Guide to International Human Rights Mechanisms - Brookings

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International Mechanisms | Human Rights Treaty Bodies
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, reprinted in
International Law and World Order: Basic Documents (B. Weston and J. Carlson, eds., 1994), vol. III.
C.13, and available at: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/.
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, reprinted in 38 I.L.M. 763 (1999) and International Law and World Order: Basic Documents
(B. Weston and J. Carlson, eds., 1994), vol. III.C.16, and available at: www.un.org/womenwatch/
daw/cedaw/protocol/text.htm.
Committee’s website: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/
Human Rights Protection for Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Internally Displaced Persons: A Guide to International
Mechanisms and Procedures (Joan Fitzpatrick, ed., Transnational Publishers, Inc., 2002), 123-35.
COMMITTEE.ON.THE.RIGHTS.OF.THE.CHILD
Background This Committee was established by the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC) to monitor state compliance and to elaborate and explain the treaty’s requirements. It is
composed of eighteen experts elected by states parties who serve in their individual capacities.
The Committee considers periodic reports of states parties on their progress in abiding by the
CRC, issues “concluding observations” on those reports, and produces “general comments” about
the requirements of the CRC directed at all states parties.
What you can Do If you represent an NGO, you can provide information on displaced children’s
rights in advance of Committee consideration of state periodic reports. You might also recommend
that the Committee devote one of its annual “Days of General Discussion” to IDP issues and attend
that session.
evaluation The Committee cannot handle individual complaints. However, it remains a forum
with important potential to highlight systemic issues of displaced children through its concluding
observations and general comments. In previous concluding observations on state reports, it has
expressed concern about the effect that conflict has on children, noting in particular their vulnerability
to displacement. 60 It has also expressed its concern about the effect of development-induced
displacement, for example, with regard to Pygmy families displaced by logging in Cameroon. 61 Its
general comments have not yet raised issues of displacement.
The Committee has issued detailed guidelines to NGOs on preparing written submissions prior
to state reports. These guidelines are available from the secretariat (contacts below) or on the
OHCHR website (www.ohchr.org). On the basis of NGO written submissions, the Committee
60 E.g. UN Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.169, para. 50 (Lebanon).
61 U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.164, 2001, para. 69 (Cameroon).
Guide to International Human Rights Mechanisms
for Internally Displaced Persons and their Advocates 1 1