UN Human Rights Treaties

UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC Distr. GENERAL E/CN.4/1284 AND 18 January 1978 SOCIAL COUNCIL original : ENGLISH COMMISSION ON. HUMAN EIGHTS Thirty-fourth session Item 2 of the provisional agenda ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA. Letter dated 17 January 1978 from the Permanent Representative of Poland to the United Nations Office at Geneva addressed to the Director of the Division of Human Rights Acting upon the instruction of my Government I have the honor to submit herewith for inclusion in the Agenda of the 34th session of the Commission on Human Rights the following item: "The question of the Convention on the Rights of the Child". I am also enclosing herewith the Explanatory Memorandum on that question, I would appreciate it if you could, at your earliest convenience, bring this request together with the Explanatory Memorandum, in an appropriate manner, to the attention of all the Members of the Commission. (Signed) Eugeniusz WYZNER Ambassador Permanent Representative E/CN.4/1284 page 2 EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM In 1959 on the initiative of various countries, including Poland, the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization passed the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. In the opinion of the Government of the Polish People's Republic the principles of this Declaration have played a significant part in the assistance, care and the rights of children in the entire world as well as in shaping various forms of the international co-operation in this sphere. The Government of the Polish People's Republic is fully convinced that to-day, i.e. almost twenty years after the proclamation of the principles of this Declaration by the General Assembly, the conditions to take further and more consistent steps by adopting the internationally binding instrument in the form of a Convention, have been already created. The development of the international co-operation in different areas shows that both the care of the child and its rights should. not lag behind the elaboration of the international legal rules in other spheres. The above-mentioned proposal is closely related to the United Nations General Assembly programmed of the International Year of the Child. As the celebrations are planned, for 1979? the Government of the Polish People's Republic proposes to consider the question of the Convention on the Rights of the Child during the 54th Session of the Commission on Human Rights. The adoption of the above proposed Convention on the occasion of the International Year of the Child, besides just mentioned substantial reasons, would give a special meaning to these celebrations. In the opinion of the Polish Government the Convention on the Rights of the Child should be entirely based on the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.