Children's Human Rights - An

Interdisciplinary Introduction
UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA
I. Module 1: International standards and monitoring systems

General Presentation

Hello. My name is Jean Zermatten. 

I have the privilege to chair 
the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child directly in this room. 
We are here in Palais Wilson in Geneva, 
the heart of children's rights. 
Thirty years ago, the international community discovered 
the fact that the child is not only a human being in need of protection, 
love and care, but also a subject of rights. 
This is a big revolution I think and it is underlined by the UN Committee on the Right of 
the Child that the international community promulgated in 1989, 30 years ago. 
And this new and revolutionary statute provoked challenges for the states, 
for the community, for adults and for the children themselves. 
It is the reason why we have decided to develop an online course on children's rights. 
And it's a pleasure to be here with my two colleague, 
Roberta Ruggiero and Professor Philip Jaffé. 
Many thanks, Sir Jean. My name is Philip Jaffe. 
I am a Professor of Psychology at 
the University of Geneva and the Director of the Children's Rights Center. 
This course was set up with a fantastic collaboration between our institute and 
the International Institute for the Rights of the Child 
and we've based this course on four core principles. 
The first one is that we've tried to make it as wide ranging as possible 
because children's rights is a vast issue and field. 
The second is that we've tried to make it as interdisciplinary as possible in 
that it's a complex field that requires many different disciplinary angles. 
The third is that we've based it on 
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 
which is a very rich document. 
And the fourth is that we've tried to call on - we've reached for the stars. 
We've called on the scholars and pioneers in the field of children's rights 
and one of those stellars choices was Roberta Ruggiero, 
who is the program manager for this course. 
Thanks Philip. Hi everybody. I'm Roberta Ruggiero. 
I'm a Senior Research Associate at 
the Center for Children's Rights Studies of the University of Geneva. 
This course has been conceived as 
an introductory program to the children's rights field and was 
precisely designed for those who would like 
to build their knowledge in this specific field and for those 
who already have a certain knowledge on 
children's rights and that are eager to further develop it. 
We welcome your interest in the field of children's rights. 
And if you have not registered yet, 
please do so quickly. 
And we hope that you'll enjoy this course, 
which really will trigger your imagination and your knowledge. Thank you and good luck.

Syllabus

The Children’s human rights: interdisciplinary introduction course draws on the contributions of
several academic disciplines including law, psychology, sociology, history, educational and health
sciences, economy and anthropology, an interdisciplinary approach guides the student into a
selection of critical issues concerning children’s rights.

The course aims to enable you to gain insight relative to the development of this specific human
rights category, as well as to the evolution of the challenges faced by children over time and
society’s efforts to respond. Successful international strategies and programs promoting children’s
rights will be highlighted, as well as the role of key actors involved in international organizations
working in this field. This course provides an overview of the most important features of children’s
human rights. A central portion of the course will consist of a presentation of the international and
regional standards on children’s rights and the related international and regional judicial and quasi-
judicial bodies designed to ensure their implementation.

You do not need to have prior knowledge of the field. The course is conceived as an introductory
level program, but participants, who wish to deepen their knowledge in the field of children’s rights,
or already have some prior knowledge, will have access to a large range of reading material.

Participants who successfully complete the class activities and final assessment may request a
Statement of Accomplishment signed by the Instructor and the main professors responsible for the
program. However, no credits are awarded.

This course is presented by Prof. Philip D. Jaffé, Dr.h.c. Jean Zermatten and Dr. Roberta Ruggiero
(University of Geneva). They will be joined by many other researchers, experts and practitioners
from the field.

The course consists of seven topical modules. English is the only language of instruction. All
material is available on the course page. This course is made up of the following 7 modules:

1. International standards and monitoring systems

2. The history of children’s rights in the context of human rights.

3. Interdisciplinary Children’s Rights Studies

4. Juvenile justice

5. Violence against children

6. Children’s right to participation

7. Children’s rights and global health

To obtain a Certificate of Achievement from the University of Geneva and Coursera, you must pass
each of the seven quizzes. To pass you must answer at least 80% of the questions correctly. For
each quiz, you will be given three attempts every eight hours. Please note that the course certificate
does not give you ECTS credits.

The course is not time limited and you are free to follow the course at your own pace. However, our
recommendation is that you try to complete this course within two months.

We encourage you to actively participate in forums with the other course participants. Please always
be polite and respectful when interacting on topics related to the course.

We look forward to you joining us.

1.1 Introduction

2 [MUSIC] 
3 Hello, my name is Jean Zermatten. 
4 I am an expert in children's rights. 
5 With my dear colleague, Roberta Ruggiero, we are pleased to present 
6 to you the module International Standard and Monitoring System. 
7 The module starts with the presentation of the UN Convention 
8 on the Rights of the Child with a special focus 
9 on the [FOREIGN] and the content, 
10 the origin and the background of the convention. 
11 It's also interesting to note that we will have a special 
12 part on the international political context at 
13 the period where the convention was drafted 25 years ago.
14 We will use the subdivision for 
15 the presentation of this module between the traditional subdivision, 
16 if I can say, between political and civil rights, 
17 economical, cultural and social rights.
18 What is also an important part of this module will be the monitoring system 
19 of human rights in general and for children's rights, specifically. 
20 We will organize also a round table, our original monitoring system. 
21 And at the end, we will also deal with the special role 
22 of key actors as human rights independent 
23 institution for human rights and specific for children's rights. 
24 The work of NGOs and 
25 the implication of children themselves. 
26 Roberta, please. 
27 >> Thanks, Jean, for the introduction. 
28 Hello, everybody.
29 Just in few words, the main objective of this module is to raise the awareness and 
30 the knowledge of participants about some specific context. 
31 We will discuss about the background, the main content and 
32 the motivation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 
33 We will speak about the international political context during 
34 which the Convention on the Rights of the Child was draft. 
35 We will present you and discuss with you some specific aspect of the United Nation 
36 monitoring system pertaining to the implementation of the children's human 
37 rights, and to the implementation in detail of the principle included, 
38 and contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 
39 We will furthermore discuss about and address issues related to 
40 multilevel governments in relation to the implementation of the children's 
41 human rights at the international, regional and national levels.
42 I'm sure you will enjoy the module and see you further in the next one. 
43 [MUSIC]

