News

On 21 February associate professor of Vilnius University, Head of Clinic of Child Development Centre Mr Dainius Pūras was elected member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child  during the 11th Meeting of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. “This is a significant achievement of Lithuania and international recognition of competence of Mr Dainius Pūras in the field of rights of the child,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is a body established in accordance with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to monitor the implementation of the Convention by its 193 state parties.  The Committee is composed of 18 independent experts who are elected by secret ballot for a term of four years. 

During the meeting 9 out of 22 candidates nominated by state parties were elected members of the Committee. Mr Dainius Pūras was among five nominees who obtained the largest number of votes in the first ballot.

Mr Dainius Pūras is the pioneer of developing National Telephone Helpline for  Children in 1997, Head of the Centre of Child Psychiatry and Social Paediatrics at Vilnius university, Board member of Human Rights Monitoring Institute, honorary chairman of Lithuanian Welfare Society for Persons with Mental Disabilities  „Viltis“.

Since 1991, when Lithuania became a member of the UN, Mr Dainius Pūras has been the first representative of Lithuania elected member of one of the UN expert committees monitoring the implementation of principles of conventions related to human rights.

Other candidates elected members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child are experts from Algeria, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Paraguay and Tunisia