CRC/GC/2002/2
page 2
Commission on Human Rights have repeatedly called for the establishment of national human
rights institutions, underlining the important role NHRIs play in promoting and protecting human
rights and enhancing public awareness of those rights. In its general guidelines for periodic
reports, the Committee requires that States parties furnish information on “any independent body
established to promote and protect the rights of the child …”,1 hence, it consistently addresses
this issue during its dialogue with States parties.
4.
NHRIs should be established in compliance with the Principles relating to the status of
national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (The “Paris Principles”)
adopted by the General Assembly in 19932 transmitted by the Commission on Human Rights in
1992.3 These minimum standards provide guidance for the establishment, competence,
responsibilities, composition, including pluralism, independence, methods of operation, and
quasi-judicial activities of such national bodies.
5.
While adults and children alike need independent NHRIs to protect their human rights,
additional justifications exist for ensuring that children’s human rights are given special
attention. These include the facts that children’s developmental state makes them particularly
vulnerable to human rights violations; their opinions are still rarely taken into account; most
children have no vote and cannot play a meaningful role in the political process that determines
Governments’ response to human rights; children encounter significant problems in using the
judicial system to protect their rights or to seek remedies for violations of their rights; and
children’s access to organizations that may protect their rights is generally limited.
6.
Specialist independent human rights institutions for children, ombudspersons or
commissioners for children’s rights have been established in a growing number of States parties.
Where resources are limited, consideration must be given to ensuring that the available resources
are used most effectively for the promotion and protection of everyone’s human rights, including
children’s, and in this context development of a broad-based NHRI that includes a specific focus
on children is likely to constitute the best approach. A broad-based NHRI should include within
its structure either an identifiable commissioner specifically responsible for children’s rights, or a
specific section or division responsible for children’s rights.
7.
It is the view of the Committee that every State needs an independent human rights
institution with responsibility for promoting and protecting children’s rights. The Committee’s
principal concern is that the institution, whatever its form, should be able, independently and
effectively, to monitor, promote and protect children’s rights. It is essential that promotion and
protection of children’s rights is “mainstreamed” and that all human rights institutions existing in
a country work closely together to this end.
Mandate and powers
8.
NHRIs should, if possible, be constitutionally entrenched and must at least be
legislatively mandated. It is the view of the Committee that their mandate should include as
broad a scope as possible for promoting and protecting human rights, incorporating the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, its Optional Protocols and other relevant international
human rights instruments - thus effectively covering children’s human rights, in particular their
civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The legislation should include provisions