1.2 The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: from drafting to reception.

[MUSIC] I'd like to give you an idea of how the Convention came in to being, in other words, from the
moment that it was proposed to the moment that it was adopted. I had the pleasure and the great
experience of being the spokesperson for the non-governmental organizations involved in the drafting
process, so I was present for most of the time. It all started off with a proposal by Poland in 1978,
which was based almost entirely on the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child. This was
because Poland wanted to ensure that the Convention could be adopted during the International
Year of the Child, which was in 1979. So Poland felt that it was the best idea to provide a text which
had already gained international approval in 1959, and could be, Poland felt, adapted to a Convention, so
that it would be a lasting memory of the International Year of the Child in the coming year. Poland was
particularly happy with the text of the Convention because it concentrated almost entirely on economic,
social and cultural rights. There was only one civil right in the Declaration, and therefore that
corresponded to Poland's thinking at that time in relation to the rights of the child. When the proposal
was made to the then-Commission on Human Rights, as is the case with all treaties or all future
treaties, the UN Secretary General contacts all member states and inter-governmental
organizations requesting feedback on the proposal. And this feedback was to some extent supportive
but also very critical. The first criticism that was made of the text was that it didn't cover a wide range of
rights. Precisely, only the economic, social, and cultural rights essentially. So there was no mention
for example, of juvenile justice questions. There was no mention of children in armed conflict situations.
There was no mention of children of minorities or indigenous peoples. And there was no mention, for
example, of adoption. That meant that it was incomplete in its scope in the view of many states. It also
took no account of development since 1959, when the Declaration had been drafted. These
developments were many, including the fact that the UN itself was a very different organization. Of
course, decolonialization had taken place in the ensuing period. And there were many new human rights
instruments, in particular the two covenants on civil and political rights, and on economic, social, and
cultural rights, which had come into force in that ensuing period, and which had to be taken into account
in drafting a new Convention on the human rights of the child. Another criticism was that it was not
worded in a way that was suitable for a treaty. The Declaration was worded in a way which doesn't
correspond to the kind of technical language required in a treaty. It lacked detail, and it contained
vague formulations of the principles that it put forward. Another criticism was that the monitoring
mechanism was very weak. States just had to report to the Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC) under the Polish proposal, and not as is the case, of course, today, to a treaty body, the
Committee on the Rights of the Child. And then there was a very forceful argument which was that
precisely because the International Year of the Child was about to begin on the 1st of January 1979.
It will be a good idea to wait until the end of that year to see what new initiatives had been taken,
what new concerns might be brought up, and to take account therefore of the International Year of
the Child, results in drafting this new Convention. Strangely, some quarters remained completely
silent. They had made neither supportive nor critical noises. And one of the most surprising in that regard
was UNICEF, which didn't say a word. And that was to mark the first half of the drafting process. In other
words, that UNICEF did not become involved in the drafting process until later, as I'll explain. Despite this
criticism on the part of member states, the UN General Assembly nonetheless suggested, or urged even,
that the Convention be adopted during the International Year of the Child. But the Commission on
Human Rights decided otherwise and set up a working group of member states in order to deal
with all the criticisms and suggestions that have been made and to come up with another draft.
And as a result of this, Poland submitted a revised draft of the Convention in order to have it as the
basic working document. And this revised draft was very different, much improved, and served
indeed as the basis of the drafting in the ensuing years. So how did the drafting work? Well, first of
all, as I said it was a working group called an Open-ended Working Group which was set up to deal
with the revision and the drafting of the Convention. It was composed of member states of the
Commission on Human Rights, plus Any other interested member state of the UN, plus inter-
governmental organizations with an interest such as WHO, the ILO, and of course UNICEF. And
then also allowed to be present were international non-governmental organizations who were
interested in the process. Interestingly, it took its decisions on the basis of consensus. In other
words, there was never a vote on text. Everything had to be adopted by consensus. The
unfortunate result of that was that several issues were binned because there was no consensus. For
example there was no mention of early marriage even though there was considerable support for the idea
of having a specific reference to early marriage in the convention. The idea was dropped because no
consensus could be found on the way in which it was to broached. But if there were disadvantages to
consensus, the big advantage of course was that there was thorough discussion on all topics to be
broached and the resulting text was the one that could be put to the UN General Assembly in the end
because there was no more discussion needed. Everybody had been happy with the text as it stood.
However, the drafting process did not have much priority on the part of states. They were not willing to
invest ma great deal into the drafting process and this resulted in rather poor attendants during the
drafting sessions which took place once a year, just for week. And so, there was initially very slow
progress. One, two, three, four paragraphs or articles at each session, that's all. So, the drafting of the
convention did not get off to a magnificent start. An important issue for the drafting was the state of
the East-West relations. Of course, in the early 80's the Cold War was still a reality. And since the
proposal had come from Poland, the Western states were often opposed on principle to a number
of suggestions made by counterparts in the East simply because of the Cold War political reality.
And this carried on until the mid-80s when the Cold War started to thaw. So as of '85, '86, there was a
definite improvement in the way the convention was drafted. It's not only East-West but also North-South
which was an issue. And that was because there were few countries, in particular from Africa but also to
a certain extent from Asia, who could invest the time in joining the drafting group and therefore
they were somewhat underrepresented. They did have some very good representatives but they
were still underrepresented numerically. And that meant that there were fears that this was going to
become a convention drawn up by the North which would not take account of concerns in the South. But
by the end, the non-industrialized countries had improved their participation and that included
countries of Islamic Law. And therefore, by the end, we had a situation where participation was indeed
more reflective of the reality of the world as a whole. Another aspect which had an influence on the
drafting was the fact that several other instruments were being formulated at the same time. Part
of instruments for example in this field of Juvenile Justice and in the field of Foster care and adoption.
And so there was a kind of transfer of experience from the drafting of those instruments into the drafting
of the convention. The NGOs were not automatically given the floor. In fact they could be invited to take
the floor during this drafting session. But they had no rights to do so. Initially, the NGO's who were
interested in taking part were disorganized, and rather desperate bunch. At the time there were no
fewer children's rights NGOs. Plenty of children's in NGOs but no children's rights NGOs. With
consultative status at the UN, in other words that therefore had the right to take part in the working group.
Human rights NGOs, there were some interested. Human rights NGOs of course knew the UN system
very well and indeed had taken part in certain drafting sessions of other instruments. The children's
NGOs on the other hand didn't know the system but they had obviously the substantive knowledge. But
each was working in its own way. They weren't collaborating and therefore, as a group, they did not have
the kind of credibility necessary for making an impact on the convention. So in 1983, the NGOs realized
that they were not having the influence that they needed to have and they got together and
created what they called an NGO Ad Hoc Group for the convention on the rights of the child. So for
the first time, human rights and children's organizations joined hands. And they produced their first joint
proposals, coordinated joint proposals in writing, for the 1984 session of the working group. And from that
time on everything changed. NGOs were given the floor almost systematically and they had created
sufficient credibility to be listened to and in many cases, to provide effective guidance on the drafting. As
of 1986, UNICEF, which had supported the NGO group, UNICEF, itself, became involved in the
substance of the drafting process. This also had a terrific impact on the way that states regarded the
drafting of the Convention. Overall the NGOs had a significant impact on about a third of the substantive
articles and some impact on another third. So it was quite unprecedented in terms of the drafting of an
international instrument. Why did the process take so long? Well, partly because it was based on this
consensus which meant that every detail, every comma, had to be agreed by the whole working group.
But also because there were some truly controversial issues. Let me give you an idea of four of them.
Firstly, what is a child? When does childhood begin? When does childhood end? There was tremendous
discussion on this, from two aspects. One, obviously, is, when does a human being begin his or her
childhood? Is it at zero, is it at conception, is it at some other point? And then when does childhood end.
Is it at adolescence, or is it at the age of majority? In the end, it was decided not to resolve the first one, to
leave it open, by having both a reference in the preamble to the protection of children before and after
birth. And for the second, for the age at which childhood ends, it was decided that in the end it would be
18, because that was the age at which most countries set the age of majority. But you can imagine that it
took a great deal of discussion to reach that kind of consensus. Then there was a totally different
example. That of the reaffirmation of fundamental freedoms. Fundamental freedoms, such as the right of
association, the right to choose one's religion, the right to receive and impart information. These
fundamental freedoms existed in the covenants on civil and political rights,which was enforced. But
frankly few people realize that these fundamental freedoms covered children as well because there was
no lower age limit of which such rights would be afforded. So there was a big debate on whether or not
they should be reaffirmed in the context of the convention. In the end they were, and happily so. Again, a
very different example is the one on adoption. When Poland made its revised proposal in 1979, the
emphasis was on facilitating adoption for children. But in the 80s, there were many situations particularly
though not only in terms of inter country adoption, where bad practice and indeed criminal activity had
been observed. So by the time we got to the end of the drafting process, there was much more
circumspection about adoption as a child protection measure. And the aim as is now reflected in the final
convention was less to facilitate adoption and much more to ensure that children were protected
throughout the adoption process. So now we have a situation where instead of facilitating adoption, the
first obligation of states is to insure that it takes place with the best interests of the child as the paramount
consideration. Quite a leap, quite a change over the ten years of the drafting. And the final example is the
controversy over the age as of which children would be allowed to participate in an armed conflict. The
convention now says 15, and that was the lowest common denominator. It was almost not consensus. It
was the lowest common denominator on which countries could agree. And we now know, of course, that
so many countries wanted to see the minimum age of participation in conflict at 18, in other words, that it
should be prohibited completely in the convention. That there was the initiative to draw up an optional
protocol on the subject in 2000. So that was the basic scene of the development of the convention from
its initial proposal through to adoption. And there were tensions right up to the last moment but consensus
prevailed. And what we need to do now, is to ensure that we keep the basis for making sure that the fact
consensus remains intact. >> [MUSIC]

