SRSG Santos Pais moderates panel during Human Rights Council full day meeting on the Rights of the Child

31th session of the Human Rights Council

Annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child

“Information and communications technology and child sexual exploitation”

Date and venue: 7 March 2016, 9 - 12 a.m. and 3 - 6 p.m., Palais des Nations, Room XX, Geneva

(will be broadcast live and archived on http://webtv.un.org)

Objectives:

The annual full-day meeting will constitute an opportunity to discuss different national, regional and international initiatives to empower children through information and communication technologies (ICTs) and enhance their protection, including against child sexual exploitation online and offline, in order to identify a holistic approach to the enjoyment of the rights of the child through ICTs, and to share good practices and challenges on the issue.

It will contribute to the realization of the rights of the child to participation, education, and protection from abuse, violence and exploitation in the digital world through:

Deepening the understanding of the relations between ICTs and the rights of the child, including opportunities and challenges to the realization of these rights;
Exchanging of good practices and lessons learnt aimed to promote regional and international cooperation on this issue;
Developing of appropriate strategies to empower children to make better use of their online interaction, and to contribute to their online protection;
Exploring of recommendations to guarantee safe and equal access for children to ICTs and to ensure the criminalisation of online child abuse and exploitation.