at http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/.

The CRC’s concluding observations on Gambia and the other countries being reviewed – Cambodia, Turkmenistan, Jamaica, Colombia, Switzerland, Dominican Republic, Sweden, Mauritius, Tanzania, Uruguay and Iraq - will be published on 4 February here:

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=825&Lang=en