Guidance: How to bring a case before the Committee on the Rights of the Child

Posted on Posted in Children's Rights, Empowerment, Human Rights

Whatever problems your child may face, they have rights and those rights are protected at the international level by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Committee on the Rights of the Child is a body of experts tasked with overseeing the implementation of the international Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols.

The Committee provides oversight to ensure that this convention and all your children’s rights are properly protected in your country. This might however not be the case for certain rights and so your child’s situation may need to be looked at more closely. This is why the Committee is also tasked with examining situations in which children’s rights have not been respected on a case-by-case basis. The authority to carry out this task derives from a text called the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure which allows the Committee to deal with complaints brought by individuals.

By using this individual complaints mechanism you can protect the rights of your child by bringing a complaint before the Committee, known as a ‘communication’.

In this guidance, Humanium has set out the main steps for bringing proceedings before the Committee. If you are uncertain or if you have any questions after you have read this document, Humanium is here to answer your questions and to help and support you with your complaint through our Helpline.

Step 1: Your country must have ratified the ‘Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure’

In order to check whether this is the case, please refer to the list of countries that have ratified the protocol using this link.

NB: Check that your country has ratified this Protocol and not just signed it. You can also find the Protocol ratification date.

Step 2: The circumstances that led to the infringement of your child’s rights (referred to as ‘the facts’) must have occurred after the Protocol ratification date (see the previous link)

The facts that led to the infringement of your child’s rights must have occurred after date on which your country ratified the Protocol. How to check the ratification date is set out in step 1.

Step 3: You must have already brought a complaint before the courts of your country

Under international law it is usually the case that in order to bring proceedings before an international court, a case must have first been brought before a national court to the point where no further appeal can be brought. In law this is known as ‘prior exhaustion of domestic remedies’.

Infringement of your child’s rights
Proceedings before domestic courts
The courts of your country haven’t remedied the infringement of your child’s rights
Individual complaint before the Committee on the Rights of the Child

NB: It is however possible to bring a case before the Committee on the Rights of the Child even if proceedings before the courts of your country haven’t yet finished. This is possible when the proceedings have taken longer than a certain time, known as the ‘reasonable time’, i.e. the proceedings have taken too long.

Equally, your application to the Committee on the Rights of the Child may be admitted where the outcome of the proceedings does not allow for an effective remedy.

Step 4: Sending a communication to the Committee on the Rights of the Child

Before sending your application to the Committee on the Rights of the Child make sure that it meets the following requirements:

The complaint must be about an infringement of the international Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) or its two protocols: the Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict; and the Protocol to the CRC on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

The complaint cannot be anonymous; however, the Committee on the Rights of the Child will respect the confidentiality of your complaint, for example, if you don’t want your name or your child’s name to be mentioned.

The complaint must be made at the latest one year after all available domestic remedies have been exhausted. The complaint can be brought either by your child or by a legal representative (such as a parent) or by a group of individuals. The complaint must be in writing.

Step 5: How to send the communication (details and postal address)

Your communication must contain the following essential information in order to be properly considered:

1. Information concerning the author(s) making the communication

  • Surname
  • First name
  • Date and place of birth
  • Nationality/citizenship
  • Identity number (where available)
  • Sex
  • Profession
  • Ethnicity, religious affiliation, social group (where relevant)
  • Current address
  • Postal address for confidential correspondence (if different to current address)
  • Telephone number/email address (where available)

State whether you are making the communication:

a) as the alleged victim(s). If there is a group of individuals alleged to be victims, you must provide basic information about each of them.

b) on behalf of the alleged victim(s). Provide either evidence to show that the alleged victim(s) have consented, or justify the submission of the communication without such consent.

2. Information about the alleged victim(s) (if other than the author)

  • Surname
  • First name
  • Date and place of birth
  • Nationality/citizenship
  • Passport/identity card number (where available)
  • Sex
  • Profession/occupation
  • Ethnicity, religious affiliation, social group (where applicable)
  • Current address
  • Postal address for confidential correspondence (if different to current address)
  • Telephone number/email address (where available)

3. Information about the State party in question

Name of the State party (country).

4. Facts of the complaint and the nature of the alleged infringements

Please explain in detail and in chronological order, the facts and circumstances of the alleged infringement(s), including the date(s), location(s) and the perpetrator(s).

Where possible, please state the articles of the Convention and/or the substantive Optional Protocols (Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict) that you consider to have been infringed. If you cite several articles please explain the link between each of them and the specific facts.

5. Steps taken to exhaust domestic remedies

Describe the steps taken to exhaust domestic remedies, for example, attempts to obtain legal, administrative, legislative, policy or programme remedies, including:

  • Type(s) of remedy sought
  • Date(s)
  • Location(s)
  • Who filed the action
  • Before which authority or body was it brought
  • Name of the court where the case was brought (where relevant)
  • Key points of the final decision of the authority, body or court addressed

If you haven’t exhausted all your domestic remedies on the basis that this would take too much time, because they wouldn’t be effective, because they aren’t available to you, or for any other reason, please explain this in detail. Copies of all decisions issued by the authorities in question must be provided.

6. Other international proceedings

Has the same matter already been examined or is it being examined under another procedure of international investigation or settlement?

If yes then please provide the following information:

  • The body or bodies addressed
  • The date(s)
  • The location(s)
  • The outcome(s) (where applicable)
  • Copies of all the relevant documents
  • Non-written materials can be provided to supplement the written submissions

7. Requests/remedies (optional)

Set out the requests or remedies that you wish the Committee to consider.

8. Disclosure of your name(s)

Please note that your name(s) will be disclosed to the State party but will not appear in the public version of the Committee’s decision unless you request otherwise.

9. Date and signature

Date and signature of the author(s) and/or victim(s).

10. List of attached documents (do not send the originals, only copies)

Finally, the communication must be sent to the service handling complaints at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the following address:

Petitions Team

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights United Nations Office

Geneva 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

E-mail: petitions@ohchr.org


Written by Eddy Malouli

Translated by Andre Bywater

Proofread by Holly-Anne Whyte

References:

Comité des Droits de l’Enfant, site du Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies pour les Droits de l’Homme, consulté le 23 avril 2020.