17 juni 2009
It is with great pleasure that we can tell you that yesterday afternoon the Human Rights Council adopted resolution A/HRC/11/L.13 formally submitting the guidelines on alternative care for children for consideration by the GA with a view to their adoption on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Convention.
The resolution presented by Brasil, with 43 co-sponsors, was welcomed warmly in a statement presented by Germany on behalf of the EU, was also welcomed by China, and was ultimately passed by consensus. Only Canada made a few remarks qualifying their position on joining the consensus, emphasising the non-binding nature of the guidelines, questioning the scope of the guidelines (notably with respect to immigration), and emphasising that this resolution did not pre-judge the outcome at the GA. You can see all those statements on the HRC webcast archive at http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc/archive.asp?go=090617#pm – follow the link and scroll down to resolution A/HRC/11/L.13.
Achieving this step by consensus is a great result, for which we owe a particular debt of gratitude to Brasil and the Group of Friends for their determination and persistence. It is, of course, not the formal adoption of the guidelines themselves by the Human Rights Council but it is a massive step towards adoption by the GA which has always been the main objective of both the Committee and the Working Group. Particularly this year, unlike the previous three years, Mme Lee will be able to go to the GA in October and request the adoption of a document that is before the GA rather than “on its way”.