The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), comprising 18 members, monitors implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols. This convention safeguards all human rights of children, defined as persons under the age of 18. The 196 states parties agree to take all appropriate measures to ensure these rights are protected in their respective countries, and they regularly submit progress reports to the CRC.

As the director and co-founder of the Centre for Children's Rights Studies and a professor at the University of Geneva's Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Philip D. Jaffé is an expert in children's rights. His multicultural experience and his psychosocial and interdisciplinary background will be a valuable asset to the CRC.

Philip D. Jaffé will commence his term of office at the CRC in 2019 – a year that also marks the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989 and ratified by Switzerland in 1997. He is the second Swiss person to serve on the CRC, after Jean Zermatten from 2005 to 2013, and his election attests to Switzerland's engagement in promoting human rights. The CRC convenes in Geneva three times a year.

Swiss expert Philip D. Jaffé elected to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child