Annual Report - National Human Rights Commission

A Review of Laws
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17.21 The Commission persued the reply received from the Ministry of External Affairs and
desired to know from the Ministry the specific responses on its part regarding signing of the two
additional protocols to the Geneva Convention 1949.
17.22 The Ministry of External Affairs has further informed that a thorough examination of
substantive aspects of these protocols is needed and their Ministry is consulting the concerned
agencies. In this regard Inter-Ministerial Meeting was convened by MEA on 22-07-2004. The
Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Defence were requested to study the subject.
17.23 The issue of accession to the Geneva Convention was discussed in the meeting of the
Commission and the Commission has desired that issue should be addressed after a joint meeting
of MEA, MHA and Ministry of Defence.
17.24 The Ministry of Home Affairs in the Action Taken Report on the Annual Report of the
Commission for the year 2002-2003 has mentioned that the consultation process is going on in
the Government of India in order to take stock of the current realities.
3] Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child
17.25 Protection and promotion of the rights of children has always been a central issue on the
agenda of the National Human Rights Commission. India is a home to more than four hundred
million children and these children undoubtedly are the supreme asset of the nation. Recognizing
the rights of children and our duties towards them, the Constitution of India, first and foremost,
has protected their rights. Having ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the
Government of India has committed itself inter alia towards all round development of children,
including reducing inequalities among them; protecting them from violence and exploitation;
and creating an overall environment that will nurture them to bloom into robust citizens who will
be the pride of the nation.
17.26 In the Commission’s earlier annual reports, the Commission had recommended that the
Government of India examine and become a party to Optional Protocols 1 and 2 to the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, dealing with the involvement of children in armed conflict and the
sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The Memorandum of Action Taken
on the Annual Report of the National Human Rights Commission for the year 2002-03 also
mentions that the Government has approved the signing and ratification of the aforesaid two
Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Ministry of External
Affairs has communicated to the Commission that the Government of India had signed the
above two Optional Protocols on 15-11-2004. These, however, are yet to be ratified. The
Commission trusts that the Government of India would ratify the two Optional Protocols to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child in the best interest of our children.
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