International Human Rights Law

Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

Children impacted by conflict-related sexual violence are rights-holders and therefore entitled to protection, justice, physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration, as outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Luis Ernesto Pedernera Reyna, Chair of the CRC Committee (2017-2021)¹

I. Introduction🔗

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) entered into force on 2 September 1990. States Parties have committed to respect and ensure ‘the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children. The Convention provides for the realization of these rights by setting standards for health, education, legal, civil, and social services for children’.² The Committee on the Rights of Child monitors States’ implementation of the CRC.³

Note to reader

For an explanation of the Committee’s powers and other international legal mechanisms that may available to enforce a State’s obligations under the CRC, please consult the “Ratification and Enforcement of Treaties” chapter, “International Human Rights Law” section.

I.1 Children under the CRC🔗

The CRC applies to all children. Under article 1, ‘a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier’. While the CRC recognises the rights of all persons under 18 years, States should consider children’s development and their evolving capacities when implementing their rights.⁴

‘Evolving capacities’ refers to ‘the process of maturation and learning through which children progressively acquire competencies, understanding and increasing levels of agency to take responsibility and exercise their rights’.⁵

Approaches adopted to ensure the realisation of adolescents’ rights often differ significantly from those adopted for younger children. While the Committee has recognised ‘that adolescence is not easily defined, and that individual children reach maturity at different ages’, it has described adolescence as the period of childhood from 10 years until the 18^th birthday.⁶

I.2 CRSV under the CRC🔗

Under article 19(1), violence against children encompasses ‘all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse’.

The Committee has defined child sexual abuse as comprising ‘any sexual activities imposed by an adult on a child, against which the child is entitled to protection by criminal law. Sexual activities are also considered as abuse when committed against a child by another child, if the child offender is significantly older than the child victim or uses power, threat or other means of pressure’. However, sexual activities between children are not considered as sexual abuse if the children are older than the age limit defined by the State ‘for consensual sexual activities’.⁷

Beyond the forms of sexual violence listed in the Introduction to the Guidebook, child sexual abuse also includes:

The inducement or coercion of a child ‘to engage in any unlawful or psychologically harmful sexual activity’;
The use of children ‘in commercial sexual exploitation’;
The use of children ‘in audio or visual images of child sexual abuse’, including online;⁸
Child prostitution, sexual slavery, sexual exploitation in travel and tourism;⁹
Trafficking,¹⁰ within and between countries, and including as a result of illegal adoption;¹¹ and
Sale of children for sexual purposes and forced marriage.¹² The sale of children ‘involves some form of commercial transaction, which trafficking in children does not require’. Moreover, while trafficking always has the intended purpose of exploiting the child, ‘this purpose is not a required constitutive element for the sale of children, although the effect of the sale can still be exploitative’.¹³

Whether sexual violence is conflict-related is irrelevant to the CRC’s application. While recognising the particularly severe effects of ‘armed conflict, political instability and presence of armed groups’,¹⁴ the Committee has stated that the CRC and its Optional Protocols ‘apply at all times’. There are no provisions allowing for the suspension of children’s rights during emergencies;¹⁵ the State Party ‘bears the primary responsibility to protect children and should therefore take immediate measures to prevent further violence against them’.¹⁶

II. Legal Framework🔗

Convention on the Rights of the Child
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC)
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (OPCP)
Committee on the Rights of the Child
1. General Comments
2. Concluding Observations
3. Decisions

Note to reader

On the authoritativeness and the question of bindingness of the Committee’s work, consult the “International Human Rights Law” chapter, “Introduction” section, and the “Introduction” chapter, “Methodology” section.

III. Obligations🔗

Prevention🔗

III.1 States must criminalise CRSV🔗

Under article 6, States recognise that every child ‘has the inherent right to life’ and must ensure their ‘survival and development’ to the maximum extent possible. ‘Development’ is a broad, holistic concept, ’embracing the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral, psychological and social development’.¹⁷

The nature of CRSV is such that it impedes development; under article 19(1), States must take measures to ensure the child’s right to be free from all forms of physical or mental violence, ‘including sexual abuse’, while in the care of parents, legal guardians ‘or any other person who has the care of the child’. Under article 34, States must also ‘undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse’.

Under article 4, States must undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognised in the CRC. Criminalising sexual violence against children in all its forms is an important step in eliminating CRSV.¹⁸

Further, States should:

Accept that article 19 leaves no discretion to States Parties.¹⁹ Resource constraints cannot provide a justification for a State’s failure ‘to take any, or enough, of the measures that are required for child protection’.²⁰ States should provide ‘adequate budget allocations’ for the implementation of all measures adopted to end violence against children;²¹
Take responsibility for children without a caregiver entrusted with their protection and well-being.²² All person below the age of 18 should be in the care of someone.²³ In medical, rehabilitative and care facilities, at the workplace and in justice settings children are in the custody of professionals or State actors, who should observe the best interests of the child and ensure their rights to protection, well-being and development.²⁴

Domestic implementation of the CRC. States should ensure ‘that all domestic legislation is fully compatible with the Convention and that the Convention’s principles and provisions can be directly applied and appropriately enforced’.²⁵

In case of any conflict in legislation, States should prioritise the CRC ‘in the light of article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties’,²⁶ according to which States ‘may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty’. While the inclusion of sections of the CRC in national constitutions is welcome, ‘additional legislative and other measures may be necessary’.²⁷ Such measures include:

Increasing the minimum age for marriage with and without parental consent to 18 years, for both girls and boys.²⁸ In no circumstance can a child below 16 be married: States should strictly define by law the grounds for obtaining a derogation as of 16 years of age, ‘only upon the authorization of a competent court and with the full, free and informed consent of the child’;²⁹
Reviewing and withdrawing reservations to the CRC that are incompatible with its object and purpose.³⁰ Where a State, after review, decides to maintain a reservation, it should explain why in its next periodic report.³¹

III.2 States’ obligations under the CRC must be fulfilled both within and outside their territory🔗

III.3 States must address CRSV committed by non-State actors🔗

States have obligations regarding the impact of non-State actors’ activities and operations, including United Nations (UN) peacekeepers,³⁶ on children’s rights.³⁷ Enabling the private sector to provide services or run institutions does not lessen a State’s obligation under the CRC.³⁸

Businesses are influential private actors. The business sector encompasses all business enterprises, including digital service providers.³⁹ In the light of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,⁴⁰ States should ensure that businesses meet their responsibilities regarding children’s rights.⁴¹ The CRC also applies to ‘not-for-profit organizations that play a role in the provision of services that are critical to the enjoyment of children’s rights’.⁴²

Under article 3(1), the best interests of the child (defined under obligation III.5) must be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children, ‘whether undertaken by public or private bodies’.⁴³ In relation to private actors, States have three obligations:

The obligation to respect. States should not directly or indirectly facilitate, aid and abet any infringement of children’s rights. Further, a State should not engage in, support or condone abuses of children’s rights when it has a business role itself ‘or conducts business with private enterprises’;
The obligation to protect. States should take all necessary measures to prevent private actors from causing or contributing to abuses of children’s rights. They should investigate, adjudicate and redress violations of children’s rights caused or contributed to by a business enterprise;
The obligation to fulfil. Under article 4, States should take positive action to implement children’s rights, including in relation to business activities that have an impact on them⁴⁴

Business enterprises. The impact of business enterprises on children’s rights often involves a link or participation between businesses units located in different jurisdictions.⁴⁵ Provided that there is ‘a reasonable link between the State and the conduct concerned’,⁴⁶ home States (i.e., States in which a business has its centre of activity, registration and/or domicile) should:

Require business enterprises to undertake stringent child-rights due diligence tailored to their size and activities,⁴⁷ and ‘to publicly communicate their reports on their impact on children’s rights, including regular reporting’;⁴⁸
Address specific foreseeable risks to children’s rights from business enterprises operating transnationally in legislation;⁴⁹
Prohibit private security companies from recruiting children or using them in hostilities, and require them to protect children from violence and establish mechanisms for holding personnel accountable for abuses of children’s rights.⁵⁰ These mechanisms should not ‘prevent children from gaining access to State-based remedies’;⁵¹
Provide businesses with information of the local children’s rights context when they are operating or planning to operate in conflict-affected areas.⁵²

On the other hand, host States (i.e., States in which businesses are operational) should ensure that all business enterprises, including transnational corporations operating within their borders, are adequately regulated and do not adversely impact on children’s rights and/or aid violations in foreign jurisdictions.⁵³

Mass media (including digital media). States should regulate media to protect children from harmful information, ‘especially pornographic materials and materials that portray or reinforce violence, discrimination and sexualized images of children’.

