A/HRC/13/19 Responses from United Nations agencies and organizations United Nations Children’s Fund [Original: English] [7 December 2009] The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated at the outset that its mission and mandate were guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). UNICEF provided information on its strong working relationship with the Committee on the Rights of the Child, its secretariat, and the non-governmental group on CRC. It stated that, as explicitly provided in article 45 of CRC, UNICEF country offices had routinely provided inputs into the review process of the Committee, as well as technical assistance to States parties in their implementation of the Convention and reporting to the Committee. Further, it stated that UNICEF continued to work together with the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Development Fund for Women to promote joint United Nations country teams reporting to pre-sessional working group sessions of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at the Committee’s request, and to harmomize and improve the United Nations system’s reporting to the Committee. UNICEF stated that it had convened several meetings to address issues of common interest in the framework of the CRC and the CEDAW, on such topics as their working methods, the development of concrete social indicators on child rights and women’s rights, and to examine ways to coordinate action to promote the two conventions. In this connection, in 2006, UNICEF launched the CRC/CEDAW Linkages Initiative, which seeks to promote implementation of both treaties, stimulate a better understanding of the intersections between women’s and children’s rights and encourage partnerships and alliances between rights advocates of the two conventions. In the context of this initiative, in partnership with the Wellesley Centers for Women, UNICEF convened an Asian regional conference on the human rights relationship between women and children in December 2007 in Bangkok. As a result of this conference, the first meeting of a joint CRC-CEDAW working group will take place in 2010, with support from UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund. UNICEF also referred to a joint learning package with the United Nations Population Fund on linkages between CRC/CEDAW, which would be finalized in 2010, and an advocacy booklet to influence action at the national level to be launched at the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2010. UNICEF also provided information on its input into other treaty bodies, most notably to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and it also provided information and recommendations to the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council. UNICEF also stated that it collaborated with a number of special procedure mandates at the global level and in relation to country visits. In June 2009, UNICEF participated in a meeting of three special rapporteurs with child-focused mandates (on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences), which resulted in an action plan with roles for all partners. Finally, UNICEF concluded by encouraging the special procedures of the Human Rights Council and Special Representatives of the Secretary-General with child-focused mandates to continue this initiative to strengthen a holistic and concerted approach to their work and by offering technical assistance to this process as required. International Labour Organization [Original: English] GE.10-10005 11