HUMAN RIGHTS

two year old, causing him serious injury; 57 and the “night of barbaric torture and humiliation”
visited upon an elderly man and his son during a robbery in Laudium. 58
Despite these alarming incidents during 2007, there were no legislative responses or
developments in South Africa regarding torture. In October 2007, however, the Commission held
an inaugural meeting of its Section 5 Torture Committee to advise and to co-ordinate efforts to
raise awareness and advocate for the criminalisation of torture and the establishment of a
National Preventative Mechanism. Additionally, the Commission submitted a comment on the
Special Rapporteur’s Counter-Terrorism Report on 13 December 2007, taking advantage of new
United Nations Human Rights Council procedures that permit statements to be made in Council
proceedings.
CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD (CRC) (1989)
The Committee on the Rights of the Child
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a comprehensive instrument that sets out
rights and defines universal principles and norms regarding the status of children. There are two
Optional Protocols to the CRC. The first requires state parties to criminalise the sale of children,
child prostitution, child pornography, and certain associated activities and to take measures to
ensure prosecution. The second optional protocol focuses on halting the active participation of
children under the age of eighteen in warfare and keeping them out of the armed forces entirely.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child monitors the CRC and the two optional protocols to the
convention. 59 The Committee meets three times a year in Geneva, with each session consisting
of a three-week plenary and a one-week pre-sessional working group. 60 The Committee is
composed of eighteen members, each of which is elected for a term of four years. 61
State parties must submit regular reports to the Committee with the initial report due two years
after acceding to the Convention and then every five years thereafter. During 2007, the
Committee examined 28 state reports including those of Kenya, Mali and Sudan. 62 Several
common themes that emerged and are applicable to current South African domestic issues
include the high rate of HIV infection among children, female genital mutilation, physical and
57 “Torture attack earns accused 27 years in jail,” Mail & Guardian Online available online at
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=323420&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news_national/,
29 October 2007.
58 Mail &Guardian Online. “Boys in court over alleged torture of toddler.” Available online at
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=322363&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news_national/,
18 October 2007.
59 General Comment No 2: The role of independent national human rights institutions in the promotion and protection of
the rights of the child, p.6 (2005).
60 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/index.htm
61 Nine members were re-elected in 2007: Ms Agness Akosua Aidoo (Vice-Chair, Ghana); Mr.Luigi Citarella (Italy); Mr.
Kamel Filati (Vice-Chair, Algeria); Ms Lothar Friedrich Krappmann (Rapporteur); Ms. Rosa Maria Ortiz (Vice-Chair,
Paraguay) and Mr Dainius Puras (Lithuania).
62 During the first session of 2007, the Committee considered the state reports of Kenya, Mali, Honduras, Marshall
Islands, Suriname, Malaysia and Chile. During the second session in 2007, the Committee considered and issued
observations and recommendations about the state reports of Slovakia, the Maldives, Uruguay, Kazakhstan, Sudan,
Guatemala, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Monaco, Norway, Sweden and Guatemala. In the final session of 2007, the
Committee considered the state reports of Venezuela, Bulgaria, France, Spain, Croatia, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Qatar, and Syria.
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