Coordination and management of children’s rights legislative reform process

Contents

Identifying the coordinator

Ideally, the legislative reform process should be led by a State authority. However, sometimes it can be led by a non-state entity or in combination.

E.g.: In Jamaica, the legislative reform process was led primarily by the non‐governmental Jamaica Coalition on the Rights of the Child, a coalition made up of several NGOs established to encourage the ratification of the CRC, although legislators and government ministries played important roles in the later stages. With the support of UNICEF, the Coalition hired a legal drafter to conduct a review of legislation and recommended the enactment of a comprehensive act on child care and protection (UNICEF 2004).

The process can be led by different entities (governmental or otherwise) at different stages, in which case several coordinators or coordinating bodies will be taking responsibility at different points in time.

It should be clear, however, who is coordinating and managing the process overall and who bears the ultimate responsibility.

All coordinators or members of the coordinating bodies should have knowledge and expertise in legislative reform and children’s rights.

Benefits of one coordinator throughout the process

Having a single coordinator maintain responsibility throughout can make for more effective management of the process, especially if that actor is highly motivated to achieve the objective of the reform.
Changing responsibility at any stage of the legislative reform process may cause delays.

E.g.: In Ghana, the Child Law Reform Advisory Committee was established in 1996 to make recommendations for legislation intended to affect the implementation of the provisions of the CRC. This was a mixed body with institutional representation from the government (the Ministry of Justice, the Ghana Education Service and the Department of Social Welfare), the legal system (the judiciary, legal practitioners and the Ghana Police Service), civil society (the 31st December Women’s Movement, the Commission on Human Rights and Administration of Justice) and children (National Youth Council). This group reviewed national legislation in light of the CRC and CEDAW and made proposals for several laws that they expected would effectively translate the obligations of the CRC into Ghanaian law in practice.

In certain countries, there are permanent legal commissions tasked with the regular review of all legislation, making recommendations for reform as needed. Alternatively, in some jurisdictions this responsibility is assigned to a dedicated Law Reform Commission. Examples of such commissions include those in Kenya, Lesotho and South Africa, which have conducted comprehensive reviews of legislation.
- To conduct a targeted review of legislation pertaining to children's rights, a general commission could collaborate with specialists knowledgeable about issues concerning children. This collaboration would enhance the commission's expertise in addressing matters specific to children's rights.

Benefits of multiple coordinators at different stages

There may also be benefits to passing responsibility between different coordinators or coordinating bodies to help achieve different goals at different stages in the process. This approach of multiple coordinators, allows those with different areas of expertise to lead at relevant times in the process.

For example, at different stages of the legislative reform process, it may be beneficial if the various strengths and expertise of different entities can be brought together at the appropriate times. In other words, with multiple coordinators those with particular expertise can be given different components to coordinate.

E.g.: In Nicaragua, the drafting of the Children’s Legal Code was coordinated by the National Commission for the Promotion and Defence of Children’s Rights, a mixed structure that involved various ministries, government agencies dealing with children, church representatives and the NGO Coalition for the Rights of Children (UNICEF 2008).

The process of public consultation could be led by a government agency or special task force, or by a mixed government/non-governmental committee or coalition. The process could also be led by a non-governmental organisation. See also: Ensuring a participatory and inclusive process – consultations

Raising public and political awareness on the importance of children's rights and the need to adapt legislation to support those rights could be coordinated by NGOs and other CSOs, such as religious organisations, and the media may coordinate action to raise public and political awareness.
Coordinated action between different entities may also help foster the political will to improve the way governments (at all levels) fulfil their responsibilities to children and their families in accordance with the CRC, and to engage in legislative reform as needed. The effectiveness of legislative reform depends to a great extent on the political will and the resources behind it.

Despite these benefits the following factors need to be taken into account:

The involvement of multiple coordinators requires that there is one overarching coordinator, who leads the overall reform process.
To provide the objective analysis needed to validate legislative reforms, the responsibility for monitoring should be vested in an authority which is independent from political activity and identified specifically as an advocate for children’s rights.
- Such a monitoring body could be an ICRI and NHRI.

Coordination for the effective implementation of children’s rights

The following points regarding the coordination of roles and responsibilities of different governmental entities for an effective implementation of children’s rights can be useful for the coordination of legislative reform.

According to the CRC Committee, effective implementation of children’s rights requires coordination, bearing in mind that the actions of virtually all government departments impact on children’s lives:
- among central government departments;
- among different provinces and regions;
- between central and other levels of government; and
- between Government and civil society.(CRC GC 5, para. 37)
Each State Party will have to determine the most efficient formal or informal arrangements for coordination, including for example inter-ministerial and interdepartmental committees for children (CRC GC 5, para. 38).
The CRC Committee also emphasises that it is not practical to bring responsibility for all services related to children together into a single department, and that doing so could have the danger of further marginalising children in the institution.
- It suggests that a special unit, if given high-level authority ‑ for example reporting directly to the Prime Minister, the President or a Cabinet Committee on children ‑ can contribute both to the overall goal of making children more visible in government and to coordination efforts to ensure respect for child rights across the government and at all levels of government (CRC GC 5, para. 39).
- Such a unit can be given responsibility for developing the comprehensive children’s strategy and monitoring its implementation, as well as for coordinating reporting under the CRC.

E.g.: The Integral System for the Protection of Girls, Boys and Adolescents in Mexico was established in 2014 as the institutional basis for the comprehensive protection of children’s rights in Mexico, bringing together different departments and agencies. Between 2015-2020, it performed numerous non-legal actions to advance the effective implementation of the CRC, such as:

Establishing a formal mechanism to follow-up on the CRC concluding observations to Mexico;
Promoting compliance with and supporting the implementation of SDGs in the State;
Designing and monitoring the national, local and municipal programmes for the protection of children;
Improving state and municipal systems of information on children and adolescents;
Designing a system for monitoring compliance with children’s rights in early childhood;
Promoting and supporting the design and implementation of State and municipal integral systems for the protection of children’s rights.

Espejo-Yaksic (2021).