BASSETERRE St. Kitts – IN an effort to further protect the world’s future leaders, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has joined with Member States, the United Nations system, Civil Society Organisations, children and adolescents around the world in celebrating the entry into force of the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on a Communication Procedure.
The Third Optional Protocol is said to introduce a communication procedure which allows children, groups of children or their representatives to submit complaints about violations of their rights by their State to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
It also allows for children to approach the UN if their rights are not protected in their country and they have exhausted all domestic remedies to seek justice.
UNICEF, in a statement on its website, notes: “The entry into force comes three months after the 10th ratification of the Protocol, by the Government of Costa Rica. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which entered into force in 1989, is the most widely ratified human rights treaty, reflecting consensus among the governments of the world that there are certain minimum standards that every child should enjoy.”
SKNVibes understands that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has asserted that “for rights to have meaning, effective remedies must be available to redress violations”. And the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a Communication Procedure aims to do just that.
UNICEF believes that under this new Optional Protocol, of “accountability mechanisms”, would identify gaps in the judicial systems for children at the national level and complement the strengthening of national independent human rights institutions for children.
“UNICEF reiterates that these mechanisms must be available and accessible for all children, especially those normally excluded and marginalised such as children with disabilities, indigenous and minority children.”
They however are calling on governments to ratify treaties to for both CRC and the optional protocol locally.
“UNICEF takes this opportunity to encourage States which have not done so to ratify both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its three Optional Protocols,” UNICEF added.
With the 25th anniversary of the Convention fast approaching in 2014, UNICEF noted that “is a fitting occasion for States to reflect and determine how best to fulfill their collective promise of a truly equitable, safe and loving world for all children”.