1.2bis CRC General Principles

[MUSIC] 
I'd like to make a little comment on the general principles of the convention. 
We have four articles of the convention which are now commonly  referred to as the general
principles underlying the treaty. 
 Article 2 on Non-discrimination. 
 Article 3 on Best interests of the child. 
 Article 6 on the Right to life, survival and development.
 And Article 12 on the Right to be heard.

These general principles, won't recognize as such by the draftees and proof of this, or evidence of it
is the fact that they're not grouped together in the treaty as basic to the convention.
They were in fact, unilaterally declared or designated as general principles  by the Committee
on the Rights of the Child at essentially, its first meeting, when it was simply drawing up the list
of issues that  it wanted states to cover in their initial reports.
And they felt, the committee felt,  that these four articles were over arching, and  needed to be seen
as general principles of the convention.
This has never been questioned since, and the general principles have remained as such since that
time, since 1991.
It's worth pointing out that no other treaty body has every designated articles in the treaty that it
deals with as general principles, that under pin, the realization of all the other rights in that treaty.

And that, therefore, by indication, have some kind of super right status.  When you look at how the
office of the High Commissioner on human rights describes these general principles, we see
that they are supposed to, and I quote, “help with the interpretation of the convention as a
whole. And thereby, guide national programs of implementation”, which is a big task.

Non-discrimination and the right to life are absolutely fundamental human rights that it's
never felt necessary to elevate, to the status of a general principle of a given treaty.

So, why those two?