States should encourage mass media to develop guidelines to ensure full respect for children’s rights, ‘including their protection from violence and from portrayals that perpetuate discrimination, in all media coverage’.⁵⁴

Digital media is of particular concern, as many children can become victims of violence ‘such as cyber-bullying, cyber-grooming, trafficking or sexual abuse and exploitation through the Internet’. Crises may lead to an increased risk of harm online,⁵⁵ ‘given that children spend more time on virtual platforms in those circumstances’.⁵⁶ States should provide children with age-appropriate information regarding web-related safety. They should also coordinate with the information and communication technology industry ‘so that it develops and puts in place adequate measures to protect children from violent and inappropriate material’.⁵⁷

III.4 Decentralisation of power does not negate or reduce States’ obligations under the CRC🔗

III.5 States must ensure the best interests of the child in eliminating CRSV🔗

Under article 3(1), States must ensure that the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private actors.

The principle ‘requires active measures throughout Government, parliament and the judiciary’:⁶⁰ States should put adequate resources in place ‘to ensure this principle is applied in practice’.⁶¹ Actions concerning children also encompass those ‘which are not directly concerned with children, but indirectly affect children’,⁶² including all ‘migration-related and other decisions that affect migrant children’.⁶³ The child’s best interests should be assessed and determined when a decision is to be made.

A ‘”best-interests assessment” involves evaluating and balancing all the elements necessary to make a decision in the specific situation for a specific individual child or group of children’.⁶⁴ Circumstances to be considered include the individual characteristics of the child, such as ‘age, sex, level of maturity, experience, belonging to a minority group, having a physical, sensory or intellectual disability’, as well as social and cultural contexts, such as the presence or absence of parents, whether the child lives with them, and quality of the relationships between the child and their family or caregivers.⁶⁵

States should consider and balance:

The child’s views and identity;
The preservation of the family environment and the need to maintain relations;
The care, protection and safety of the child;
The child’s vulnerability; and
The child’s rights to health and education.⁶⁶

A ‘best-interests determination’ is a formal process with strict procedural safeguards ‘designed to determine the child’s best interests on the basis of the best-interests assessment’. Safeguards include:⁶⁷

The right of the child to express their own views;
The establishment of facts and information relevant to a particular case, obtained by well-trained professionals;
Time limits. Delays in or prolonged decision-making have particularly adverse effects on children;
Qualified professionals. Processes should be carried out in a friendly and safe atmosphere by professionals who are trained in ‘child psychology, child development and other relevant human and social development fields’, ‘who have experience working with children and who will consider the information received in an objective manner’;
Legal representation;
Legal reasoning. Any decision concerning the child or children should be ‘motivated, justified and explained’;
Mechanisms to review or revise decisions seemingly not in accordance with the appropriate procedure of assessing and determining the child’s best interests;
Child-rights impact assessments (CRIA). CRIAs can predict the impact of decisions on children and their rights. CRIAs should be built into Government processes at all levels.⁶⁸

III.6 States must ensure children’s right to express views and consider them in eradicating CRSV🔗

Under article 12(1), States must ensure that children who are capable of forming their own views have the right to express those views freely, and give weight to those views in accordance with the child’s age and maturity. States should consider the following:

Article 12(1) leaves no leeway for States’ discretion. States should fully implement this right for all children’;⁶⁹
States should presume that a child has the capacity to form their own views and recognise that they have the right to express them; it is not up to the child to first prove their capacity. States should not introduce age limits which would restrict the child’s right to be heard in all matters affecting them;⁷⁰
The child should be able to express their views ‘without pressure’, and choose whether or not they want to exercise their right to be heard;⁷¹
States should broadly interpret the meaning of ‘all matters affecting the child’;⁷²
Age alone cannot determine the significance of a child’s views: maturity refers to the ability to understand and assess the implications of a particular matter, and should be considered when determining the individual capacity of a child. Maturity is the capacity of a child to express their views on issues ‘in a reasonable and independent manner’.⁷³

Under article 12(2), States must provide the child must with the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings that affect them, ‘either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body’. States should consider the following:

All proceedings should be accessible and child-appropriate, including ‘child victims of physical or psychological violence, sexual abuse or other crimes’;⁷⁴
States should give children the opportunity to be directly heard in any proceedings, preferably independently of their parents. Otherwise, the representative should be the parent(s), a lawyer, or another person, including a social worker. The representative should represent ‘exclusively the interests of the child and not the interests of other persons’. States should develop codes of conduct for children’s representatives;⁷⁵

Involvement of and consultation with children should ‘avoid being tokenistic and aim to ascertain representative views’.⁷⁶ Meaningful consultation with children requires special child-sensitive materials and processes; ‘it is not simply about extending to children access to adult processes’. States should pay particular attention to identifying and giving priority to marginalised and disadvantaged children.⁷⁷

Situations of violence. Situations of violence, including armed conflict and humanitarian disasters, ‘result in the breakdown of social norms and family and community support structures’. They force many children, specifically adolescents, to assume adult responsibilities and expose them to risks ‘of sexual and gender-based violence, child and forced marriage and trafficking’.⁷⁸ States should:

Provide adolescents ‘with systematic opportunities to play an active role in the development and design of protection systems and reconciliation and peacebuilding processes’;⁷⁹
Ensure that emergency preparedness programmes address adolescents, recognising ‘both their vulnerability and right to protection, and their potential role in supporting communities and helping to mitigate risk’;⁸⁰
Implement the findings of the UN Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children, in particular the recommendation to provide spaces for children to freely express their views and give these views due weight ‘in all aspects of prevention, reporting and monitoring violence against them’.⁸¹

III.7 Special protection against CRSV is owed to children facing multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination🔗

Under article 2(1), States must respect and ensure the rights of children within their jurisdiction ‘without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status’.

States should actively identify individual children and groups of children for whom special measures may be needed.⁸² States should be mindful of and accommodate the needs of those children facing multiple,⁸³ intersecting forms of discrimination.⁸⁴

For example, the CRC has drawn States’ attention ‘to the fact that sex- and gender- based discrimination intersects with other factors that affect women and girls, in particular those who belong to, or are perceived as belonging to, disadvantaged groups’.⁸⁵

Children born of rape and their mothers. States have specific obligations as concerns children born of rape and their mothers (whether women or girls). States should:

In the distribution of relief aid, give priority to ‘expectant mothers, maternity cases and nursing mothers in the context of conflict’;
Abolish the death penalty for pregnant women or mothers of dependent or young children;
Integrate child protection systems in the justice system to support mothers with subsidies for the upbringing of their child;
Provide free legal aid for mothers and children born of rape ‘who wish to seek redress through the justice mechanisms’;
Recognise and treat children born of rape ‘as victims of conflict’, and include them ‘in all considerations regarding humanitarian aid, justice initiatives and diplomatic relations with all concerned states’;
Ensure that ‘children born of rape are registered and ensure their right to a nationality’. States should provide abandoned children with access to care services, birth certificates and the right to acquire a nationality if stateless;
Keep children born of conflict-related rape and their mothers informed and consulted on any decisions affecting them. States should involve them in conflict prevention, peace building and post-conflict reconstruction;
Combat stigmatisation and social isolation of children born of rape through public awareness raising and education campaigns directed at State agencies, NGOs, communities and traditional and religious leaders. States should establish peer support groups and platforms ‘to enable women and children to share their experiences and provide mothers with parenting skills’.⁸⁶

III.8 Special protection against CRSV is owed to migrant children🔗

Under article 2(1), States must respect and ensure the rights of all children, including ‘migrants in regular or irregular situations, asylum seekers, refugees, stateless and/or victims of trafficking, including in situations of return or deportation’.⁸⁷

