Geneva Institute for Human Rights

Children are now able to file complaints about violations of their human rights to an international body, after the General Assembly adopted on Monday a new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure allows individual children to submit complaints regarding specific violations of their rights under the Convention and its first two optional protocols, one on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and the other on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

“Children will now be able to join the ranks of other rights-holders who are empowered to bring their complaints about human rights violations before an international body,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. She encouraged member states to sign the Protocol, which opens for signature in 2012 and will enter into force upon ratification by 10 UN Member States.

The Optional Protocol was sent by the Human Rights Council to the General Assembly last June. It establishes a procedure to bring complaints under the Convention on the Rights of the Child similar to those that already exist for other core human rights treaties. Upon receiving a complaint, the Committee on the Rights of the Child will examine it to determine whether the Convention has been violated. If the Convention is found to have been violated, the Committee will make specific recommendations for action to the State responsible.