Estonia warmly welcomes the delegation of the Solomon Islands to the UPR Working Group.
We acknowledge the efforts of the Government of the Solomon Islands to implement recommendations from the previous UPR review cycle. In particular we would like to commend the government for introducing the ‘National Youth Policy 2017-2030’ and the ‘National Gender Equality and Women’s Development Policy 2016-2020’.
We also note positively the adoption of the Child and Family Welfare Act in 2017, in line with previous UPR recommendations. At the same time, we note that some child rights-related laws still need to be harmonized with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
While we acknowledge the administrative difficulties that the Solomon Islands is facing, in particular in remote rural areas, we would encourage the Solomon Islands to take further steps towards implementation of relevant measures to protect women and children from abuse and human trafficking. This is of particular relevance in the context of socioeconomic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Following up on our previous recommendations, Estonia would like to recommend to the Government of the Solomon Islands to:
- ratify the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other core human rights instruments to which it is not yet a party;
- explicitly prohibit corporal punishment of children in all settings;
- introduce freedom of information legislation in compliance with international standards;
- ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
We wish the delegation of the Solomon Islands a successful review meeting.
Thank you!