Guide to access the Committee on the Rights of the Child

On this page, you will find guidance to access the Committee on the Rights of the Child for individual communications in Refugee and Asylum cases.

How to make an individual application alleging a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child + -

The Committee on the Rights of the Child monitors the implementation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) thanks its Optional Protocol (OPIC) allowing individuals to submit complaints against States responsible for an alleged violation of their rights. Only States which are parties to the Optional Protocol can receive individual complaints.

52 States are parties. The list of States can be found here.

Individuals claiming to be a victim of a violation of the CRC by a State Party. It is therefore the individual (or a group of individuals) or his (their) representative that must file the complaint, with appropriate authorization.

A complaint can also be submitted on behalf of a victim (or group of victims) with their express written consent, unless the authors can justify acting on their behalf without such consent.

See Article 5 of the Optional Protocol and Rule 13 of the 2021 Rules of Procedure under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on communications procedure.  

The Committee can only deal with the rights contained in the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography  and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict . The CRC includes a number of rights, such as

  • Best interests of the child (Article 3)
  • Right to life, survival and development (Article 6)
  • Right of the child to preserve his/her identity, including family relations (Article 8)
  • Right not to be separated from his/her parents (Article 9)
  • Right not to be illicitly transferred (Article 11)
  • Right not to be subjected to arbitrary interference with her/her privacy and family (Article 16)
  • Right to be protected from all forms of violence (Article 19)
  • Right of child seeking refugee or who is a refugee to receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance (Article 22)
  • Right for a disabled child to enjoy a full and decent life (Article 23(1))
  • Right of the disabled child to special care and assistance, which should be free of charge whenever possible (Article 23(2)-(3)
  • Right of child to enjoyment of highest attainable standard for health (Article 24)
  • Right to benefit from social security (Article 26)
  • Right to an adequate standard of development (Article 27)
  • Right to education (Article 28)
  • State obligation to prevent abduction, sale and traffic of children (Article 35)
  • State obligation to protect child against all forms of exploitation (Article 36)
  • Right not to be subjected to torture, capital punishment or life imprisonment (Article 37(a))
  • Right not be arbitrarily deprived of liberty (Article 37(b))
  • Right to be treated with humanity in detention, taking account age of the child (Article 37)
  • Right to have access to prompt legal assistance and right to challenged legality of a deprivation of liberty (Article 37(d))
  • State obligation to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration (Article 39).

In its General Comment No. 6 (2005), the Committee has clearly established that respect for Article 6 and 37 CRC entails the respect for the principle of non-refoulement (§26-27). Such an obligation is also derived from Article 38 CRC and Article 3 & 6 of the the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict (§28). A State must not return a child to a country where there is a risk of irreparable harm to the child. The assessment of the risk must be conducted in an age and gender-sensitive manner, and should take into account the insufficient provision of food or health services (§27).

  • Anonymity and abuse of right

The Committee does not consider anonymous submissions and those that constitute an abuse of right (Article 7(a) and (c) OPIC).

  • Exhaustion of domestic remedies

An individual should first seek protection by  the national courts. The Committee is considered a body of last-resort and can therefore only be sought once the complainant has exhausted all available domestic remedies

The rule on domestic remedies does not apply if the remedies are unreasonable prolonged or unlikely to bring effective relief to the person who is a victim of a violation of the Convention.  (Article 7(e) OPIC and Rule 16(3)(g) of the 2021 Rules of Procedure.)

  • 1 year time-limit.

The complaint must be filed within 1 year of the exhaustion of domestic remedies (Article 7(g) OPIC).

  • Examination of the complaint by another procedure

The complaint will not be considered if it has been previously materially assessed by another procedure of international investigation or settlement (regional human rights Court or other human rights Bodies) (Article 7(d) OPIC).

How to request interim measures to be taken to avoid irreparable damage

In addition to individual communications, the Committee can order interim measures in order to avoid “irreparable damage to the victim”. This can be requested at any time during the proceedings, before a determination on the merits has been reached.

The ordering of interim measures does not imply a determination on the admissibility or the merits of the case.

Failure to respect these measures will be incompatible with the obligation to respect in good faith the procedure of individual communication.

See Article 6 of OPIC and Rule 7 of the 2021 Rules of Procedure.

Important considerations

Complaints must only address matters that have happened after the entry into force of the Optional Protocol in the State concerned (Article 7(g)). This is 3 months after the State ratifies or accedes to the Optional Protocol (Article 19).

An exception to the rule is when the violation started before the entry into force of the Protocol but continued after that date (Article 7(g)).

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Last updated March 2025