In human rights law, best interests is a notion that applies uniquely to children. And the
committee on the rights of the child, even though it says that  the best interests of the child are a
general principle of the convention.  Took over 20 years to formulate a general comment 
interpreting what those best interests or  how those best interests should be determined. So it's
difficult to see how best interests, Can be a basis for  interpretation and or implementation as a
general principle of the convention.
And the child's right to be heard in Article 12, refers more,  especially to specific
circumstances. Because, as stated in the Article 12, in particular,  in any judicial and
administrative proceedings affecting the child.
So it doesn't really apply to the implementation of the convention as a whole.
I think we have to take a more critical  look at why the general principles  of the convention have
been so  eagerly embraced.  And also, what possibly are some of  the unfortunate effects of having
these  four articles set up as the super rights,  if you wish, of the convention? [MUSIC]

1.3 Main content of the CRC and the related States obligations

[MUSIC] 
Hi everybody, this video will provide you an introduction to the content of the convention and right of
the child and the main state obligation pertaining to the implementation of this convention.

Human rights can be classified for moving different paths. 

To give you some example, they could be classified on the base of the state's  position in negative
rights and positive rights. 
 Negative rights are those rights that ask the state parties to do not interfere in the exercise of
these rights.
 Positive rights, are those rights that requires to states party to  undertake all the needed
measures in order to allow to the right holder to  fully exercise the rights attributed to him or
her. 

They could also be classified from many historical point of view on generation.
 We speak about rights of first generation, the civil and political rights.
 We speak about rights of second generation, the economic, social, and  cultural rights.
 We speak, as well about the rights of third generation, that are also defined as solidarity
rights. Those are for example the right to peace. The rights to a clean environment or the
other determination of people.  Some of those rights of third generation have been already
codified  at international level by the adoption of the international standards too.  Other
remain merely aspirational. 
 We start, already,  to speak about rights of fourth generation that are meant mainly to
protect  human beings towards the effect on the impact of the technologic evolution.  Think
about for example,  the technological evolution pertaining to the genetic manipulation.  Some
of those rights have been already codified international level by that  option of international
standards.

The human rights could also be classified on the base of their specialization.  The specialization
could refer to a specific thematic issue. 
For example,  the convention against torture is a result of a thematic specialization. 

They could also be the result of a specialization on a specific, geographical area.  For example, think
about the convention related to human rights and  adopted In Europe,  in Latin America, in Africa, or
in the Islamic country for example. 

They could also be specialized on the base of the group of people to each  those human rights are
dedicated. 
For example we speak about the convention on the elimination of discrimination as against women. 
We speak about the convention on the rights of migrant workers.  We speak as well about the
convention on the rights of the child.

The convention on the right of the child is the result of this  procedure of specialization of human
rights. 
It is dedicated to a specific group of people,  those that goes from the age of 0 to the age of 18.  And
it was adopted by The General Assembly in November 1989. 

The convention on the rights of the child is the most widespread and commonly used international
instruments for  defining the human rights associated with the youngest generation of human
beings. 
It provides the formal recognition of children as social actors through  the full
implementation of the participation principle contained in  the article 12 of the convention on
the right of the child. 
It is a code of conduct for both adults in general towards children and  parents for parents
towards their own children. 
It provides us well the minimum standard of child care protection and  guardianship for
guaranteeing full and correct child development. 
It provides as well a list of recognized specific and  exclusive rights of the children in
consideration  of their peculiarity as a social and a legal subject.

During this video, I will concentrate exclusively on the so  called substantive articles of the
convention on the right of the child.  Those are the articles that go from article two to articles 41. 

In it we have the entire release of the rights recognized to children and the identification of the states
obligation pertaining to the implementation of this convention.

The rights included between the article two and the article 41 can be organized under three main
categories. 
 Universal human right,
 the specific rights and 
 the rights recognized to specific category of children.

Referring to the first category, the universal human rights, this part of the convention contains the
catalog of the rights of first and second generation. The civil and political rights and the economic,
social and culture of rights. 

Referring to this Second category of rights included in this document, the so-called specific rights
recognized to children.  Those are for example the rights recognized to the child in order to do not 
separate them from their parents, or  their rights in case of adoption, or the right for example to play.

The third and last category of rights contained in this convention and the so called rights attributed to
children.  Belonging to specific Categories, specific groups.  To give you some example, there we
speak about refugee children in Article 22. We speak about children with some physical or 
psychological disability in Article 23. We speak about the right of children belonging to minorities in
article 30 and we speak about children involved in for  example armed conflict in article 38. 

The final name of the convention on the right of the child was to recognize sending sure that children
not only had universal human rights but  also range of exclusive and specific rights identified on the
base of the peculiar characteristics of the child.

There is no doubt about the fact that the CRC ,the Convention on Right of the Child, introduced a
new approach and parameters in the field of childhood and adolescent standards.

Furthermore, the adoption of these UN convection on the rights of the child in 1989 and answered
also the debate  on the State's obligations towards the implementation of these convection.
So the committee on the rights of the child, following the approach of other UN committees such as,
for example the UN Committee on Civil and Political Rights, puts the rights stated in the Convention
on the Right of the Child on the same level overcoming the classical distinction between the rights of
first and second generation by saying that in order to implement the human rights of children state
parties has three main level of obligation.

 Obligation to respect is the negative character of convention of the right of the child, state
are required do not interfere with the exercise of this right.
 An obligation to fulfill, this is the positive character of the conventional growth of the child. On
the base of this obligation now this is state in article 4.1 of the convention on the right of the
child. States' parties are required to undertake or appropriate legislative, administrative, and
other measure needed for the implementation of this convention.
 Third, the obligation to protect requires State's party to protect individual against certain
interferences, perpetrated or operated by other private individuals, groups of people or
associated activists. 

I thank you for the attention and I will see you in the next video. 
[MUSIC]

1.4 UN Committee on the right of the child: role, structure, functioning and method of works

[MUSIC] Hello, my name is Jean Zematten.

Pleased to present you a modelon children's right monitoring. The plan of my presentation is first to speak
about the CRC committee. Second, the mandate of this committee and the main menu if I can say, will be
the seven steps of monitoring. Then I will speak about the legislative activity of the committee or the
committee published general comment, day of general discussion, and I will finish with the presentation of
the third optional protocol of the convention. What we call usually the OPIC.

