A child-rights analysis of selected United Nations treaty body jurisprudence to inform the emerging jurisprudence under the third optional protocol to the convention on the rights of the child

Abstract

This research examines the extent of a children's rights jurisprudence in eight United Nations (UN) treaty bodies in order to establish whether there are important principles or findings that should inform the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its work going forward. The Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (OPIC) is the first ever international individual complaints procedure for children. Moreover, the procedure only came into operation seven years ago. As such, there has been limited scholarly analysis of the complaints received under the OPIC. The thesis draws from the thematic areas of children in the criminal justice system, the right to non-interference with the family unit, the principle of non-refoulement, and migration detention. The research finds that the Human Rights Committee has the most developed children’s rights jurisprudence amongst the other eight human rights treaty bodies. The research has identified several important principles that the Committee on the Rights of the Child can draw on from other treaty bodies. Although this research sought to establish whether there are important principles from the other treaty bodies for its future work, it also finds that the Committee on the Rights of the Child has a well-developed children’s rights jurisprudence, and that unlike the other treaty bodies, it takes a child-centric approach in considering communications. Therefore, it concludes that there are lessons that the other treaty bodies can also learn from the Committee on the Rights of the Child.