Publications

Les institutions indépendantes placent explicitement les enfants au centre des systèmes de gouvernance traditionnellement axés sur les adultes. Fournissant souvent des mécanismes directs assurant une responsabilisation accrue de l’État et des autres protecteurs de l’enfance, elles comblent les lacunes entre les pouvoirs et les contrepouvoirs et veillent à ce que les répercussions des politiques et des pratiques sur les droits de l’enfant soient comprises et reconnues. Lorsque les choses vont mal ou que les résultats ne sont pas à la hauteur des attentes, elles soutiennent les voies de recours et les réformes qui s’imposent.

In response to persistent inequities, there is a global imperative to address the underlying causes of child wellbeing. While remarkable achievements have been made in the last decades in progress in health and survival of children, progress is still lagging in other key dimensions of child wellbeing, a number of which are now recognised as needing fresh attention in both rich and poor countries.

This paper finds that rural-urban migrant households have fewer assets, live in worse housing conditions and in areas less well served by public schools, have fewer social connections in the area where they live, and contain adults with lower educational levels than for urban native households. Even conditional on these household characteristics, educational expenditure and grade attainment were both lower for children from migrant households than urban natives. The findings are consistent with migrant children’s education being impeded by bureaucratic obstacles such as the household registration system in Vietnam.

Independent institutions bring an explicit children’s focus to traditional adult-oriented governance systems. Acting as direct mechanisms for accountability, they fill gaps in checks and balances and make sure that the impact of policy and practice on children’s rights is understood and recognized. At a time of global economic uncertainty, a period in which inequities between rich and poor are widening, and a period of reflection on progress towards achieving the Millenium Development Goals and in defining what sustainable and equitable goals should come after, these institutions are key players in promoting systems that are effective in delivering results for children.

Ensuring the proper functioning of public institutions is integral to good governance, yet ensuring and monitoring the requirements of human rights instruments is difficult and measurement of children’s rights even more so. This paper explores some of the factors which impede and promote public sector responsibilities towards children. The purpose of this analysis is to seek methods of assessing the performance of governments in their roles as protectors of the rights of children according to their international commitments. The multiplicity of actors involved in the process is described and the related problems for cooperation and effective implementation considered.

Sexual exploitation and abuse of children remains a worldwide problem. Despite a variety of national and international laws, including the introduction of extra-territorial legislation, there are still men and women who sexually abuse children at home and abroad. When tourism facilities are used by those who exploit children, the facility owners and managers are indirectly and unintentionally benefiting from these crimes. This has led to increasing recognition of the potential role of the travel and tourism sector in addressing this problem. The findings of this research are presented in two parts, covering four main themes. These are the effectiveness of The Code, and the strengths, weaknesses, lessons and gaps, which covers: i) the institutional arrangements for The Code; ii) membership of The Code; and iii) the implementation of the six Code criteria. Within the final category, special attention is paid to the reporting and monitoring of Code implementation.

The study was initiated with twin aims: improving understanding of child trafficking and responses in the region; and contributing to the international discourse on child trafficking by examining the linkages between anti-trafficking responses and child protection systems. Although the study was conceived with a primary focus on trafficking, its scope is much broader. It analyses how the general principles of the Convention of the Rights of the Child are applied in relation to those children vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of exploitation. The study confirms that the Nordic countries have indeed made significant − and continuously evolving − attempts to address the issue of child trafficking, including through setting up relevant institutions, developing action plans and allocating budgets. However, while this has meant that specialized expertise is available for specific groups of children, it has sometimes also led to fragmentation of services, leaving some children unprotected. The research also finds that many existing gaps may be bridged by consistent and strengthened implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. At the same time, the study highlights that there is a way to achieve a fuller realization of rights for children who are vulnerable.

The study was initiated with twin aims: improving understanding of child trafficking and responses in the region; and contributing to the international discourse on child trafficking by examining the linkages between anti-trafficking responses and child protection systems. Although the study was conceived with a primary focus on trafficking, its scope is much broader. It analyses how the general principles of the Convention of the Rights of the Child are applied in relation to those children vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of exploitation. The study confirms that the Nordic countries have indeed made significant − and continuously evolving − attempts to address the issue of child trafficking, including through setting up relevant institutions, developing action plans and allocating budgets. However, while this has meant that specialized expertise is available for specific groups of children, it has sometimes also led to fragmentation of services, leaving some children unprotected. The research also finds that many existing gaps may be bridged by consistent and strengthened implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. At the same time, the study highlights that there is a way to achieve a fuller realization of rights for children who are vulnerable.

This working paper addresses the role, contribution and impact of independent human rights institutions for children (IHRICs), also referred to as children’s ombudspersons or children’s commissioners. It looks at these institutions from the perspective and jurisprudence of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (the Committee) and the global perspective on the perception of the child and childhood resulting from contributions of these institutions to the process of implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Tous les Etats francophones de l’Afrique de l’Ouest sont parties à la Convention relative aux droits de l’enfant (CDE) ainsi qu’à la Charte africaine des droits et du bien-être de l’enfant (CADBE) et ont donc l’obligation de les mettre en œuvre, en particulier en suivant les indications des organes chargés du contrôle de leur application. Le Comité des droits de l’enfant a identifié les mesures générales essentielles à la mise en œuvre de la CDE. Parmi elles, figure l’établissement d’institutions indépendantes de défense des droits de l’enfant. Ces institutions ont généralement pour mandat de contrôler les activités de divers acteurs – publics et privés – au regard des droits des enfants, de promouvoir les droits des enfants en émettant des recommandations et en éduquant le public, et d’examiner des plaintes individuelles concernant des violations de ces droits. Le présent document fait l’état des avancées pour l’établissement d’institutions indépendantes de défense des droits de l’enfant à la lumière des standards internationaux et africains, en particulier au Burkina Faso, Mali et Sénégal.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child has been one of the main instigators for the development of independent human rights institutions for the promotion and protection of children’s rights. Relying on article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it adopted a general comment on this issue in 2002, and now consistently encourages State parties to establish or strengthen such institutions in its concluding observations. Efforts have been made recently with human rights treaty bodies to enhance the involvement of independent institutions at each stage of the reporting process. For independent institutions specifically in charge of monitoring children’s rights, this implies an important contribution to the work of the Committee. Their status of independence from their government in the reporting process has been emphasized and some institutions submit a separate report to the Committee.

Child participation is closely linked and interdependent with civil and political rights and with the fundamental perceived concepts of childhood, evolving capacity and autonomy. The right of children to express their views freely and to have them taken into account is both a substantive right and a general principle relevant to all aspects of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The degree of children’s participation within a society and the ways of involving children and adolescents in all matters affecting them depend on various factors, including the perceptions of childhood and adults’ views about children’s capacity to participate. Independent human rights institutions for children promote, protect and monitor progress in the realization of children’s rights.