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(vi) To have the free assistance of an interpreter if the child cannot understand or speak the language
used;
(vii) To have his or her privacy fully respected at all stages of the proceedings.
3. States Parties shall seek to promote the establishment of laws, procedures, authorities and
institutions specifically applicable to children alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed
the penal law, and, in particular:
(a) The establishment of a minimum age below which children shall be presumed not to have the
capacity to infringe the penal law;
(b) Whenever appropriate and desirable, measures for dealing with such children without resorting to
judicial proceedings, providing that human rights and legal safeguards are fully respected. 4. A variety
of dispositions, such as care, guidance and supervision orders; counselling; probation; foster care;
education and vocational training programmes and other alternatives to institutional care shall be
available to ensure that children are dealt with in a manner appropriate to their well-being and
proportionate both to their circumstances and the offence.
Article 41
Nothing in the present Convention shall affect any provisions which are more conducive to the
realization of the rights of the child and which may be contained in:
(a) The law of a State party; or
(b) International law in force for that State.
PART II
Article 42
States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known, by
appropriate and active means, to adults and children alike.
Article 43
1. For the purpose of examining the progress made by States Parties in achieving the realization of the
obligations undertaken in the present Convention, there shall be established a Committee on the
Rights of the Child, which shall carry out the functions hereinafter provided.
2. The Committee shall consist of ten experts of high moral standing and recognized competence in
the field covered by this Convention. The members of the Committee shall be elected by States Parties
from among their nationals and shall serve in their personal capacity, consideration being given to
equitable geographical distribution, as well as to the principal legal systems.
3. The members of the Committee shall be elected by secret ballot from a list of persons nominated by
States Parties. Each State Party may nominate one person from among its own nationals.
4. The initial election to the Committee shall be held no later than six months after the date of the
entry into force of the present Convention and thereafter every second year. At least four months
before the date of each election, the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall address a letter to
States Parties inviting them to submit their nominations within two months. The Secretary-General
shall subsequently prepare a list in alphabetical order of all persons thus nominated, indicating States
Parties which have nominated them, and shall submit it to the States Parties to the present
Convention.
5. The elections shall be held at meetings of States Parties convened by the Secretary-General at
United Nations Headquarters. At those meetings, for which two thirds of States Parties shall constitute