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.