Putting Children’s Rights on Equal Footing with Human Rights
Child Rights Connect was instrumental in the creation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (OPIC) and in the ratification campaign that led to its entry into force in April 2014. Through this new treaty, the international community has put children’s rights on an equal footing with other human rights and allowed for more accountability of States. The recognition that children have the right to appeal to an international mechanism specific to them, if violations cannot be addressed effectively at national level, is also the ultimate example of putting children’s right to be heard and participate into practice.
For this treaty to have an impact on the realization of children’s rights at national level, it is essential that children’s rights defenders, including children, understand its relevance and functioning. One of the strategic priorities of Child Rights Connect is to ensure that OPIC is used by children’s rights defenders, including children, to seek redress for children’s rights violations and to influence the development of the legal and policy frameworks.
For this purpose, we advocate for more States to ratify OPIC, so that more children can access the mechanism, and we work closely with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to ensure that the Protocol and its rules of procedure are effectively operationalized through high quality working methods, including accessible, transparent and child-sensitive processes.
OPIC by the Numbers
ADOPTED DECISIONS
Adopted Views
Concluded Inquiries
NEWS
GREAT NEWS: Armenia becomes the 47th to ratify the OPIC!
On 24 March 2021, Armenia ratified the UNCRC Third Optional Protocol on a Communications procedure! It is the 47th country to have ratified the OPIC, the 27th country to become a State party to the instrument in Europe...
Annual OPIC trends 2020
As the year 2020 comes to an end, we have put together a summary of trends under the OPIC. CRC Sessions and individual communications under OPIC In April, Child Rights Connect published a news piece on the work of the...
First regional OPIC workshop empowering civil society and human rights defenders in promoting and protecting child rights in Latin America
First part of online Regional Workshop on Strategic Litigation for the Protection of the Rights of the Child in Latin America took place from November 30th to December 1st, 2020. It counted with more than 70...