Restrictive migration or asylum policies, including criminalisation of irregular migration, the absence of sufficient safe, orderly, accessible and affordable regular migration channels or lack of adequate child protection systems, can render migrant and asylum-seeking children, including unaccompanied or separated children, vulnerable to violence and abuse ‘during their migration journey and in the countries of destination’. As a result, States should review such measures.⁸⁸

As soon as a migrant child is detected by immigration authorities, States should inform child protection or welfare officials.⁸⁹ Under article 35, for migrant children who may be at risk or for whom there are indications of trafficking, sale, other forms of sexual exploitation or child marriage, States should:

Establish early identification measures and referral mechanisms;
Grant the most protective migration status (i.e., asylum or residence on humanitarian grounds) where different statuses are available;
Refrain from making the granting of residence status or assistance to migrant child victims/survivors ‘conditional on the initiation of criminal proceedings or their cooperation with law enforcement authorities’.⁹⁰

States should provide asylum-seeking children, including those who are unaccompanied or separated, with access to asylum procedures and other complementary mechanisms, irrespective of their age.⁹¹ States should:

Provide children with ‘adequate access to clean water, adequate sanitation, including dignity kits for girls and women, food and shelter, including access to heating systems, blankets and winter clothing, as well as health-care and immunization coverage’. States should ‘protect children against recruitment, violence and sexual exploitation’ in refugee camps;⁹²
Ensure that children are represented by an adult who is familiar with the child’s background and able to represent their best interests. States should also provide unaccompanied or separated children with a qualified legal representative, free of charge;⁹³
Process children’s refugee status applications promptly and fairly;
Provide children with minimum procedural guarantees, including that the application ‘will be determined by a competent authority fully qualified in asylum and refugee matters’, and that children’s guardians and legal representatives are present at all times during this process;⁹⁴
Train all staff involved in the determination of children’s status on applying international and national refugee law ‘that is child, cultural, and gender-sensitive’;⁹⁵
Provide children with all relevant information, ‘in their own language, on their entitlements, the services available, including means of communication, and the immigration and asylum process, in order to make their voice heard and to be given due weight in the proceedings’.⁹⁶

Age determination process. The age of a migrant who claims to be a minor is a critical decision because it determines whether a person will be entitled to or excluded from national protections provided to children in line with the CRC. States should establish a procedure to determine a person’s age, as well as an opportunity to appeal its outcome.⁹⁷

States should appoint a qualified legal representative and, where necessary, an interpreter, ‘for all young persons claiming to be minors, as soon after their arrival as possible and at no charge’. Failure to do so constitutes a violation of the CRC.⁹⁸ States should provide young unaccompanied asylum seekers claiming to be under 18 with a competent guardian as soon as possible ‘to enable them to apply for asylum as minors, even if the age determination process is ongoing’.⁹⁹

While the assessment process is under way, the person should be ‘presumed to be and treated as a minor’. The best interests of the child ‘should be a primary consideration throughout the age determination process’. States should consider any available documents as genuine, ‘unless there is evidence to the contrary’. Only in the absence of identity documents or other appropriate evidence may States undertake an assessment of the child’s physical and psychological development. States should prohibit tests ‘that involve nudity or an examination of genitalia or other intimate parts of the body’.¹⁰⁰

States should conduct assessments in a ‘prompt, child-friendly, gender-sensitive and culturally appropriate manner’. In the event of remaining uncertainty, States should give the individual the benefit of the doubt: ‘if there is a possibility that the individual is a child’, States should treat them as such.¹⁰¹

Non-refoulement. Children should not be returned to a country ‘where there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk of irreparable harm to the child’.¹⁰² States should assess the risk of serious violations in an age and gender-sensitive manner, taking into account persecution experienced by children, which may justify the granting of refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention.¹⁰³

States should:

Conduct a best-interests determination to evaluate the impact of deportation on children’s rights and development, including their mental health;¹⁰⁴
Base any decision to return a child on evidentiary considerations with due process safeguards, including an individual assessment and determination of the best-interests of the child;¹⁰⁵
Prepare, if return is in the child’s best interests, an individual plan, together with the child where possible, for their sustainable reintegration. ‘Countries of origin, transit, destination and return should develop comprehensive frameworks with dedicated resources’ to ensure children’s effective rights-based reintegration, including immediate protection measures and long-term solutions. States should ensure a quality rights-based follow-up by all involved authorities;¹⁰⁶
Refrain from returning children who are at risk of being re-trafficked to their country of origin unless it is in their best interests.¹⁰⁷

Under article 38, and articles 3 and 4 of the OPAC on the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict, States must not return a child to the borders of a State where there is a real risk of underage recruitment, including recruitment as a combatant or to provide sexual services for the military, or where there is a real risk of direct or indirect participation in hostilities, ‘either as a combatant or through carrying out other military duties’.¹⁰⁸

III.9 States should not detain children🔗

Detention exposes children to violence in all its forms. Under article 37(b), States must ensure that no child is deprived of their liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child must be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.¹⁰⁹

States ‘should provide regular opportunities to permit early release from custody’, and prioritise mechanisms for swift release to parents or appropriate adults.¹¹⁰ States should not require the payment of monetary bail, ‘as most children cannot pay and because it discriminates against poor and marginalized families’.¹¹¹

Under article 37(d), States must ensure that children deprived of their liberty have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to promptly challenge the legality of the deprivation of their liberty.

States should prohibit the detention of children below the age of 16.¹¹² Under article 37(c), States must treat children in an age-sensitive manner. Detention ‘in transportation or in police cells’,¹¹³ and ‘in detention cells or closed centres’ ‘is never a form of protection’.¹¹⁴

States must separate every child deprived of liberty from adults, unless doing so is not in the child’s best interest.¹¹⁵ States Parties should establish separate facilities for children deprived of their liberty ‘that are staffed by appropriately trained personnel and that operate according to child-friendly policies and practices’. After a child reaches the age of 18, States should not immediately move them to a facility for adults.¹¹⁶

During detention, States should also keep children in contact with their family through correspondence and visits, ‘save in exceptional circumstances’ that are clearly described in law and not left ‘to the discretion of the authorities’.¹¹⁷

Under articles 37(c), States should:

Prohibit incommunicado detention and solitary confinement for children;
Ensure that every child is examined by a physician or a health practitioner upon admission and receives adequate health care throughout their stay;
Ensure there is no restriction on the child’s ability to communicate confidentially and at any time with their lawyer or other assistant;
Ensure that restraint or force is used only when the child poses an imminent threat of injury to themselves or others, ‘and only when all other means of control have been exhausted’;
Ensure that any disciplinary measure is consistent with upholding the inherent dignity of the child and the fundamental objectives of institutional care;
Allow independent and qualified inspectors to conduct inspections on a regular basis.¹¹⁸

Pretrial detention. Children have a right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of their liberty within 24 hours of their arrest.¹¹⁹ States should regularly review pretrial detention.¹²⁰

Migrant children. Unaccompanied or separated children should not, as a general rule, be detained. States may not justify detention ‘solely on the basis of the child being unaccompanied or separated, or on their migratory or residence status, or lack thereof’.¹²¹

States should comply with article 31(1) of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which provides that States must not impose penalties on refugees from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened as a result of persecution, who ‘enter or are present in their territory without authorization, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence’.¹²²

Moreover, States should:

Conduct a best-interests assessment to decide, in accordance with the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, the type of accommodation that would be most appropriate. States should prioritise community-based care solutions;¹²³
Respect that, when children are accompanied, the need to keep the family together should not justify a child’s deprivation of liberty. When the child’s best interests require keeping the family together, States should choose non-custodial solutions for the entire family;¹²⁴
Refrain from criminalising or subjecting children to punitive measures, such as detention, because of their or their parents’ migration status, which ‘is never in the best interests of the child,’;¹²⁵
Allow independent public bodies, as well as civil society organisations, ‘to regularly monitor detention facilities.¹²⁶

III.10 States must ensure children are not recruited in or used by parties to a conflict🔗

Under article 38, States must ensure that persons who have not attained the age of fifteen do not take a direct part in hostilities. States must refrain from recruiting any person who has not attained the age of fifteen into their armed forces. In recruiting among those persons who have attained the age of 15 but are not 18, States must prioritise those who are oldest.

