CONCEPT NOTE
The role of NHRIs in the promotion and protection of children’s rights: contributions to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda
Seminar organised by GANHRI in collaboration with UNICEF and in partnership with OHCHR in the framework of the GANHRI 2017 annual meeting.
Date and venue: Thursday, March 9 2017, Palais des Nations, Room XI, 9:00-13:00, Geneva. Interpretation and light refreshments will be provided.
I. Background:
As independent institutions established and operating in line with the Paris Principles[1], National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are mandated to promote and protect all human rights at the national level in line with international human rights norms and standards.
Whilst the Paris Principles set out the minimum requirements for NHRIs' mandates, functions and guarantees of independence, there are different models of institutions including Ombudspersons, Institutes, Commissions or others.
All NHRIs have the mandate to protect and promote all human rights, including children’s rights, and some have an explicit mandate for monitoring the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the domestic level.
The areas of work of NHRIs on children’s rights may include:
- monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the CRC and other international treaties;
- investigating human rights violations and handling complaints;
- providing legislative review and policy advice;
- raising awareness about children’s rights including through publications, recommendations or human rights education.[2]
With the adoption of the CRC, more attention was paid to the role NHRIs can play to support children’s rights, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child often recommends States parties to establish central independent mechanisms for comprehensive monitoring of the CRC in accordance with the Paris Principles and the Committee’s General Comment No. 2. [3]
In October 2015, at their 12th International Conference on “The Sustainable Development Goals: What Role for National Human Rights Institutions?”, NHRIs from all regions adopted the Merida Declaration, inter alia detailing the key role NHRIs can play with regard to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
In a seminar organised by UNICEF on “National Human Rights Institutions & Accountability for Children” in November 2016, NHRIs, Ombudspersons for children and UNICEF country offices also exchanged experiences on the different roles NHRIs and Ombudspersons for children can play in supporting the implementation of children’s rights, and their specific contribution to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for and with children. The seminar identified opportunities for further collaboration between NHRIs and UN bodies, and needs for capacity development on children’s rights.
This half-day seminar, organised in collaboration with UNICEF and in partnership with OHCHR will provide all NHRIs attending the GANHRI 2017 annual meeting in Geneva with the opportunity for exchange on their specific role in the promotion, protection and monitoring of children’s rights, and will help identify specific possibilities for cooperation. More specifically, the objective of this seminar is to provide a platform for NHRIs to deepen their exchange on experiences, good practices and lessons in promoting the implementation of children’s rights, and how this also contributes to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
II. Objectives:
1. To exchange good practices and experiences from different NHRIs on their work on children’s rights and their engagement with child-focused human rights mechanisms.
2. To identify (new) areas of work for NHRIs in the field of children’s rights in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
3. To identify possible fields of further cooperation with UNICEF and OHCHR at global, regional, and national levels, in order to strengthen the work of NHRIs in the field of children’s rights.
III. Expected outcomes:
1. Case studies and good practices are shared during the seminar and a report, documenting cases, will be produced later on in the follow-up to the event.
2. Initial elements for a needs analysis which can be further elaborated between GANHRI, UNICEF and OHCHR e.g. to design appropriate Capacity Development measures.
3. Further activities of GANHRI in the field of children’s rights are identified based on its members needs and interests as identified during the workshop (e.g. analysis on how NHRIs engage to protect and promote children’s rights)
4. As a follow-up up of the seminar the experiences of NHRIs shall be further assessed via a questionnaire distributed to all NHRIs and good practices in the promotion and protection of children’s rights shall be documented and shared.
IV. Topics:
Exchange on experiences in the implementation of children’s rights with regard to the following up-to-date topics in the field of children’s rights:
1. Leave no one behind – Children’s rights as a yardstick for realizing the SDGs: By adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs, the UN-member States have set a human rights-based framework for political action. The 2030 Agenda is also focused on the realization of children’s rights as many of the SDGs and targets are linked to the realization of rights that are guaranteed by the CRC. Supporting the implementation of children’s rights will also help achieve the SDG’s aim to leave no one behind, including the poorest and most vulnerable, most of which are children who often have little to no opportunity to participate in shaping the future of their community and country. Therefore, NHRIs have an important role in supporting a human rights-based implementation and monitoring of the SDGs, as stressed in the 2015 Merida Declaration.
