Submitted by crinadmin on
In recent years, children have taken an increasingly active role in the reporting
process for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In
several states, children have contributed their views to State party reports and NGO
reports; they have submitted their own evidence to the Committee on the Rights of
the Child and attended meetings with the Committee in Geneva. In addition, they
have taken action at national level to follow-up the Committee’s concluding
observations.
In late 2008, the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child embarked
upon a programme of work to maximise children’s participation in the reporting
process for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In order to determine how best
to support children and NGOs to enhance the experiences of children and extend the
impact of their involvement at national and international level, different methods were
used to obtain the views of the main stakeholders: children, NGOs who support them
and the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Coinciding not only with the 20th
anniversary of the CRC but also with the publication of the Committee’s General
Comment on Article 12, this programme of work offers an opportunity to move
forward the debate on children’s participation in international human rights monitoring
and to institutionalise the participation of children in the CRC reporting process.
This research report presents the findings from the international survey of children
and young people2 who have previously been involved in the CRC reporting process,
and of the NGOs that have supported them to take part. This paper also considers
several ways in which the Committee’s working practices might be developed to
enable children to participate more easily and fully in CRC reporting.