The Committee, however, has encouraged States to prohibit ‘the recruitment or use of adolescents in all hostilities as well as peace or ceasefire negotiations and agreements with armed groups’, and to instead involve adolescents in peace movements and peer-to-peer approaches to non-violent conflict resolution rooted in local communities.¹²⁷

The Committee has expressed concern at reports of boys being recruited so they can be sexually exploited and abused, and at cases of sexual violence, including rape, against girls who have been forced into marriage with members of armed groups.¹²⁸ It has also noted how the digital environment can be used by non-State groups, ‘including armed groups designated as terrorist or violent extremist’, to recruit and exploit children.¹²⁹

States should also:

Release and reintegrate existing child soldiers in their armed forces, and extend these activities to non-State groups;
Issue a national registration card or original birth certificate as ‘the minimum age verification criteria’ accepted by the armed forces, and stop offering incentives ‘to those enlisting new recruits’.¹³⁰ States should not recruit persons whose age is in doubt.¹³¹

OPAC. Under the OPAC, States have wider obligations. They must:

Take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces under 18 do not take a direct part in hostilities’;¹³²
Ensure that persons under 18 are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces, ‘including the police and self-defence committees’;¹³³
Ensure that voluntary recruitment into their national armed forces is genuinely voluntary and ‘done with the informed consent of the person’s parents or legal guardians’. Persons must be fully informed of military service’s duties, and ‘provide reliable proof of age prior to acceptance’;¹³⁴
Take ‘all feasible measures’ to prevent the recruitment and use in hostilities of persons under 18 by non-State armed groups, ‘private security companies and defence contractors’.¹³⁵

Further, States should:

Adopt an action plan in accordance with Security Council resolutions, and ensure its effective implementation.¹³⁶ States should provide the plan with the necessary human, technical and financial resources, and consult with the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict as well as international and national child protection actors;¹³⁷
Remove individuals suspected of recruiting or using children in hostilities, or other serious human rights abuses;¹³⁸
Prioritise and address the release, recovery and reintegration of children associated with non-State armed forces or armed groups ‘in all peace or ceasefire negotiations and agreements with armed groups’. States should guarantee that non-State armed groups release all children before ‘integration into the army or police and any related training programmes’. States should give no military, financial or logistical support to local militias ‘suspected of recruiting or using children or committing other human rights abuses’;¹³⁹
Address the root causes of child recruitment by allocating adequate financial resources for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration process, and by ‘implementing an effective poverty reduction strategy’.¹⁴⁰

Schools are often a hub for recruitment. States should:

Not consider children enrolled in military schools as members of the armed forces. States should ban military-type training for all children under 18 at military schools,¹⁴¹ and reduce the number of schools operated by their armed forces;¹⁴²
Take measures to stop illegal armed groups from recruiting children in schools, including protection schemes for teachers;¹⁴³
Immediately discontinue the occupation of schools by armed forces ‘and strictly ensure compliance with humanitarian law and the principle of distinction’;
Promptly and impartially investigate the occupation of schools by the armed forces and duly suspend, prosecute and sanction those responsible with appropriate penalties.¹⁴⁴

III.11 States should regulate the arms trade🔗

III.12 States must educate their population on CRSV🔗

Under article 42, States should disseminate the CRC widely to adults and children.¹⁴⁶ States should translate the CRC and the Committee’s work ‘into relevant languages, and child-friendly/appropriate versions and formats accessible to persons with disabilities’ (such as Braille) should be produced.¹⁴⁷

States should also incorporate the CRC and the Committee’s work into the training of professionals working with children, and make them available to all national and local human rights institutions, other human rights civil society organisations,¹⁴⁸ business enterprises,¹⁴⁹ and in school curricula.¹⁵⁰ States should involve media in efforts to disseminate the CRC.¹⁵¹

The goals of education should be to:

‘To promote the empowerment of girls, challenge patriarchal and other harmful gender norms and practices,¹⁵² to address inequalities ‘which support and perpetuate the use of violence’ in all settings;¹⁵³
Challenge negative perceptions of boys, promote positive masculinities, and recognition of the gender dimension of the abuses they experience;¹⁵⁴
Combat xenophobia, racism and discrimination and ‘promote the social inclusion and full integration of families affected by international migration into the host society’. In doing so, States should pay special attention ‘to gender-specific and any other challenges and vulnerabilities that may intersect’;¹⁵⁵
Provide information on ‘safe and respectful social and sexual behaviours’. With the involvement of adolescents,¹⁵⁶ States should provide adolescents ‘both in and out of school’ with access to sexual and reproductive information, ‘including on family planning and contraceptives, the dangers of early pregnancy, the prevention of HIV/AIDS and the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs)’;¹⁵⁷
Enhance a culture of peace, non-violence and gender equality among children and society by providing ‘human rights education and, in particular, peace education, for all children in school’.¹⁵⁸

Training for professionals. States should provide training for all those involved in the CRC implementation process – government officials, parliamentarians and members of the judiciary – and for all those working with and for children.¹⁵⁹

The purpose of training should be to emphasise ‘the status of the child as a holder of human rights, to increase knowledge and understanding of the Convention and to encourage active respect for all its provisions’. States should integrate the CRC ‘in professional training curricula, codes of conduct and educational curricula’.¹⁶⁰

States should provide clear instructions to armed forces and security forces to prevent any possible killings and injuries of children in line with the international humanitarian law principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution.¹⁶¹

Further, States should train all individuals working with children on identifying risk factors for particular individuals or groups of children and caregivers, and identifying signs of maltreatment to trigger appropriate intervention as early as possible.¹⁶² States should ensure that medical personnel and teachers are not bound by rules of confidentiality in cases of sexual violence, and make it mandatory for them to report such incidents.¹⁶³

III.13 States should establish national human rights mechanism to help them eradicate CRSV🔗

III.14 States should cooperate with other actors to eradicate CRSV🔗

The preamble and the provisions of the CRC contain references to the ‘importance of international cooperation for improving the living conditions of children in every country’, in particular in developing countries. States should cooperate with other actors, both national and international, ‘for the realization of children’s rights beyond their territorial boundaries’.¹⁶⁸

Civil society. States should engage all sectors of society and work closely with NGOs, while respecting their autonomy.¹⁶⁹ To facilitate this, States should:

Enable civil society groups to operate effectively without impediment.¹⁷⁰ States should take measures to ensure that human rights defenders, ‘including those working specifically on children’s rights and those assisting women and girls fleeing violence’, are able to carry out their work safely. States should promptly investigate instances of intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders or members of civil society organisations, and prosecute those responsible;¹⁷¹
Oblige all children’s institutions to provide places where children can contribute their experience and views on combating violence against children;¹⁷²
In accordance with the Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children, support and encourage children’s organisations and child-led initiatives to address violence, and include these organisations ‘in the elaboration, establishment and evaluation of anti-violence programmes and measures’.¹⁷³

International cooperation. International cooperation is needed ‘to address child protection issues which cut across national borders’, including:

Conflict ‘which cuts across borders’;
Cross-border movement of children – whether unaccompanied or with their families – either voluntarily or under duress, which can put children at risk of harm; and
Cross-border trafficking of children for labour, sexual exploitation, adoption, or other purposes.¹⁷⁴

Under article 34, States must take bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent child sexual exploitation and abuse, including the inducement or coercion of a child ‘to engage in any unlawful sexual activity’, ‘the exploitative use of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices’ and ‘in pornographic performances and materials’.

