Optional Protocol 3: questionnaire for children and young people

Date: 1st September 2013
Category: Respect for the views of the child

As part of their work on the third Optional Protocol to the CRC on a communications procedure (OP3 CRC), Child Rights Connect are preparing a questionnaire for children to give their views on the provisions which the Committee on the Rights of the Child should make.

The questionnaire will seek to bring together these views in order to ensure that all children can access the new communications and inquiry procedure. For instance, it is essential that oral hearings are child-sensitive and that they can ensure the confidentiality and safety of children.

The views of the children will be used to inform the Committee's internal working methods which will detail how the Committee will consider children's complaints and complement its Rules of Procedure on OP3 CRC.

  • Access the Rules of Procedure on OP3 CRC here.

As the Committee will be in session in September and October, we would like to present these views to the Committee while they are formally meeting in Geneva.

The questionnaire will be ready from the 10th of September and Child Rights Connect ask that child-led organisations, groups of children and individual children as well as other organisations which work with children seek to find out whether children would be interested and willing to respond to the questionnaire.

The questionnaire will also include questions on children's access to justice at national level, as input into the Human Rights Council's Annual Day on the Rights of the Child on children's access to justice (which will take place in March 2014). The UN is currently preparing a report which will feed into this day and we would like children to also be able to give their views as part of the report. The questionnaire will therefore consist of two parts: the first part on access to justice at national level and the second part on the Rules of Procedure of OP3 CRC.

The questionnaire will be available in English, French and Spanish (if you would like to translate it into another language, please do) and will be both an online survey and a word document, depending on the format which is best suited to the children.

The questionnaire is also available in a word format.

An information leaflet which is written in child-friendly language is also available; the English version is available here.

The deadline to fill the questionnaire is the 1st October 2013. They estimate that it will take around 10 to 15 minutes to fill out, depending on the age of the children.

Find out more about Optional Protocol 3 of the UNCRC here.