The CRC committee is established according to article 43 of the convention.

It is one of the nine treaty bodies in human rights. He is attached to the office of the high
commissioner of human rights but only for administrative matters since he is absolutely
independent of the high commissioner. It is composed of 18 independent experts with a 4 year
mandate and they are serving in their personal capacity. They are fully independent towards the
states. Their committee meets in Geneva, and normally all three session barrier consisting of three week
plenary and one week pre-sessional working group, where the committee meets with UN agency and
non-governmental organization. The committee acts in 1 or 2 chambers depending of the workload and
review around 12 to 14 country per session. So main activity of the committee's are monitoring. It is to
say to monitor how well states meetings are obligation under the convention and to monitor as well as the
two optional protocol: The protocol on children on conflict and the protocol on sale prostitution and
child pornography. The task of the committee is to check the measures adopted to implement the CRC,
the progresses made on the enjoyment of the rights and the obstacle met. I remain that reporting is an
obligation but a lot of state party are very late. The committee is used to work on reports and dialogues.
There is no field visit possible before the session. No personnel and formal contact between the
members, the committee and the state party authority before the session, and the committee work on a
step-by-step meeting → The seven steps.

1. The first step is the state party reports. State parties sending an official report to the convention
and this start the work.
2. Then the second step, the committee will held a pre-session, it is to say, we meet with NGO
group with UN agents.
3. Then, third step, you will send a list of issues to the state party.
4. And fourth, the state will answer by written to the committee.
 5. And the main activity will be then to have a session it is to say a dialogue between the committee
and the state party in Geneva.
6. The result of all this work will be what we call the six steps, concluding observation condoning
concern and recommendation for the state.
7. And then the seven step is a follow up is to implement its concluding observation.

So we can say is that the monitoring activities is more a dialogue than a judgement is based on
recommendation and not on condemnation. It consist an incentives to change through technical help and
financial support and it's based also on interaction with the UN agents.

Apart of this monitoring activities, the committee as a legislative activity, this is to say that produced or
published general comment. It is a necessity for the committee to have this comment to explain and give
guidance to the states on different concept or article and it gives the CRC committee's position.
To date, we have 18 general comment from 2001 to 2015. For example, a general comment on article 12,
and also on juvenile justice, in general comment 10. So state party have to respect the general comment,
even if it is soft law.

The committee organized also, since 1992 every years, day of general discussion. This day's focus on
thematic issues like children in armed conflict, for example, children with disability, the right of the child to
be armed. And the last one was devoted to the children and the new technology.

In the monitoring, there is a new optional protocol to the CRC which is called the OPIC or third Optional
Protocol on Communication Procedural.
Okay, we end this monitoring activity, we'll also mention the third optional protocol to the CRC on a
communication procedure. It is a new instrument that allow group of children and their representative who
claims that their right have been violated by the state to bring a procedure communication what we call or
sort of complain to the CRC committees. It's a quasi-judicial mechanism. This optional protocol was
adopted in 2011 by the UN general assembly in New York, and is now entered into force in April 2015
and has been ratified by 18 country to note, that the OPIC is in force only in the states that they have
ratified it.
The interesting thing with this optional protocol is the better protection given to the full range of children's
right. Also the possibility to ensure that the children have effective remedies are available to address
violation and at the end, strengthen the effective implementation of the CRC and the accountability of
state parties. Thank you for your attention. [MUSIC]

1.5 The CRC Communications procedure

[MUSIC] The committee of the rights of the child, the biggest of the three bodies,has issued a new
optional protocol.
The Convention of the Rights of the Child has 41 articles where all the issues children can have are
covered, like health, like education, like social services, like juvenile justice, and so on and so forth.

We have a second protocol, the optional protocol on children in armed conflict.

And we have another protocol still, the protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography.

All these three documents are aimed at by the third optional protocol, the so-called communication
protocol. This protocol allows children, groups of children, or people on behalf of children when they
have the agreement from the children, to address the committee if there is a violation of a child's right.
And if the state party, the state where the child lives, has dealt with that issue already until a final stage,
which means a final decision, let's say a decision of a supreme court. If that is the case, then the child not
satisfied with the outcome or the family of the child not satisfied with the outcome, can address the
committee of the rights of the child.
In case of emergency, which a case is where the life of the child might be in danger or the health of the
child might be in danger, the procedure will have so-called interim measures. That means that measures
will be taken to protect the child in the state of the child. And the member state will be asked to protect
this child specially. The communication of the child will be dealt with expeditiously, as expeditiously as
possible, because of the emergency situation.
For so-called normal situation, a situation that there is no real emergency, the committee, when receiving
such an intervention, such a complaint, will first of all will ask the members state for its consideration. Has
the member states done already something? Has the member state no reason for not doing the
something, and so on. The member state has six months' time to deal with it. And then the committee will
try to find an answer, to send a recommendation, to find out if a follow-up for this recommendation is
possible, or if maybe a friendly settlement would be the better solution. All this is possible in a very open
and transparent way between the three partners of the issue, the committee, the state party, and the child
in question.
There is another issue as well that can be taken on and brought by the committee. This is a very rare
issue. It's called the procedure of member states involvement which means that one state can
address the committee because of a widespread violation of children's right of another member state. I
repeat member states because the committee can only be competent for those states that the member
states through the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which are, at the moment, all states of the world
with one exception.

But concerning the two protocols, it is the same situation. The committee can only be involved if the
member state in question has ratified the respective protocol. This protocol is not established to be a
court for anyone, nor for the child, nor for the member state. It is there to assist member states to solve
problems between the member state and the child. And to assist also the member state to check if all the
mechanisms for protecting the children and for dealing with children in a correct way are established and
functioning. [MUSIC]

1.6 Overview regional monitoring system

[MUSIC] >> Now, we move to the discussion on regional monitoring system on children's human rights.
This video includes three sequences. Each one of them is dedicated to a specific regional experience.
The African, the European and the inter-American one.

