Children’s rights boosted as UN able to hear individual complaints
Geneva, 14 January 2014: Children whose rights have been violated will soon be able
to complain to a key UN Committee after a new legal instrument on the rights of the
child was ratified by the required 10 countries.
Costa Rica became on 14
January the 10th country to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure, meaning that it will take effect
in three months.
Children or their representatives will be able to submit
complaints to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which will then decide
whether to review the case. Where a violation is found, it will recommend that the
State concerned takes action to remedy the situation.
“The Optional Protocol
gives children who have exhausted all legal avenues in their own countries the possibility
of applying to the Committee,” said CRC Chair Kirsten Sandberg. “It means children
are able to fully exercise their rights and are empowered to have access to international
human rights bodies in the same way adults are under several other human rights treaties,”
she added.
“It is a major step forward in the implementation of children’s
rights, but at the same time we urge States to develop their own systems to ensure
that children’s rights are respected and protected and that their voices can be heard,”
Ms Sandberg said, noting that it is the primary responsibility of States to address
child rights violations.
Individual children or groups of children will
be able to submit complaints about specific violations of their rights under the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, and under the Optional Protocol on children in armed conflict
and the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child pornography and child prostitution.
But they can only complain to the CRC if their government has ratified the Optional
Protocol on a Communications Procedure.
“We applaud the countries that have
ratified it and call on other States to take this step too,” Ms Sandberg said. The
CRC Chairperson stressed that the Committee’s overriding concern would be the best
interests of the child.
“We will have child-sensitive procedures and also
safeguards to ensure the child is not being manipulated or used to make the complaint.
And at all times we will work for the rights of the child and take that child’s views
into account,” said Ms Sandberg.
The Committee may ask the State to take interim
measures to protect the child or the group of children or prevent any reprisals. At
the end of the review, if the State concerned is found to have violated the Convention,
the Committee will issue specific recommendations which the State must implement.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child is composed of 18 international independent
human rights experts who monitor the implementation of the Convention and the Optional
Protocols by States parties. Source: UN