Child mortality has been dramatically reduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic and has now become a growing threat to children worldwide, says a senior official from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), on January 31.
Orest Nowosad, the Head of OHCHR’s Target Group Section, reported an increase “in the number of children affected by hunger, violence, poverty, mental health problems, forced marriages and difficulties in accessing education, among others.”
“This includes diverting resources from tackling other problems such as malaria, which killed 221 million people in 2020, with children under five accounting for 80% of deaths in Africa, Nowosad said in a statement at the opening of the 89th session of the ‘Committee on the Rights of the Child,’ which will run until February 11.
OHCHR officials admit the child mortality could result in “a lost decade for children,” rendering the Sustainable Development Goals a pipe dream, as mentioned in the latest United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report.
Moreover, Nowosad argued it is vitally important for children to remain at the center of all efforts to address Covid-19, emphasizing the importance of monitoring the Committee in this regard.
The session was originally scheduled to begin on January 17, 2022, but the High Commission decided not to hold the meeting in person in January due to the dramatic increase in Omicron variant cases.
Subsequently, the sessions are confirmed in Geneva for February 2022. Nowosad assured the experts that he understood the frustration and the negative impact that these postponements have on the growing backlog of reviews to be done.
In this 89th session, the Committee will be reviewing the periodic reports of two States Parties to the Convention – namely the Netherlands and Madagascar – in a hybrid format with online presences of delegations from each of the two governments.
The Committee will also meet informally with States Parties to the Convention on February 10.
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