States should:

Share information among States Parties, paying particular attention ‘to developing countries that need assistance in setting up and/or funding programmes that protect and promote the rights of children’;
Encourage voluntary contributions from other States, regional and bilateral assistance, as well as contributions from private sources;¹⁷⁵
Where government capacity is limited, accept and facilitate assistance by UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the UN Population Fund, UNAIDS and other relevant international bodies, organisations and agencies.¹⁷⁶ States should cooperate with and grant unrestricted access to UN human rights and accountability mechanisms to investigate conflict-related human rights violations.¹⁷⁷

Under the OPAC, States must cooperate with one another and international organisations, including through technical cooperation and financial assistance, to implement and prevent activity contrary to the OPAC and to rehabilitate and reintegrate victims/survivors of acts contrary to the OPAC into society.¹⁷⁸

Under the OPSC, States must support one another in investigations or criminal or extradition proceedings concerning acts contrary to the OPSC, ‘including assistance in obtaining evidence at their disposal necessary for the proceedings’.¹⁷⁹

III.15 States should ratify other instruments of international law to eliminate CRSV🔗

States should ratify the Optional Protocols to the CRC, and other international and regional human rights instruments that provide protection for children, including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.¹⁸⁰

Other instruments that States should ratify include, but are not limited to:

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and their Optional Protocols;
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol;
The Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance;¹⁸¹
The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families;
The United Nations Convention against Corruption;¹⁸²
The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol;¹⁸³
The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness;¹⁸⁴
The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols;¹⁸⁵
The Rome Statute;¹⁸⁶
The Arms Trade Treaty;¹⁸⁷
The Convention on Cluster Munitions;
The Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction;
The Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (with Protocols I, II and III);¹⁸⁸
The Hague Convention of 1993 on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption;¹⁸⁹
The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women;¹⁹⁰
The Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse.¹⁹¹

III.16 States should monitor CRSV and report on the measures adopted to eradicate it to the Committee🔗

Justice and Accountability🔗

III.17 States must investigate and prosecute CRSV effectively🔗

Under article 19(2), States must take all appropriate measures to protect children from all forms of violence, including the reporting, referral and investigation of instances of violence. States should prosecute the perpetrators and punish them with commensurate, effective and appropriate sanctions.²⁰¹

Complaint mechanisms. States should develop safe, well-publicised, confidential, affordable and accessible support mechanisms for children, their representatives and others to report violence against children, including 24-hour toll-free hotlines. In the establishment of reporting mechanisms, States should:²⁰²

Disseminate information to facilitate the making of complaints. States should publicise effective remedial judicial and non-judicial mechanisms for the violations of children’s rights;
Ensure that the reporting mechanism participates in investigations and court proceedings;
Establish related support services for children and families;
Train and support personnel to receive and forward the information received through reporting systems. States should require professionals working with children to report instances, suspicion or risk of violence. States should ensure that ‘convicted perpetrators are prohibited from working with children’;²⁰³
Establish a national database on all cases of violence against children, in particular sexual abuse of children, ‘and undertake a comprehensive assessment of the extent, causes and nature of such violence’.²⁰⁴

Investigation. States should adopt a child-rights and child-sensitive approach during investigations and avoid subjecting children to further harm.²⁰⁵

States should conduct investigations in conformity with ‘the Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol) and the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict‘.²⁰⁶

Under the OPSC, uncertainty as to the actual age of the victim cannot prevent the initiation of criminal investigations.²⁰⁷

Judicial involvement. The protection and the further development of the child and their best interests should form the primary purpose of decision-making: States should prioritise the least intrusive intervention, as warranted by the circumstances.²⁰⁸

States should establish ‘juvenile or family specialized courts and criminal procedures’, including ‘specialized units within the police, the judiciary and the prosecutor’s office’.²⁰⁹

States should ensure that all justice mechanisms dealing with children, including customary, tribal, indigenous or other justice systems, know and implement the CRC.²¹⁰

To ensure due process, States should:²¹¹

Ensure that children and their parents are promptly and adequately informed;
Treat child victims/survivors of violence ‘in a child-friendly and sensitive manner throughout the justice process, taking into account their personal situation, needs, age, gender, disability and level of maturity and fully respecting their physical, mental and moral integrity’. Under the OPSC, States must protect the privacy and identity of child victims/survivors and ‘avoid the inappropriate dissemination of information that could lead to the identification of child victims’. States must also protect children, their families and witness on their behalf from intimidation and retaliation;²¹²
Administer punishment swiftly in all proceedings involving child victims/survivors of violence;
Give the child victim/survivor and child witness of a crime an opportunity to fully exercise their right to freely express their views ‘in accordance with United Nations Economic and Social Council resolution 2005/20, “Guidelines on Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crime“‘;²¹³
Reduce reliance on testimonies as the basis for prosecutions²¹⁴ but, if necessary, expand the use of video questioning of child victims²¹⁵ and allow it as evidence in court proceedings;²¹⁶
Inform the child victim and child witness of a crime about access to legal aid,²¹⁷ availability of health, psychological and social services, the role of a child victim/survivor and/or witness, the ways in which “questioning” is conducted, existing support mechanisms, the places and times of hearings, the availability of protective measures, the possibilities of receiving reparation, and the provisions for appeal.²¹⁸

Businesses. States should consider adopting criminal legal liability – ‘or another form of legal liability of equal deterrent effect’ – for business enterprises in cases concerning serious violations of the rights of a child. National tribunals should have jurisdiction over these serious violations.²¹⁹

States should allow children and their representatives ‘to initiate proceedings in their own right and have access to legal aid and the support of lawyers and legal aid providers’.²²⁰

For large numbers of children similarly affected by business actions, States should allow collective complaints, such as class actions and public interest litigation. Non-judicial mechanisms, such as mediation, conciliation and arbitration, should also be available.²²¹

OPSC. Under article 4 of the OPSC, a State must take all necessary measures to investigate and prosecute all offences relating to the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography when committed in its territory.²²²

A State may also investigate and prosecute such offences when:

The alleged offender is a national of that State;
The alleged offender has their habitual residence in its territory; and
The victim is a national of that State.²²³

A State must initiate investigation and prosecution ‘when the alleged offender is present in its territory and it does not extradite him or her to another State Party on the ground that the offence has been committed by one of its nationals’.²²⁴

States must deem all offences relating the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography as extraditable offences. States must treat them, ‘for the purpose of extradition between States Parties, as if they had been committed not only in the place in which they occurred’, but also in the territories of the States required to investigate and prosecute them. If an extradition request is made with respect to such offences, and if the requested State does not or will not extradite on the basis of the nationality of the offender, that State must prosecute the perpetrator.²²⁵

III.18 States must establish a child-friendly justice system for child perpetrators🔗

Under article 40, States must treat every alleged child perpetrator in a manner consistent with their dignity and worth.

States should treat children that have been recruited by terrorist or violent extremist groups as victims If a State decides to charge such children, it should apply the child justice system²²⁶ (i.e., a system that applies to children above the minimum age of criminal responsibility but below the age of 18 years at the time of the commission of the offence).²²⁷

States should respect UN standards in the field of juvenile justice, including the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (the Beijing Rules), the UN Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (the Riyadh Guidelines), the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of Their Liberty and the Vienna Guidelines for Action on Children in the Criminal Justice System, the Committee’s 1995 discussion day on the administration of juvenile justice²²⁸ and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules).²²⁹

As a rule, States should focus on the rehabilitation and reintegration of child perpetrators. States should address social factors and root causes²³⁰ and undertake research to develop prevention strategies,²³¹ ‘including when implementing Security Council resolutions related to counter-terrorism’. In doing so, States should consult the United Nations Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Children in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.²³²

States should choose diversion as ‘the preferred manner of dealing with children in the majority of cases’, even serious offences, where appropriate.²³³ Under article 40(4), diversion includes ‘care, guidance and supervision orders; counselling; probation; foster care; education and vocational training programmes and other alternatives to institutional care’. States may also develop community-based programmes, such as community service, ‘family conferencing and other restorative justice options, including reparation to victims’.²³⁴

Under article 40(3)(a), States must not hold any child below the minimum age of criminal responsibility at the time of the commission of an offence responsible in criminal law proceedings.²³⁵ While ‘the most common minimum age of criminal responsibility internationally is 14’, States should favour a higher minimum age, for instance 15 or 16.²³⁶

If a child is charged in criminal proceedings, States must ensure that they have the following safeguards:²³⁷

States must promptly and directly inform children of the charges against them, and provide them with legal or other appropriate assistance in the preparation and presentation of their defence;
States must have the matter determined without delay by a competent, independent and impartial authority in a fair hearing, in the presence of legal or other appropriate assistance and, if appropriate, the children’s parents or legal guardians;
States must not compel children to give testimony or to confess guilt;
States must allow children to examine adverse witnesses and to obtain the participation and examination of witnesses on their behalf;
States must allow children to appeal adverse decisions.

