Child Rights NGOS Welcome the Decision of the United Nations to Provide an International Remedy for Children

New York, Monday 19 December 2011

The international coalition of over 80 international and national NGOs coordinated by the NGO Group for the CRC, which has been actively campaigning for the establishment of a communications procedure for child rights since 2006, welcomes the adoption of the Optional Protocol on a communications procedure for children rights violations at the UN General Assembly today.

With this new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a “communications” or complaint procedure, the international community has effectively put children rights on an equal footing with other human rights and recognised that children too had the right to appeal to an international mechanism, just like adults.

Now children who are victims of abuses and violations of their rights will be able to make a complaint to their committee of international experts, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (the Committee), if they have not been able to get legal remedies for these violations in their countries...( to know more )