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Summary: Statement delivered by a member of the Working Group during the 10th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.Re. The urgent need for a communications procedure for the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Thank you Mr. President This statement is delivered on behalf of the members of the NGO Working Group for a Communications Procedure for the CRC, and the roughly 500 NGOs, human rights institutions and other bodies that support the campaign for this procedure.1 Mr. President and Members of the Council, The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified of the core human rights instruments. The Convention is acknowledged to have made a substantial impact globally in asserting children’s status as individual people and rights-holders. However, the reporting procedure and the concluding observations on States’ reports issued by the Committee on the Rights of the Child reveal persisting grave breaches of the full range of children’s rights. As the Committee emphasises in its General Comment No. 5, “[f]or rights to have meaning, effective remedies must be available to redress violations”. When States fail to provide such remedies at the national level, children and their representatives need to be able to hold States accountable for their obligations. There is nothing to prevent children and their representatives from using the communications procedures under other instruments. However, the CRC is the children’s Convention, and it contains numerous unique and essential rights for the child, that are not protected under other treaties. Establishing a communications procedure under the CRC would not only allow communications from children and their representatives to be dealt with by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, but would complement States’ reporting obligations, enabling individuals and groups to take up non-compliance of rights directly with the Committee. The proposal for a communications procedure for the CRC is not new. It was raised during the drafting process of the Convention, and raised again by the Committee when it marked the 10th anniversary of its adoption. The 20th anniversary of the CRC’s adoption is fast approaching; children should not have to wait any longer for this necessary component of the promotion and safeguarding of their rights. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has given its formal support to the proposal, and a number of States in all regions have also expressed interest in the proposal and taken a formal position in support of it. The NGOs leading the campaign have developed detailed briefings, including a draft Optional Protocol with commentary as a basis for discussion and a briefing paper answering frequently asked questions, which is being circulated during the current HRC session.2 Mr. President, We therefore call on the Human Rights Council to establish an open-ended Working Group to draft an Optional Protocol to the CRC for the creation of a communications procedure under the Convention. Question to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the urgent need for a communications procedure for the Convention on the Rights of the Child Madam High Commissioner, What is the OHCHR’s position with regards to the need for an Optional Protocol to the CRC for the creation of a communications procedure under the Convention? This would surely be an appropriate and timely initiative to mark the 20th anniversary of the CRC’s adoption.
Thank you for your attention.