Committee on the Rights of the Child
18 January 2021
The Committee on the Rights of the Child today opened its online limited eighty-sixth session.
Luis Ernesto Pedernera Reyna, Chairperson of the Committee, said the Committee had been working on the Third Optional Protocol, and General Comment 25, and would spare no efforts to discharge its mandate. Because of COVID-19, pre-existing problems had worsened. Child poverty was increasing and the closure of schools had had a devastating impact, increasing dropout rates. This had resulted in what the United Nations Secretary-General had called a “generational catastrophe.” The likelihood of sexual abuse of children was now greater. Children were more vulnerable to threats posed by the Internet. Children must be listened to, and their proposals should be heard as well. They were the silent and silenced victims of the pandemic.