The Committee has also recommended that States should:

Not apply the death penalty and life imprisonment for crimes committed by persons under 18;²³⁸
Conduct all hearings involving children in conflict with the law behind closed doors;²³⁹
Deal with children in specialised child justice systems, and refrain from resorting to military tribunals and State security courts;²⁴⁰
Ensure that children with disabilities are not in the child justice system.²⁴¹

III.19 States should provide child victims/survivors of CRSV with access to justice🔗

Humanitarian Response🔗

III.20 States must provide child victims/survivors of CRSV with appropriate care🔗

Under article 39, States must take all appropriate measures to promote the physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of child victims/survivors. Recovery and reintegration must take place in an environment ‘which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child’. In conflict, States should defend health-care facilities from attacks.²⁵¹

Under article 24, States recognise the right of the child ‘to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health’. States should provide children with access to confidential medical counselling and advice without parental consent, irrespective of the child’s age, where this is needed for the child’s safety or well-being.²⁵²

States should provide services ‘to the maximum extent possible to all children living within their borders, without discrimination’.²⁵³ States should not require migrant children to present a residence permit or asylum registration. States should remove administrative and financial barriers to accessing services, ‘including through the acceptance of alternative means of proving identity and residence, such as testimonial evidence’. States should ‘prohibit the sharing of patients’ data between health institutions and immigration authorities’.²⁵⁴

Adolescents. States should provide adolescent-sensitive health services,²⁵⁵ paying attention to:²⁵⁶

Availability. Primary health care should include services sensitive to the needs of adolescents, with special attention given to sexual and reproductive health and mental health;
Accessibility. Health facilities, goods and services should be known and easily accessible (economically, physically and socially) to all adolescents. States should remove all barriers to commodities, information and counselling on sexual and reproductive health and rights, such as requirements for third-party consent.²⁵⁷ States should make information available in alternative formats to ensure accessibility, especially for adolescents with disabilities;²⁵⁸
Quality. States should ensure that health services are staffed by personnel trained to care for adolescents.²⁵⁹

In the provision of health services, States should:

Obtain the voluntary and informed consent of the adolescent whether or not the consent of a parent or guardian is required;²⁶⁰
Provide access to sexual and reproductive health services;²⁶¹
Allow adolescent mothers to continue their education;²⁶²
Decriminalise abortion and ensure the best interests of pregnant adolescents in abortion-related decisions;²⁶³
Periodically review adolescents’ placement in hospitals or psychiatric institutions.²⁶⁴

HIV/AIDS. While the issue of children and HIV/AIDS is perceived as mainly a medical or health problem, it involves a much wider range of issues.²⁶⁵ States should:

Widely disseminate information on HIV/AIDS prevention and care adapted to children’s age, level and capacity.²⁶⁶ States should conduct information campaigns, ‘combined with the counselling of children and mechanisms for the prevention and early detection of violence and abuse’, within conflict- and disaster-affected regions;²⁶⁷
Abolish mandatory HIV/AIDS testing of children.²⁶⁸ States should ensure that a child’s HIV status is not disclosed to third parties, including parents, without the child’s consent;²⁶⁹
Provide children with comprehensive treatment and care, including anti-retroviral and other drugs, diagnostics and related technologies for the care of HIV/AIDS. States should negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry ‘to make the necessary medicines locally available at the lowest costs possible’.²⁷⁰

Birth registration. The lack of birth registration may have many negative impacts on the enjoyment of children’s rights, such as child marriage, trafficking, forced recruitment and child labour. States should ensure that all children are immediately registered at birth and issued birth certificates, irrespective of their migration status or that of their parents’, and:²⁷¹

Facilitate late registration of birth and avoid financial penalties for late registration;²⁷²
Remove legal and practical obstacles to birth registration, ‘including by prohibiting data sharing between health providers or civil servants responsible for registration with immigration enforcement authorities; and not requiring parents to produce documentation regarding their migration status’. States should avoid prosecution where falsification has been committed, and issue corrected documents;²⁷³
Review legislation that does not allow women to transfer their nationality to their children.²⁷⁴

Children born of rape. States should provide young women and girls used as soldiers and their children with effective reintegration assistance that meets their complex medical, economic and psychological needs. Measures should not increase the stigma and exclusion faced by former girl soldiers.²⁷⁵

States should establish child-sensitive individualised plans to provide children born of rape with ‘equal access to vocational training, life skills and socioeconomic support, sports and leisure activities, religion and cultural activities’. Programmes ‘should include psychosocial support and counselling, including to families’.²⁷⁶

States should provide access to safe and secure housing, and establish emergency and longer-term alternative care placements for children unable to remain with their mothers or communities.²⁷⁷

States should support ‘income-generating skills training, livelihood opportunities, access to decent work to promote financial independence from their families and communities’ for mothers affected by sexual violence and children born of rape ‘as they transition to adulthood’.²⁷⁸

Reparations🔗

III.21 States should provide child victims/survivors of CRSV with effective remedies and reparations🔗

