Individual communications submitted under the under the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a Communications Procedure and Admissibility - 2024 Update

Abstract

The first question the Committee on the Rights of the Child (Committee or CRC Committee) has to answer when it receives communications submitted under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on a communications procedure (CRC-OP3) is: is the communication admissible? Experiences show that many communications submitted were inadmissible (and not registered for consideration by the Committee). This implies that despite significant time and effort dedicated to submitting the communication, the desired outcome—a decision from the Committee regarding the complaint of one or more violations of rights under the CRC—was not achieved. In quite a number of cases the Committee decided to discontinue the consideration (see hereafter in the Introduction). This report presents an updated version of the annotated overview of the decisions of the Committee in which it declared the communication inadmissible. Additionally, it offers several overarching comments and reflections with the aim of informing individuals or (legal) professionals who are contemplating submitting a communication to the Committee. These insights shed light on the various admissibility criteria outlined in CRC-OP3 and how the Committee applies and interprets these criteria. The report indicates that many cases are declared inadmissible because they are ill-founded or not sufficiently substantiated. In some cases, a communication is deemed partially inadmissible because it asserts violations of numerous articles of the CRC without providing factual substantiation for all or some of these claims. This underscores the importance for future authors of submissions to ensure that their assertions of CRC rights violations are grounded in the appropriate legal provisions and supported by sufficient factual evidence. Additionally, in certain instances, adults—typically one of the parents—allege violations of their rights under the CRC. These claims are inadmissible because they are considered incompatible with the provisions of the CRC, which protect the rights of children and not the rights of adults. Some issues are given separate attention such as the request of States Parties to deal with the admissibility separately from the merits, the intervention of third parties and the working methods of the Committee. This report has been updated until March 2024. In addition, to the previous report, it includes the admissibility decisions of the CRC Committee made at its 90th – 95th sessions. Specific attention is given to admissibility and extra-territorial jurisdiction.