>> Africa
I am going to talk about monitoring children rights in Africa and the majority of the monitoring of children
rights in Africa is actually directly related to the African charter on the rights and welfare of the child, which
is the original teach body, which is comprehensive issues pertains to children's rights. So the main
monitoring body for these charter is the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and welfare of
the Child. The tricky body is established under the probation of the charter and the composition, in the
terms of its composition, it has 11 members that are actually elected by the African Union Assembly and
they are nominated, of course, y state parties to the charter. Members of the committee are actually
supposed to be independent. They are also expected to have, as the charter says, high moral standing.
And obviously, they need to have a lot of experience on issues pertaining to children's rights, but it
doesn't necessarily mean being a lawyer, it can be any diverse disciplines. They can be lawyers, social
workers. We've had judges. We've had other professions on the committee as long as they've had some
experience with children's rights, they are eligible for election. The independence element is extremely
important. Members have to be independent from any high government office. You don't report back as a
member to the state that nominated you. Your responsibility is actually to interpret and monitor
implementation of children's rights as it relates to the African charter on the rights, and welfare of the
child. The members serve in their individual capacity, but also on a part-time basis. So all the members
that are currently, for instance, sitting on the committee have full-time jobs and they look at the time for
the work of the committee. The committee meets generally twice a year. There has been exceptional
circumstances where an extraordinary session had been called for. For instance, in 2014, the committee
met for its first extraordinary session in October. First of all, to deal with the back ,low state party report
and secondly to deal with urgent matters.

Our mandate, as a committee for monitoring children's rights in Africa has three aspects.
 First, we deal with state party reports. States are expected to report two years after ratification for
the in-child report and every three years thereafter. So the committee deals with state party
reports the same way, for instance, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child deals with state
party reports from states.
 The second mandate that we have is to undertake investigative missions and this can be
triggered by an application from a civil society. It can be triggered by an application from a child. It
can also be triggered by an application from the state and I will say a few words here on
investigative mission that we have undertaken so far.
 The third mandate that we have relates to dealing with individual complaints. The individual
complaints mechanism is provided for clearly within the model instrument, which is the African
charter. And so far, the committee has already completed three individual complaints and we are
currently busy with two.

Now in terms of state party reports, the reporting frequency by states has been relatively slow and this
can be explained, because of a number of reasons. Because of, for instance, the fact that states have a
number of multiple reporting obligations. Resources is the other challenge. But also to a certain extent,
the inadequate supports that they receive from various stakeholders, such as UN agencies and so forth
has been one of the limitations.

In terms of the investigative missions, there was an investigative mission that was undertaken to Uganda,
Northern Uganda, particularly. This is the context of allegations or violations of children's rights in the
context of the Civil War that was on holding at that time in the lower resistance army, the rebel group that
was waging war at that time and that was done in 2004. Another investigative mission has been
ndertaken to central Africa Republic. Again, this was done in the context of the recent armed conflict in
[INAUDIBLE] unfolded in 2014. The more recent investigative mission that the committee has undertaken
was to Tanzania. This was in the context of the killings of children with albinism for their body parts and
other superstitious thinking that relates to persons with albinism, and this was just completed a few
months back now in 2015.

In terms of individual complains, the committee has dealt with three as I mentioned earlier. The first one
was against the government of Kenya and the issue was about statelessness in nationality, particularly for
persons, children of Nubian decent who historically migrated to Kenya from Sudan, but have been living
in Kenya since the 1950s or even earlier. And in the particular case, the committee found multiple
violation of the African charter on the rights and welfare of the childs and indicated this to the government
of Kenya and issued a number of recommendation.
The second one pertained to a alleged to violation of children's rights by the government of Uganda in the
context of the armed conflict. In that regard as well, the committee also found violation pertaining to
children's rights at least in one of the elements of the alleged violation.
Thirdly, we dealt with the communication that was launched against the government of Senegal and the
main contention in this particular case was the issue of using children in the form of begging.

Now in terms of implementation of these decisions, there is a mixed bag. In all occasions, countries have
implemented the partially, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

One of the cool things that the committee does when it issues recommendations in the context of
individual complains is to appoint one its 11 members to serve as the focal person to follow up on the
implementation of the decisions by the states. One of the things that I also need to mention is that the
committee is currently working to have direct access to the African court on human people's rights, so that
some of this individual complains that are not fully complied used by the state party can actually be
referred by the committee to the African court which unlike the committee can actually issue binding
judgement.
Europe>>

Today, I will deal with the protection of children's rights in Europe. I will first sketch, give a sketch of the
organization under which whose auspices the protection is taking place as the Council of Europe.
Secondly, I will deal with European Convention on Human Rights and its supervisory body, European
Court of Human Rights. And thirdly and finally, I will highlight one case before the European Court of
Human Rights.

The Council of Europe has been created in 1949, just after the Second World War and it deals with three
issues.
 Democracy,
 the rule of law and
 human rights.

In the ambit of it's activities, it has adopted a large number of human rights treaties. The most famous of
these treaties, the jewel in the crown is the European Convention on Human Rights. This treaty was
adopted in 1950 and has a supervisory mechanism which is called the European Court of Human
Rights. The court has its seats in France, in Strassburg.

The European Convention on Human Rights, essentially contains civil and political rights. The rights to
life, the prohibition of torture. The right to freedom of assembly. The right to privates and family life. It
does not, however, contain specific children's rights. Any attempts subsequently to the adoption of the
European Convention to act children's rights in an additional protocol to the original convention have not
been successful. The latter does not mean, however, that European courts cannot and does not
adjudicate cases on issues concerning children. One of the cases I would like to highlight today is a case
against Belgium, which is called the Mubilanzila Mayeka and Kaniki Mitunga case versus Belgium. Dating
back to 2003, better known as the Tabitha Case.
Before going further into that case, I would just like to emphasize what the European Court of Human
Rights can do. When it receives a complaint from an individual on the behavior, action or lack of action of
states, it can decide whether state has violated one or more provisions of the European Convention on
Human Rights. Once the court has decided the case, it renders a judgement which is binding upon the
state. Therefore, a state, once having been found in violation of a right of freedom has to act upon it and
try to remedy the violation of that right or freedom.

