§ Mr. Ancramasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether Her Majesty's Government will, at the Geneva meeting on the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child, seek to ensure that, in the course of replacing the declaration by a binding convention, no change is made in the commitment to protect every child before as well as after birth.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe United Nations Human Rights Commission is meeting in Geneva from 1 February to 12 March 1982. Among the many items on the agenda is the drafting of a convention on the rights of the child. Work on the draft convention takes place in pre-sessional meeting of a working group of the Commission.
The draft convention will not replace the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child; rather the intention is to amplify the declaration and to ensure, when work is completed, that member States of the United Nations who ratify it are bound by the convention.
The present form of the convention is concerned with the child after it has been born but this does not alter our position on the protection of children before birth.
§ Mr. Ancramasked the Secretary of State for Social Services who will represent Her Majesty's Government at the meeting in February at Geneva when the United Nations Human Rights Commission is to discuss the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe Viscount Colville of Culross is leading the official United Kingdom delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The delegation plays an active part in the open-ended working group which has been charged with drafting the convention on the rights of the child.