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There is much to celebrate as we mark the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on November 20 – but children have so far been denied one crucial tool for safeguarding their rights. The CRC is the only core international human rights instrument which lacks a communications procedure to allow individuals or groups to complain of violations of their rights. Twenty years after the adoption of the CRC, despite its almost universal acceptance by 193 states, it is clear that the rights of millions of children are not adequately respected. For rights to have meaning, effective remedies must be available to provide redress when they are violated. For children, given their traditional status in societies, there are particular difficulties in enforcing their rights. Establishing a communications procedure under the Convention would ensure that when national systems fail to address violations of their rights, children and their representatives would be able to file a complaint with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Why should another generation of children have to wait for this component in the promotion and safeguarding of their rights – acknowledged by the UN system as necessary for women, people with disabilities and other population groups?. At the launch of the recent UN event celebrating the 20th birthday of the CRC, Professor Yanghee Lee, Chair of the Committee of the Rights of the Child, underlined that establishing a communications procedure “will help the international community to make a leap forward in terms of making children's rights a reality”. And the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navanethem Pillay, stated: “This mechanism could significantly strengthen the monitoring of the Convention and the furtherance of children's rights”. The process of establishing the necessary procedure has reached a crucial point. In June 2009, thanks to the initiative of a cross-regional core group of States, a resolution was adopted by the Human Rights Council establishing an Open-ended Working Group to discuss the possibility of elaborating a procedure for the CRC. The first session of this Working Group will be held from 14 to 18 December. In March 2010, the Working Group will report back to the Human Rights Council, when a new resolution is expected to be adopted, renewing the mandate of the Working Group. The NGO Group for the CRC urges all States Parties to the CRC to participate in the Open-ended Working Group and to show support for urgently starting the process of drafting the necessary Optional Protocol to provide a communications procedure under the CRC . We urge the Working Group to propose that its mandate should be reviewed to enable it to proceed with elaboration of the Optional Protocol without further delay, aiming at completion within the Convention’s anniversary year. We also call on all national, regional and international NGOs, child rights organisations, national human rights institutions, ombudspersons and others to join the campaign and lobby their governments in the lead up to the Working Group session in December to participate in the Working Group discussions and support the elaboration of a communications procedure. If children are to be respected as genuine rights-holders, they need an accessible and effective international human rights mechanism able to consider violations of their rights when remedies at national level do not exist or fail to provide justice. Further information
The NGO Group for the CRC is a network of 80 international and national non-governmental organisations, which work together to facilitate the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The campaign for a communications procedure under the CRC is established as a Working Group of the NGO Group for the CRC.
For further information contact the joint convenors, Sara L. Austin [email protected] [email protected] or the advocacy officer, Anita Goh [email protected]
and Peter Newell