children’s rights legislative reform

Beyond human rights: International Conventions Applicable to Children - Childrens Rights Reform

Wider Framework for Children’s Rights

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Beyond human rights: International Conventions Applicable to Children

Where only the CRC represents a children’s rights-based approach for children, it is important to recognise other international legal instruments that impact on and can contribute to the understanding of a children’s rights-based approach in certain specific contexts. This is even more important when there are linkages made between the instruments (e.g. in jurisprudence). The following instruments are relevant in this regard.

Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO Conventions)

Some of the ILO Conventions address issues dealing with child labour. Below are the three main Conventions in relation to children:

The Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations examines the reports submitted by governments in relation to the implementation of the conventions that they ratified.

  • The Committee is composed of 20 eminent jurists appointed by the Governing Body for three-year terms.
  • The role of the Committee of Experts is to provide an impartial and technical evaluation of the application of international labour standards in ILO Member States. It is also empowered to undertake investigations and make recommendations.
  • A complaint procedure is laid down in articles 26–34 of the ILO Constitution.
  • Any Member State may file a complaint against a Member State which has ratified a particular ILO Convention.

Conventions of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH Conventions)

HCCH Conventions protect children in cross-border situations and deal with topics as diverse as international child abduction, intercountry adoption, legalisation of documents, obtaining evidence abroad, trusts, securities held with an intermediary, parental responsibility and measures for the protection of children, international recovery of child support and other forms of family maintenance, among others.

Below are the main conventions of relevance to children of the HCCH – known as the Children’s Conventions. They provide the practical machinery to enable States to work together where they have a shared responsibility to protect children.

For more information, see The HCCH Children’s Conventions

Under OPIC, the CRC Committee has issued views on cross-border family disputes that have linkages to some of the Hague Conventions. These include:

  • N.E.R.Á. on behalf of J.M. V Chile: The CRC Committee considered a communication arguing that Chile had violated children’s rights under articles 3, 9, 11 and 23 by ordering the return of children to Spain under the 1980 Child Abduction Convention. In this decision, the CRC Committee considered the interplay between the best interests of the child principle under article 3(1) of the CRC and the application of the 1980 Child Abduction Convention by States Parties (CRC Committee 2022; for more information see Pedreno and Basi 2022).
  • S.F on behalf of W.W. and S.W. V Ireland: The CRC Committee considered a communication arguing that Ireland had violated the children’s rights under articles, 3, 9, 12, 16 and 27 of the CRC by ordering the child’s return to Canada under the 1980 Child Abduction Convention. Though the CRC Committee found that the communication was inadmissible for failure of exhausting domestic remedies, it again elaborated on the relationship between the Child Abduction Convention, the CRC, and OPIC (CRC Committee 2022; for more information see Paul 2023).

Refugee Convention

The 1951 Convention provides the internationally recognised definition of a refugee and outlines the legal protection, rights and assistance a refugee is entitled to receive.

Adoption by the UN Conference on the Status of Stateless Persons: 1951; Entry into force: 1954

Status of ratification

The UNHCR serves as the ‘guardian’ of these documents and helps governments translate them into national laws to ensure refugees are protected and can exercise their rights.

The 1951 Refugee Convention was supplemented by Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (adoption 1967; entry into force 1967) which removes geographic and time-based limitations which were included in the 1961 Convention, expanding the Convention to apply universally and protect all persons fleeing conflict and persecution.

For more information see UNHCR website.

Statelessness Conventions

The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness are the key international conventions addressing statelessness.

  • 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons:
    • The 1954 Convention is designed to ensure that stateless people enjoy a minimum set of human rights.
    • Adoption by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries: 1954; Entry into force: 1960.
    • Status of ratification
    • The Convention establishes the legal definition of a stateless person, minimum standards of treatment for stateless people in respect to a number of rights, and guarantees stateless people a right to identity, travel documents and administrative assistance.
  • 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness
    • The 1961 Convention aims to prevent statelessness and reduce it over time.
    • Adoption by the United Nations Conference on the Elimination or Reduction of Future Statelessness: 1961; Entry into force: 1975.
    • Status of ratification
    • The Convention establishes an international framework to ensure the right of every person to a nationality.
    • A central focus of the Convention is the prevention of statelessness at birth by requiring States to grant citizenship to children born on their territory, or born to their nationals abroad, who would otherwise be stateless.
For more information see UNHCR website.