CRIN launch UNCRC complaints mechanism toolkit

Date: 12th April 2013
Category:
Author: Children's Rights Information Network

CRIN is launching a toolkit designed to give advocates a better sense of the new complaints mechanism in the hope that they will be prepared and inspired to help children bring violations of their rights to international attention.

A children's rights complaints mechanism at the UN has been a long time in the making. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has, from the very beginning, had the authority to review how countries have met their children's rights obligations. Yet unlike other UN human rights conventions, the Committee was powerless to provide child victims with redress when governments breached their rights.

A complaints mechanism for the UNCRC will come into force with its tenth ratification. Though it is not clear when this will be, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has finalised the Rules of Procedure that govern how communications can be filed. The time is right to consider how the procedure can be used to advance children's rights.

To this end, CRIN have launched a Toolkit designed to give advocates a better sense of the new complaints mechanism in the hope that they will be prepared and inspired to help children bring violations of their rights to international attention.

The Toolkit sets out the Who, What, When, Where and How of the UNCRC complaints mechanism. It is divided into three sections that correspond with the three ways that violations of children's rights can be raised with the Committee:

1. individual complaints,
2. inquiries and
3. inter-state communications.

• Read the full article here.
• Donwload the toolkit here.