2. Complaint mechanisms for children: Goal 16 calls on States to strengthen relevant national institutions, including through international cooperation to build capacity at all levels, in particular in developing countries, to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime. Among other institutions, NHRIs are specifically mentioned for their important role in violence prevention, through regular monitoring, reporting and protection measures. Likewise, based on its General Comment No. 2, the Committee on the Rights of the Child regularly mentions the role of an independent monitoring body (including a complaint mechanism) for children’s rights when discussion the States periodic reports. This function that can be either integrated into an NHRI mandate or be exercised by a separate institution. Experiences regarding complaint mechanisms accessible to children vary significantly and good practices are not yet collected systematically. Also, with the entery into force of the Third Optional Protocol on the CRC on a Communication Procedure (OP3 CRC) in 2014, NHRIs have an additional important role to play in bringing the OP3 to the national level in e.g. advising the State to fulfill its respective obligations and supporting children in their complaints about violations of their rights.
V. Format of the seminar:
The seminar will be structured in two (2) parts, each of approximately ninety (90) minutes with six (6) speakers:
1) The Thematic Forum I shall discuss the specific role of NHRIs in bringing the global sustainable development agenda to domestic implementation with a special focus on the rights of the child. The following questions shall be discussed:
- How can NHRIs advise governments and influence national action plans and processes to ensure a human rights-based monitoring of the implementation of the SDGs, and particularly those related to children?
- Which are the challenges NHRIs face in fulfilling their role?
- Which are the concrete possibilities for deeper cooperation on children’s rights among NHRIs and with external partners such as UNICEF, OHCHR and other UN agencies and civil society organisation?
2) In Thematic Forum II participants will exchange country examples on different modes of complaint mechanisms for children at national and international level. The following questions shall be discussed:
- How do NHRIs make themselves accessible to children as right-holders and complainants?
- How do they guarantee child friendliness and participation of children in the make-up of the complaint mechanism?
- How do NHRIs that are complaints bodies link their complaints work with their advisory and monitoring function? What role do/can NHRIs play to help establish or strengthen accessible free-standing complaints mechanisms? How can the work of accessible free-standing complaints mechanisms feed into the monitoring and advisory work of the NHRI?
- What role can NHRIs play in domestication of the Third Optional Protocol to the CRC on a communication procedure? How can they support children getting access to national remedies first? How can they support States in guaranteeing that children have adequate access to justice and remedies? Which is/will be the role of NHRIs when children are submitting a communication procedure to the CRC?
VI. Participants:
- NHRIs, from across all regions
- Representatives of regional NHRI networks
- UNICEF
- OHCHR
- UNDP
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Child Rights Connect
- Other Child Rights focused NGOs
VII. Draft agenda:
Time / Content8:30 – 9:00 / Registration
9.00– 9:20 / Welcome and opening
Opening Remarks by GANHRI
Opening Remarks by UNICEF
9.20 – 11.00 / Thematic forum I: Leave no one behind – Children’s rights as a yardstick for realizing the SDGs
Input by UNICEF on support of NHRIs in implementing SDGs and children’s rights, incl. reference to results/outcome of UNICEF-seminar in Nov 2016
2 country examples by NHRIs
Identification of needs of cooperation and Capacity Development
11:00 – 11:15 / COFFEE BREAK
11:15 – 12:45 / Thematic forum II: Complaint mechanisms for children
Conceptual introduction
Presentation of country examples by NHRIs
12:45 -
13:00 / Recap: Needs, opportunities and ways forward.
Closing remarks by the hosts.
[1] Principles related to the Status of National Institutions, adopted by GA resolution 48/134, 20 Dec. 1993 available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/StatusOfNationalInstitutions.aspx
[2] See German Institute for Human Rights, Bölscher, Viola (2013): NHRIs: How do they engage to protect and promote children’s rights?, in German (http://www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de/fileadmin/_migrated/tx_commerce/Nationale_Menschenrechtsinstitutionen_als_Akteure_fuer_Schutz_und_Foerderung_der_Kinderrechte_2_Auflage.pdf) and see Sedletzki, Vanessa (2012): Championing children’s rights: A global study of independent human right institutions for children. Florenz: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/championing2_eng.pdf).
[3] See CRC/GC/2002/2 (http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2fGC%2f2002%2f2&Lang=en) and the summary of GC No. 2 published by the GIHR: http://www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Publikationen/ABC_Kinderrechte/abc_of_childrens_rights_nhri_for_national_hr_institutions.pdf.)