2 March 2020; On behalf of the Government, people and especially the children of Samoa, I wish to once again extend a very warm welcome to the Committee on the Rights of the Child and all the important local, regional and international partners who have travelled near and far to attend this extraordinary session. I extend special greetings also to those watching this live from around the world especially our Blue Pacific neighbours attending the meeting and events this week.
We applaud the fact that this is the first time the Committee is meeting outside of Geneva and New York. Likewise I hope the pleasure of being away from Geneva resonates with the Committee members and that you will allow yourselves to work hard and revel in the warmth of the Pacific away from the wintry temperatures of Geneva. In 2018, Samoa also for the first time, presented its sixth periodic report under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women using video conferencing. These milestone events are consistent with Samoa’s commitment to deepen and strengthen the important engagement between treaty parties and the treaty bodies. The ultimate goal is for deepened and more meaningful engagement to lead to more effective implementation of human rights conventions such as the CRC, so that together we can all deliver on the promise for our children, provided under the Convention.
We must recognize that a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not possible. Thus opportunities such as this extraordinary meeting of the CRC in Samoa are critical to enhancing engagement of the Committee and key stakeholders in contextualized settings essential for implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
As a global citizen, Samoa maintains its commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights of all persons, and to advancing our efforts to uphold the rights of the children. We continue to advocate for the importance of ensuring, Samoan, the Blue Pacific and also Small island Developing States (SIDS) perspectives, challenges and opportunities, are clearly articulated and understood. Selecting the Committee of the Rights of the Child as the first Human Rights treaty body for Samoa to nominate a candidate for, reflects and emphasizes the importance we place on the work of this Committee.
We are pleased that you have all agreed to choose Samoa as the first place to hold a session outside the Committee’s usual meeting venues. I have no doubt our Acting Chief Justice Vui Clarence Nelson will enjoy showing the Committee his homeland.
This year, Samoa will be presenting its Second Voluntary National Review on the implementation of the Sustainable Development goals, for which we had made a commitment in 2016, to take a human rights approach to implementing our SDGs. The events this week will contribute to the assessment and discussion not only on our efforts and challenges to meet the SDGs, but also on our commitment to the children of Samoa through the implementation of the CRC.
You only need to look at the different events and issues for discussions this week to understand the interlinked nexuses of the Sustainable development goals and the important contribution they posit to upholding the rights of our children particularly on Issues such as health, education, oceans, climate change, technology and violence against women and children. In fact, before your deliberations begin today, around 80 of our students from nine different schools have already had the opportunity to learn about the convention, their rights, and the work of the committee as part of their preparations for events this week.
They debated and discussed some of the main human rights issues for Samoa and our region. The benefits for these children and our united efforts to protect their rights, are far reaching. This week, under the steerage of our National Human Rights Institution, the Government will host a Dialogue on the Right to Health of Children in the Samoan context. This is an important and timely opportunity to discuss such critical matters.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
For Samoa and the Pacific, this week serves as an important platform to encourage all involved to increase their efforts to protect the rights of all children in the Pacific. It also provides the much needed visibility to promoting child rights issues in the region as well as the rare opportunity to hear directly from the Committee and also for the Committee to hear from the Pacific children and people on their perspectives and issues.
More importantly, I hope we have offered our Pacific neighbours presenting their reports to the Committee, the opportunity to ensure participation of larger delegations as well as provide a more familiar and friendlier environment conducive for successful engagement with the Committee. In this regard we would like to acknowledge the noble efforts of the SPC Regional Rights Resource Team in bringing this Committee meeting to the Pacific with the generous assistance of regional development partners; the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. We acknowledge also the valuable support of the UN organisations/entities involved in Geneva, Fiji and Samoa. To all the Pacific presenting countries, thank you for your participation.
Finally, I wish the Committee, presenting countries and all participants successful deliberations this week. I am confident we will not try to re-create Geneva or New York in Samoa, but instead, for the Committee and all our visitors, to feel at home and subsequently add a parrt of your experiences to your memorabilia of Samoa.
Thank you
