CANADA: Children's Ombudspersons

Summary: Information about institutions in Canada that monitor children's rights.

Children's Ombudsperson

Most Canadian provinces have an Ombudsperson for Children, but in its 2012 Concluding Observations, the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed its concern that there was no independent Ombudsperson for Children at the federal level. The Canadian Human Rights Commission operates at the federal level, and has a mandate to receive complaints, but the Committee has expressed regret that the Commission only hears complaints based on discrimination and so does not afford all children “to pursue meaningful remedies for breaches of all rights under the Convention”. The Committee has urged the State to establish a federal Ombudsperson for children to ensure protection and comprehensive and systematic monitoring of children's rights at the federal level. The Committee also urged the State party to take measures to raise awareness among children of the Ombudspersons within the provinces and territories.

Countries

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