Rights of children – GA Third Cttee debate – Summary record (excerpts)

Third Committee 

Summary record of the 13th meeting 

Held at Headquarters, New York, on Wednesday, 13 October 2010, at 3 p.m. 

Chair:    Mr. Tommo Monthe ……………………………………………….   (Cameroon) 

Contents 

The meeting was called to order at 3.10 p.m. 

Agenda item 64: Promotion and protection of the rights of children (A/65/336) 

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23.  Mr. Zeidan (Observer for Palestine) said that hundreds of Palestinian children were being held in Israeli prisons and detention centres and there were accounts of widespread torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children during interrogations. He recalled that the Special Representative had expressed concern about the issue and as ked what steps she was taking to halt those practices and bring those responsible to justice. 

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25.  Ms. Coomaraswamy (Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict) said that the Security Council had set up an experimental monitoring and reporting mechanism, using task forces from United Nations Member States and coordinated in her Office. The task forces had clear mandates, manuals had been written in partnership with UNICEF and others and she was therefore confident of a coordinated United Nations response. Any allegation must be verified by the United Nations system wherever possible; in the few cases where that was not possible, other information verified by more than one source was sought. 

26.  She had expressed concern about the issue of Palestinian children in detention and hoped to visit Israel to discuss it in the coming months. She would continue dialogue with Israel and hoped to move the matter forward, regardless of what happened in the political process. 

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53.  Mr. Zeidan (Observer for Palestine) said that Palestinian children had been suffering under the occupation of Israel for over 40 years, facing death, injury and the destruction of their schools and homes as a result of bombing and the use of white phosphorus. He asked the Special Representative why children living under occupation had not been included in her reports. He hoped to see a change in that policy so that crimes against children would not continue to go unpunished. 

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Corrections will be issued after the end of the session, in a separate corrigendum for each Committee.