Committee on the Rights of the Child: What it is and how it works

Committee on the Rights of the Child

What it is and how it works

The Committee for the Rights of the Child is the body which supervises the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee was created by the Convention on February 27th, 1991.

Creation of the Committee

When the Convention was ratified in the 80’s, Poland proposed to implement a supervision mechanism that would require each country to submit some regular reports to the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council. This proposal was not accepted, but discussions started on the role of the Committee for the Rights of the Child.

The Convention was thus completed by three articles, which include the creation, the composition, the functioning, and the role of the Committee.

The elections of the Committee members began when the Convention was ratified on November 20th, 1989. The representatives of each member state of the Convention are called together to elect the members of the Committee for the Rights of the Child. The Committee was created and came into force on February 27th, 1991.

Composition and functioning of the Committee

Article 43 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child provides the composition and the functioning of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The Committee is an independant and international body which supervises the application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the member states. It is made up of 18 self-employed experts on children’s rights, with high moral standards.


Three annual three-week sessions are being held by the Commitee in Geneva (in January, May, and September).

The Committee supervises the enforcement of the Convention by assisting states in its implementation, by cooperating with other bodies of the United Nations and with non-government organisations, and by spreading wide information about the rights of the child.