WHY
Contents- Introduction
- Ensuring compliance with article 4 CRC through legal incorporation
- General benefits of the legal incorporation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Promotion of justiciability of rights and effective remedies
- Making children’s rights visible at the national level
- Revisiting reservations and declarations and promoting additional ratifications
- Why should States undertake children’s rights legislative reform?
General benefits of the legal incorporation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Legal incorporation of the CRC through legislative reform can bring a number of general benefits. In States Parties where the CRC has been incorporated into domestic legislation (Kilkelly 2019):
- Children are more commonly perceived as rights-holders. This leads to broader respect for children’s rights, in legislation and its application and interpretation.
- The CRC becomes an influential tool for legislators and policymakers, advocates, and those working with children.
- The CRC and its key principles are more likely to be used in domestic litigation and to be cited in domestic legal cases concerning children’s rights matters.
- This can also lead to greater engagement with the recommendations of the CRC Committee (e.g. COBs and General Comments) and soft legal instruments related to the CRC (e.g. UN resolutions and regional guidelines and recommendations.
See also
E.g.: In Norway, the Supreme Court has held different viewpoints regarding the role of the CRC Committee’s GCs. However, GCs play a major role when the Supreme Court is interpreting the CRC (see Norwegian Supreme Court, Rt 2009 p.1261; Harald Søvig 2019).
- It is likely that there will be a greater degree of implementation of the CRC in its entirety (Lundy et al. 2013).
- It is likely that it will lead to more clarity about the legal meaning of the CRC in the domestic legal system (see CRC GC 5, para. 19 and 20), which contributes to legal certainty and equality.
- It is likely that there is domestic ownership concerning the protection and promotion of children’s rights.