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Footnotes

Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, 'Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Committee on the Rights of the Child Join Together to Protect and Promote the Rights of Children Impacted by Conflict-Related Sexual Violence' (14 February 2020) <www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/press-release/office-of-the-special-representative-of-the-secretary-general-on-sexual-violence-in-conflict-and-committee-on-the-rights-of-the-child-join-together-to-protect-and-promote-the-rights-of-children-impact\> accessed 12 May 2023.
Editorial, 'Convention on the Rights of the Child: Introductory Note' (UN Audiovisual Library of International Law) <https://legal.un.org/avl/ha/crc/crc.html\> accessed 2 March 2023.
Established under CRC, art 43.
CRC, art 5.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 18.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 5.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 footnote 9.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 31.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 25.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 25.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 12, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography. Concluding Observations: Sierra Leone' (14 October 2010) UN Doc CRC/C/OPSC/SLE/CO/1 paras 33-34.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 25; OPSC, art 2, according to which sale of children 'means any act or transaction whereby a child is transferred by any person or group of persons to another for remuneration or any other consideration', child prostitution 'means the use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of consideration', and child pornography 'means any representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes'. In its Guidelines regarding the Implementation of the OPSC, the Committee has recognised that 'some of the terms used in international and regional instruments on the rights of the child, such as "child pornography" or "child prostitution", are gradually being replaced'. These terms can be misleading and insinuate 'that a child could consent to such practices, undermining the gravity of the crimes or switching the blame onto the child'. In light of this, the Committee has encouraged States Parties and other relevant stakeholders to pay attention to the Terminology Guidelines for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse 'for guidance regarding the terminology to be used in the development of legislation and policies addressing the prevention of and protection from the sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children'. The Committee has suggested that States replace 'child prostitution' with 'sexual exploitation of children in prostitution', and 'child prostitute' or 'child sex worker' with 'children who are prostituted' or 'children exploited in prostitution'.
CRC Committee, 'Guidelines regarding the Implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography' (10 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/156 para 15.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Fifth Periodic Report of the Syrian Arab Republic' (6 March 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/SYR/CO/5 para 4.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 49.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Fifth Periodic Report of the Syrian Arab Republic' (6 March 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/SYR/CO/5 para 4.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 62.
In doing so, States should take note of targets 5.2 (on eliminating all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres) and 16.2 (on ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children) of the Sustainable Development Goals, see CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of Ecuador' (26 October 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/ECU/CO/5-6 paras 25 and 27.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 37.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 73.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 41(e).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 35.
CRC, art 19(1); CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 33.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 34.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 1.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 15.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 21.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 4 (2003) Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child' (1 July 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/4 para 20.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fourth and Fifth Periodic Reports of Colombia' (6 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/COL/CO/4-5 para 32(a).
CRC, art 51(2).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 13.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 39.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 39; OPSC, art 3(1).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 12.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 12.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Morocco under Article 8, Paragraph 1 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (13 November 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/MAR/CO/1 para 24.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 26; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 2; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 17 (2013) on the Right of the Child to Rest, Leisure, Play, Recreational Activities, Cultural Life and the Arts (art. 31)' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/17 para 57(b); CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 21 (2017) on Children in Street Situations' (21 June 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/21 para 15.
CRC, art 2; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 44.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 25 (2021) on Children's Rights in relation to the Digital Environment' (2 March 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/25.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Second Periodic Report of the Central African Republic' (8 March 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/CAF/CO/2 para 21.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 8.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 3.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 44.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 paras 27-29.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 38.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 43.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 45.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 64.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 50.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 52.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 25 (2021) on Children's Rights in relation to the Digital Environment' (2 March 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/25 para 48.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 51.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 42.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 58.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 60.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 25 (2021) on Children's Rights in relation to the Digital Environment' (2 March 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/25 para 80.
CRC Committee, 'Guidelines regarding the Implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography' (10 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/156 paras 37 and 57.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 paras 40-41.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 paras 40-41.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 12.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 32(b).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 12.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 31.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 31.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 14 (2013) on the Right of the Child to Have His or Her Best Interests Taken as a Primary Consideration (art. 3, para. 1)' (29 May 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/14 para 48.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 14 (2013) on the Right of the Child to Have His or Her Best Interests Taken as a Primary Consideration (art. 3, para. 1)' (29 May 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/14 pp 13-17.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 14 (2013) on the Right of the Child to Have His or Her Best Interests Taken as a Primary Consideration (art. 3, para. 1)' (29 May 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/14 pp 18-20.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 14 (2013) on the Right of the Child to Have His or Her Best Interests Taken as a Primary Consideration (art. 3, para. 1)' (29 May 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/14 pp 18-20.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 19.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 paras 20-21.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 22.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 26.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 paras 28-30.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 paras 32 and 34.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 paras 35-37.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 12.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 paras 29-30.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 79.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of Ukraine' (27 October 2022) UN Doc CRC/C/UKR/CO/5-6 para 10(a).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 80.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 119.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 12.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 11 (2009) Indigenous Children and Their Rights under the Convention' (12 February 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/11 para 29.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 23.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Harmful Practices' (14 November 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/18 para 6.
CEDAW and CRC Committees, 'Ensuring Prevention, Protection and Assistance for Children Born of Conflict Related Rape and Their Mothers: Joint Statement by CEDAW and CRC' (19 November 2021) pp 3-6.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 9.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State Obligations regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/23 para 40.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State Obligations regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/23 para 13.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State Obligations regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/23 para 43.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 para 66.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Second to Fourth Periodic Reports of Iraq' (3 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/IRQ/CO/2-4 paras 75(a) and (e).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 para 69.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 paras 70-72.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 paras 74-75.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 124.
Communication No. 76/2019 R.Y.S. v Spain, Views Adopted by the CRC Committee under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (17 August 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/86/D/76/2019 para 8.3.
CRC, arts 3 and 12.
Communication No. 76/2019 R.Y.S. v Spain, Views Adopted by the CRC Committee under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (17 August 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/86/D/76/2019 paras 8.9-9.
Communication No. 76/2019 R.Y.S. v Spain, Views Adopted by the CRC Committee under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (17 August 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/86/D/76/2019 paras 8.3-8.4 and 8.8.
Communication No. 76/2019 R.Y.S. v Spain, Views Adopted by the CRC Committee under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (17 August 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/86/D/76/2019 paras 8.3-8.8 and 9.
See CRC, arts 6 and 37.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 para 74.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 32(g).
CRC, art 3; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 33.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 32(k).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 para 53.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 para 28.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 85.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 85.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 88.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 89.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 85.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 21 (2017) on Children in Street Situations' (21 June 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/21 para 44.
CRC, art 37(c).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 paras 92-93.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 94.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 95.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 90.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 paras 87 and 90.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 para 61.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 para 62.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 32(f).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State Obligations regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/23 para 11.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State Obligations regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/23 paras 7 and 9.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State Obligations regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/23 para 12.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 82.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Yemen under Article 8, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (26 February 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/YEM/CO/1 para 27.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 25 (2021) on Children's Rights in relation to the Digital Environment' (2 March 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/25 para 83.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of the Convention. Concluding Observations: Myanmar' (14 March 2012) UN Doc CRC/C/MMR/CO/3-4 para 82.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Yemen under Article 8, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (26 February 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/YEM/CO/1 para 19.
OPAC, art 1.
OPAC, art 2; CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Peru under Article 8(1) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (7 March 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/PER/CO/1 para 20.
OPAC, art 3.
OPAC, art 4; CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Peru under Article 8(1) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (7 March 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/PER/CO/1 para 18.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Sudan' (8 October 2010) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/SDN/CO/1 para 24(c).
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Democratic Republic of Congo' (7 March 2012) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/COD/CO/1 para 15.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Democratic Republic of Congo' (7 March 2012) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/COD/CO/1 para 31.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Democratic Republic of Congo' (7 March 2012) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/COD/CO/1 para 33.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Sudan' (8 October 2010) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/SDN/CO/1 paras 28(a)-(b).
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Peru under Article 8(1) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (7 March 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/PER/CO/1 para 16.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Peru under Article 8(1) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (7 March 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/PER/CO/1 para 16.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Colombia' (21 June 2010) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/COL/CO/1 para 40.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Colombia' (21 June 2010) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/COL/CO/1 para 40.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Colombia' (21 June 2010) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/COL/CO/1 para 50.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Iraq under Article 12, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography' (5 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/OPSC/IRQ/CO/1 para 35.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 53; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 17 (2013) on the Right of the Child to Rest, Leisure, Play, Recreational Activities, Cultural Life and the Arts (art. 31)' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/17 para 60.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Harmful Practices' (14 November 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/18 para 88; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 53.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 82.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Harmful Practices' (14 November 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/18 para 88; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 53.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 70.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 4 (2003) Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child' (1 July 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/4 para 24.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 72(b).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 30.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 23.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 4 (2003) Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child' (1 July 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/4 para 28.
