Saturday, June 11, 2011

Vatican official says new UN protocol important tool for child rights

A Vatican official encouraged passage of an international protocol that would give children a direct line of communication to local and international authorities when they are victims of violence or their rights are violated.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's envoy to U.N. agencies in Geneva, said the measure "will become a significant instrument of the human rights system."

The document is an addition to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Archbishop Tomasi spoke of it June 6 in Geneva during a meeting of the Human Rights Council.

The archbishop said that the protocol "provides a word of hope and encouragement to those children and those young people whose innocence and human dignity have been wounded by the cruelty that can be present in the world of adults."

According to the Child Rights Information Network, a Britain-based advocacy network, children have the right under the Convention on the Rights of the Child to express their views and expect to be heard. 

However, a formal mechanism for the communication of complaints or accusations is lacking, and the new protocol would make it easier for children, or their representatives, to report human rights violations.

Archbishop Tomasi said he hoped implementation of the protocol "may bring us closer to our ultimate goal: the unconditional preservation and respect of the dignity of every single person, woman or man, adult or child."

He encouraged nations, U.N. organizations, civil society and faith-based organizations to work together to protect the rights, well-being and future of children around the world.