Last month, the UN General Assembly adopted a new optional protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The protocol establishes a complaints mechanism which, when it comes into force later this year, will allow children to make a claim against their government to an international committee of experts that their rights have been violated. This is provided that the child's government signs up to the protocol.
The adoption of the optional protocol represents a landmark step for children's rights. Unlike many other UN human rights conventions, children have not been able to complain to a committee and seek a remedy where their rights contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) have been violated. While children have been able to bring a claim under the complaints procedures of other human rights conventions, only the CRC contains the full range of rights that apply specifically to children, and it is therefore very important to allow children to apply for a remedy under this convention.
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