See CRC, arts 7, 17 and 24; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 4 (2003) Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child' (1 July 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/4 paras 26 and 28.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Democratic Republic of Congo' (7 March 2012) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/COD/CO/1 para 29.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 53; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Harmful Practices' (14 November 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/18 para 73(b) and 49.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 53.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of Ukraine' (27 October 2022) UN Doc CRC/C/UKR/CO/5-6 para 17.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 48.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Harmful Practices' (14 November 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/18 para 73(b); CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fourth and Fifth Periodic Reports of Colombia' (6 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/COL/CO/4-5 para 30(c).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 2 (2002): The Role of Independent National Human Rights Institutions in the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child' (15 November 2002) UN Doc CRC/GC/2002/2 para 1.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 2 (2002): The Role of Independent National Human Rights Institutions in the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child' (15 November 2002) UN Doc CRC/GC/2002/2 paras 8-10.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Fourth Periodic Report of Yemen' (25 February 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/YEM/CO/4 para 20.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 2 (2002): The Role of Independent National Human Rights Institutions in the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child' (15 November 2002) UN Doc CRC/GC/2002/2.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 41.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 paras 56 and 58.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 3 (2003): HIV/AIDS and the Rights of the Child' (17 March 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/3 para 42.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Second to Fourth Periodic Reports of Iraq' (3 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/IRQ/CO/2-4 paras 15-16.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 120.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 121.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 76.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 9 (2006): The Rights of Children with Disabilities' (27 February 2007) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/9 para 22.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 para 43; see also CRC, art 22(2).
CEDAW and CRC Committees, 'Ensuring Prevention, Protection and Assistance for Children Born of Conflict Related Rape and Their Mothers: Joint Statement by CEDAW and CRC' (19 November 2021) p 3.
OPAC, art 7(1).
OPSC, art 6(1).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 55(e); CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 41.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Second Periodic Report of the Holy See' (25 February 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/VAT/CO/2 para 62.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Second to Fourth Periodic Reports of Iraq' (3 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/IRQ/CO/2-4 para 14.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Iraq under Article 8, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (5 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/IRQ/CO/1 para 38(e).
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Second to Fourth Periodic Reports of Iraq' (3 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/IRQ/CO/2-4 para 32(e).
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Second Report of the United States of America Submitted under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (26 June 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/USA/CO/2 para 30.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Democratic Republic of Congo' (7 March 2012) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/COD/CO/1 para 37.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Algeria under Article 8(1) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (22 June 2018) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/DZA/CO/1 para 39(b).
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of the Convention. Concluding Observations: Myanmar' (14 March 2012) UN Doc CRC/C/MMR/CO/3-4 para 84.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of the Convention. Concluding Observations: Cook Islands' (22 February 2012) UN Doc CRC/C/COK/CO/1 para 42.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Concluding Observations: Colombia' (21 June 2010) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/COL/CO/1 para 36.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of Norway' (4 July 2018) UN Doc CRC/C/NOR/CO/5-6 para 18(g).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 47(d)(i).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 48.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 paras 16-17.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Harmful Practices' (14 November 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/18 para 39(b).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 48.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/22 para 16.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 25 (2021) on Children's Rights in relation to the Digital Environment' (2 March 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/25 para 30.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Harmful Practices' (14 November 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/18 para 39(a).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 5 (2003): General Measures of Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)' (27 November 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/5 para 72.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fourth and Fifth Periodic Reports of Colombia' (6 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/COL/CO/4-5 paras 28(h) and 30(c).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 paras 49-50.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Second Periodic Report of Côte d'Ivoire' (12 July 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/CIV/CO/2 para 32(b).
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of Ukraine' (27 October 2022) UN Doc CRC/C/UKR/CO/5-6 para 23(c).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 51.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of Ukraine' (27 October 2022) UN Doc CRC/C/UKR/CO/5-6 para 23(f).
OPSC, art 8(2).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 54.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 56.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 paras 102 and 104.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 13 (2011): The Right of the Child to Freedom from All Forms of Violence' (18 April 2011) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/13 para 54.
OPSC, art 8; CRC Committee, 'Guidelines regarding the Implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography' (10 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/156 para 76.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 62.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Second Periodic Report of the Central African Republic' (8 March 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/CAF/CO/2 para 41(b).
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Fifth Periodic Report of Denmark' (26 October 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/DNK/CO/5 para 21(a).
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of the Philippines' (26 October 2022) UN Doc CRC/C/PHL/CO/5-6 para 23(f).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 para 63; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 61(c); CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Third to Fifth Periodic Reports of the Democratic Republic of the Congo' (28 February 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/COD/CO/3-5 para 26(e).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 64.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 70.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 68.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 71.
See OPSC, art 3(1): the offering, delivering or accepting, by whatever means, a child for their sexual exploitation, 'offering, obtaining, procuring or providing a child for child prostitution' and 'producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling or possessing ... child pornography'.
OPSC, art 4(2).
OPSC, art 4(3).
OPSC, art 5.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 25 (2021) on Children's Rights in relation to the Digital Environment' (2 March 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/25 para 83.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 29.
CRC Committee, 'Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 44 of the Convention. Concluding observations: Pakistan' (27 October 2003) UN Doc CRC/C/15/Add.217 para 81.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Third to Fifth Periodic Reports of the Democratic Republic of the Congo' (28 February 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/COD/CO/3-5 para 23.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 88.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 9.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 101.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 16; CRC Committee, 'Guidelines regarding the Implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography' (10 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/156 para 71.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 17.
See also CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Fourth Periodic Report of Yemen' (25 February 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/YEM/CO/4 para 34(c).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 paras 21-22.
CRC, art 40(2).
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Report Submitted by Iraq under Article 8, Paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict' (5 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/OPAC/IRQ/CO/1 para 34(a).
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 61.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 96.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 28.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Second Periodic Report of the Holy See' (25 February 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/VAT/CO/2 para 61(e).
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Second to Fourth Periodic Reports of Iraq' (3 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/IRQ/CO/2-4 para 13.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Harmful Practices' (14 November 2014) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/18 para 55(c).
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Second to Fourth Periodic Reports of Iraq' (3 March 2015) UN Doc CRC/C/IRQ/CO/2-4 para 27.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 21 (2017) on Children in Street Situations' (21 June 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/21 para 14.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 12.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children's Rights in the Child Justice System' (18 September 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/24 para 12; see also CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 25 (2021) on Children's Rights in relation to the Digital Environment' (2 March 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/25 para 118.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 4 (2003) Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child' (1 July 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/4 para 12.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 21 (2017) on Children in Street Situations' (21 June 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/21 para 26.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of Ukraine' (27 October 2022) UN Doc CRC/C/UKR/CO/5-6 para 30.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 12 (2009): The Right of the Child to Be Heard' (20 July 2009) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/12 para 101.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside Their Country of Origin' (1 September 2005) UN Doc CRC/GC/2005/6 para 21.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State Obligations regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/23 para 56.
See CRC, arts 24 and 39.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 4 (2003) Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child' (1 July 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/4 para 41.
See CRC, arts 13 and 17; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 60.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 61.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 4 (2003) Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child' (1 July 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/4 para 42.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 39.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 4 (2003) Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child' (1 July 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/4 para 31.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 4 (2003) Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child' (1 July 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/4 para 31.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 60.
CRC, art 25; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 4 (2003) Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child' (1 July 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/4 para 29.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 3 (2003): HIV/AIDS and the Rights of the Child' (17 March 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/3 para 5.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 3 (2003): HIV/AIDS and the Rights of the Child' (17 March 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/3 para 16.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 3 (2003): HIV/AIDS and the Rights of the Child' (17 March 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/3 para 38.
CRC, art 16.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 3 (2003): HIV/AIDS and the Rights of the Child' (17 March 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/3 paras 23-24.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 3 (2003): HIV/AIDS and the Rights of the Child' (17 March 2003) UN Doc CRC/GC/2003/3 para 28.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State Obligations regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/23 paras 20-21.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 20 (2016) on the Implementation of the Rights of the Child during Adolescence' (6 December 2016) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/20 para 41; CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 9 (2006): The Rights of Children with Disabilities' (27 February 2007) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/9 para 36.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on State Obligations regarding the Human Rights of Children in the Context of International Migration in Countries of Origin, Transit, Destination and Return' (16 November 2017) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/23 paras 21-22.
CRC Committee, 'Concluding Observations on the Fifth Periodic Report of the Syrian Arab Republic' (6 March 2019) UN Doc CRC/C/SYR/CO/5 paras 23(c) and 24(c).
CEDAW and CRC Committees, 'Ensuring Prevention, Protection and Assistance for Children Born of Conflict Related Rape and Their Mothers: Joint Statement by CEDAW and CRC' (19 November 2021) p 5.
CEDAW and CRC Committees, 'Ensuring Prevention, Protection and Assistance for Children Born of Conflict Related Rape and Their Mothers: Joint Statement by CEDAW and CRC' (19 November 2021) p 5.
CEDAW and CRC Committees, 'Ensuring Prevention, Protection and Assistance for Children Born of Conflict Related Rape and Their Mothers: Joint Statement by CEDAW and CRC' (19 November 2021) p 5.
CEDAW and CRC Committees, 'Ensuring Prevention, Protection and Assistance for Children Born of Conflict Related Rape and Their Mothers: Joint Statement by CEDAW and CRC' (19 November 2021) p 5.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 para 30.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 16 (2013) on State Obligations regarding the Impact of the Business Sector on Children's Rights' (17 April 2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/16 paras 30-31.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 25 (2021) on Children's Rights in relation to the Digital Environment' (2 March 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/25 para 46.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 25 (2021) on Children's Rights in relation to the Digital Environment' (2 March 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/25 para 46.
CRC Committee, 'General Comment No. 25 (2021) on Children's Rights in relation to the Digital Environment' (2 March 2021) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/25 para 46.