| Abstract: | Meeting for 6 weeks, the 53-member UN Commission on Human Rights adopted more than 83 resolutions and 14 decisions, the majority by consensus. Among its measures, the commission called for the creation of an open-ended working group to develop policy guidelines for economic structural adjustment programs and their effects upon economic, social, and cultural rights; and the holding of a seminar of experts to develop guidelines on the subject of forced evictions. This report offers a round-up of action with regard to children's rights and abuse, gender issues, the right of people to development, country situations, hostages, indigenous and minority issues, and follow-up to the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. Children are being sold for prostitution, pornography, and adoption at an increasing rate worldwide. The commission has therefore called upon governments to take legislative, social, and educational measures to ensure the protection of children from exploitation. Deeply concerned by the persistence of such violations, the commission recommended that states adopt measures to eliminate the existing market for such practices, and asked the group drafting a related optional protocol to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child to continue its work. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will provide substantive support to the World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, to be held in Stockholm in August. |