I will now go into the case. Tabitha, being a resident from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was born
in 1997. Three years later, her mother left for Canada where she was given asylum. She got the refugee
status. Five years after Tabitha was born, she arrived with her Dutch uncle in Brussels. She arrived,
however, without papers. Her idea was to take a flight to Canada where she would be joined with her
mother. The Belgian authorities took her into detention. She was put in a closed detention center. Her
asylum request was denied and a few months later, she was deported. She was refought to Kinshasa to
the Congo. In the petition before the European court, allegations were made that the way the Belgian
authorities received her, the circumstances of her detention and her deportation amounted inter alia to
violations of article three of the European convention and article eight of the European convention. Being
the prohibition of torture in human and degrading treatment on the one hand and the right to family life on
the other hand. The European Court of Human Rights found multiple violations of both rights. Both with
regard to the young girl, the beater as well as with regards to the rights of her mother who was living at
that time in Canada as to the way to beat her was treated in Belgium. That amounted to a violation of
article three. The young girl was put into a closed detention center. No guardian or legal representative
was appointed. No adequate psychological help was offered to this young, unaccompanied minor and she
didn't receive education. With regard to the situation of the mother, the court founds that the simple facts
that the mother has only being given a telephone number on which she could call her young daughter
also amounted to a violation of article three of the European Convention. The way the deportation had
been arranged also amounted to a violation of article three. The fact that Tabitha was sent back right in
Kinshasa without the Belgian authorities have been made some efforts to find relatives or somebody else
to attend to her upon arrival amounted to a violation of article three of the European convention. The fact
that the mother had not been informed about deportation of Tabitha, also amounted to a violation of the
same provision. The circumstances of the detention also amounted to a violation of article eight. The
young girl was kept in a close detention center, which was not adapted to her needs. In fact, the court
said that she should have been kept in an adopted state institution or have been put into foster care as
demanded by the UN Convention on the right of the child. The deportation of the young girl also
amounted to a violation of article eight. In fact, since the girl was an unaccompanied minor, the state was
obliged under article eight to facilitate the family reunification with her mother in Canada. So as a result,
the court found multiple violations of different professions under the European Convention on Human
Rights.

Through this case, we see that European court is becoming more and more sensitive towards children's
rights issues. Unaccompanied minors belong to a vulnerable part of the population, which need special
protection. If that protection is not given by a state to such a person, that state can be held responsible
under the European Convention on Human Rights.

>>Interamerican

The Inter-American Human Rights System was created in 1948 within the Organization of American
States. All states of the Americas are part of the Organization of American States, that are in total 35
estates.

The Inter-American Human Rights System has two main supervisory organisms. Namely, the Inter-
American Commission on Human Rights and Inter-American Court on Human Rights.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights can receive petitions and they can also published
report, usually those reports Inter-American Commission describes their critical situation of violation in
human rights in the Americas. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights can receive cases from the
Inter-American Commission and can declare the international responsibility of the states when they
commit violation of human rights.

From the perspective of children's rights, the system doesn't have any specific treaty on children's rights.
The system doesn't incorporate the principle of the best interest of the child and the systems does
identifying what is a child. However, the Inter-American Court using article 29 of the American Convention
which gives competence to the inter-American Court to interpret all the human rights treaties has
indicated that a child is a person under 18 years old and it has also indicated that all states have
obligation to take into account in the law the principle of the best interest of the child. In that regard, the
court has used the Convention of the Rights of the Children, which has incorporated this principle and
also has indicated the child is any person under 18 years old. [MUSIC]

1.7 The role of the INHRIs on Children’s rights in the monitoring process at national and local
level

[MUSIC] Independent National Human Rights Institution are also called ombudsperson.
Ombudsperson on human rights, or in our case, we will focus on ombudsperson on children's rights.
Ombuds is a Scandinavian word, which is used to indicate that a person is acting on behalf of
another person as an intercessor between the person and some sort of authority. In a more formal
sense, the ombudsperson is ordinarily a government official whose aim or whose job is to make the
system more efficient by following up on citizen complaints.
The ombuds office was established by the Scandinavian Parliament in 1809. This first experience
proved to be so effective that the government decided to establish specialized ombuds dealing for
example, with ethnic discrimination, consumer affair, equal opportunities, and as well, children's
rights. Since 1990s, independent human rights institutions for children have emerged globally, as an
influential body for the promotion of the children's rights, in the decision making procedures, and in
the public debates. In this graphic representation, you have the situation duration of the ombuds for
children in 1996. So this was the situation identified by UNICEF in 1996, and here you have the
evolution in 2012. UNICEF in 2012 identified more than 200 ombuds of first children in over 17
countries on the globe. Graphically, here you have the representation of the spreading of the
ombuds office organized per region from 1989 to 2012.

But why do we need a ombuds children? An answer to this question can be identified within the main
international standards pertaining to the figure of the ombuds for children. In particular, in Article 4
Paragraph 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the committee invite states parties to
undertake all legislative administrative and other measures needed for the implementation of this
specific convention. In order to identify these appropriate measures, in 2003 the Committee on the
Right of the Child adopted a general common number five. In the list of these measures needed for
the implementation of the CRC, is also included to the establishment of a numbered office for
children. To this figure, already in 2002, the Committee on the Right of the Child, dedicated a
general comment, general comment number two, which is deeply rooted in a General Assembly
Resolution of 1993. Dedicated to the status of National Intuition for the promotion and protection of
Human Rights. This resolution is better known as the Paris Principle. But a more precise answer,
or why we need an ombuds for children is contained in the paragraph five of the General Common
number two. The one adopted in 2002 by the committee and write up the chart. In it, the committee
underlined, saying this paragraph five, that we need an ombuds for children because children's
rights deserve high priority.

