12 February 2014
The Australian Council for Human Rights Education (ACHRE) welcomes establishment of a new complaints mechanism under the UN Convention on Rights of Child. On 14 January 2014, Costa Rica became the tenth state to ratify the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure, meaning that three months’ time, on 14 April 2014, the complaints mechanism will come into force.
The Third Optional Protocol opened for signature on 28 February 2012 and establishes a complaints procedure to allow individuals or groups to submit a complaint to the Committee of an alleged violation of any of the rights contained in the CRC. It enables individual children or groups of children to submit complaints regarding specific violations of their rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child where they have not been able to obtain a remedy at a national level.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child may ask the State to take interim measures to protect the child or the group of children. After examining a communication, the Committee will provide its views on the communication and will issue recommendations if the State concerned is found to have violated the Convention. The State party must respond within six months.
Before the adoption of the Third Optional Protocol, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was the only significant international human rights treaty to lack a communications procedure – despite its near universal ratification (all countries have ratified the Convention except Somalia, South Sudan and the United States). Costa Rica joins Albania, Bolivia, Gabon, Germany, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Thailand as parties to the Third Optional Protocol. Australia is yet to sign or ratify the complaints mechanism.
The Human Rights Law Centre has previously made a submission to the Australian Government strongly encouraging Australia to sign and expeditiously ratify the Third Optional Protocol: https://www.hrlc.org.au/upholding-childrens-rights-third-optional-protocol-crc
ACHRE supports the HRLC call and encourages Australia to sign and expeditiously ratify the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child because it would:
- complement and strengthen existing domestic mechanisms in Australia for protecting children’s rights;
- foster and promote systemic review and change;
- give effect to Australia’s international legal obligations to provide effective remedies for violations of human rights;
- demonstrate international human rights leadership; and
- involve minimal implementation obligations and costs.
Further information about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Children, including the Third Optional Protocol, is available at https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/index.htm