Children's rights needs visibility because their opinion are still taken into account during the public
debates. Children has no right to vote, and have a small role in political process. They encounter
challenges in using the judicial system to protect their rights or to seek remedies for violation. And as
well as in having access to organization, they may protect their own rights. But if we try to identify
the main characteristics of this institution, the ombuds office should be constitutionally entrenched
and legislatively mandated. It should be complementary to effective governmental structure for
childrens. As independent monitoring authority, performing a sort of external monitoring activities on
the State's compliance towards the implementation of the convention on the rights of the child. It
should be as well as essentially, an independent institution, free to set-up its own agenda and
to identify its priority of action. This institutions take a variety of forms and go by different names. To
give you some example, they could be augmentative and integrated within larger independent
nation on Human Rights Institution. They could be specialized and separated, and standing on their
own. They could be directed to by one director or one person, or by a commission with a chair,
for example. And they go, as I said before,by different names. To give you some example, in English
we speak about ombudsman for children, Child Commissioner, Child Advocates, Children Rights or
Human Rights Commission. In French, we speak about mediator or defender. In Spanish, we speak
about defenseria or procuradoria. But in any case, they share similar mandates.
 First of all, they provide an assessment of the impact of governmental policies and
evaluation on their compliance with the CRC. This is what is called the external monitoring.
 They conduct studies on children's needs and risks.
 They submit proposal on laws and policies.
 They receive individual complaints and provide remedies for violations.
 They realize consultation and collaboration with children with the idea of creating a space for
dialogue about childrens in societies and between children and the state.
 They realize investigation.
 They realize mediation between institution.
 They realize custom activities of cooperation with civil society and international institution.
 They monitor on media for example, and they monitor on the private economic sector.
For example, think about the commercialization of a product dedicated to children.
As you can understand, the ombuds office is a public and governmental institution, financially
supported by the states. And performing check and balance activities by monitoring the states
compliance with the CRC requirements. Monitoring the activities of the private sector. Mainly
monitoring the work, for example, of the civil societies, the markets as private economic power,
the media. Always in constant collaboration with children. Therefore in an idea of good government
said, the ombuds for children, make sure that each entitiy within the public or the private sector
operates within its prescribed range of power and in the respect of children's rights [MUSIC]

1.8 NGOs’ role in the monitoring process

[MUSIC]
Hello everybody, it's my pleasure to present you the issue of NGOs' role in the monitoring process. 
As you know, a state which has ratified the convection on rights of the child has the legal obligation
and of a convention to submit a report two years after ratification of a convention and afterwards
each five years to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, explaining what it has done
for improving the implementation of children's rights in its borders.  But there are other institutions,
which may, if they want, submit a report to The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. 
And these institutions are specialized institutions like Ombuds Office, UNICEF, other UN bodies, like
for example ILO or other organization. And under other organization, you have civil society for
NGOs. This is article 45 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

So why it is so important to report, as I mentioned for  a state, it's a legal obligation. For civil society,
it's a very good opportunity to give its own opinion on certain issue, or on the implementation of
children's rights in general on a border or in the country in a specific state.

For the Committee on the Rights of the Child, it's a very good opportunity to have another point of
view about the situation of children in a specific state. For the UN agency, it's also very important to
have reporting and to have a system of reporting because it's an ongoing process of money, touring,
and advocacy for the improvement of children's rights in the specific states and of course in general. 
We can say that it has international cooperation.

I am going to explain to you the reporting procedure. 

First of all, you have a state, which has to submit the report.

Between six months and two years, NGOs have the opportunity to submit their own report on
specific issue or on the implementation of children's rights in general. This report of NGO is called
the shadow report.
Between 6 months and 2 years, after having received the NGO shadow reports, the UN Committee
on the Rights of the Child organized the pre-sessional working group.
The pre-session, and there is a deadline a 3 months at least, this pre-session is very important,
why?  Because it's an opportunity which is given to NGOs, civil society, and to be an agency to
present that point of view about the situation on the children's rights in a specific state. But also, to
have a dialogue with the UN experts. It's a private meeting, state representative are not allowed, as
well as mass medias. Important to say also that at this pre-session there is the NGO forum. The
NGO forum, it's a gathering of different NGOs concerned by a specific state or by certain issues
related to other state. It's a good opportunity to network all together.

After the pre-session, there is a deadline of one or  two weeks where the UN Committee on the
Rights of the Child send complimentary questions to the state. So list of issues to the state to the
government.
The state has, of course, three months to send written replies to the UN Committees.
After having received these written replies, the UN Committee on Rights of the Child organized the
important plenary session. This plenary session is the official one where the state is represented and
has the questions and issues to be debated to the UN Committee. And you can attend, but they
cannot ask question and they cannot intervene. It's only a dialogue between the experts of the UN
Commitee on the Rights of the Child and state's representative.

Afterwards, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is going to issue concluding observation.
This concluding observation do mention what the state has done or not done or partially done and
what it has to do to improve the implementation of children's rights in this state.  These concluding
observations are very important for everybody, of course for the state because he knows what he
has to do, but also for civil society over UN agency. 

This is why what we have to do afterwards is to implement this concluding observation.

And this is the duty of a state of course but  also of the NGOs and different UN agency. 

And after this implementation in the deadline of five years, state has to submit its report again.So it's
an ongoing circle, an ongoing procedure, two reports in front of a UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child.

The publication of the CRC of a concluding observation is very important, and everybody has the
duty of, also the obligation, to diffuse it and to make it know. 

Assume everybody can be concerned by it maybe all the concluding observation or by certain
specific issue and has permission to implement it. 

After the publication of the concluding observation, it's very important to diffuse them, so everybody,
UN agency, NGOs, professional, and of course state, can take this concluding observation in order
to implement it. 

Generally, for the state, but also some specific issue for NGOs or concerned institutions.

A concluding observation is worthless if it's not implemented. 

Thank you. 
[MUSIC]