Children's Rights and International Policy

The Children's Rights & International Policy Section includes:

• Children's Rights
• Children and Youth and the Americas
• United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children (UNGASS)
• Canada and the Interamerican Children's Institute (IACI)
• The Progress of Nations
•  World Health Organization (WHO)
• Useful Links

Canada and the Convention on the Rights of the Child

The  UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was adopted by consensus by the UN in 1989. In December 1991, Canada ratified the CRC - an international treaty which delineates the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children. The CRC is the most comprehensive of international treaties, and the only one with near-universal ratification by States.

Canada is party to five other human rights treaties all of which require the filing of periodic reports and which encourage NGO participation. These human rights treaties are:

•  International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
•  International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights;
•  Convention of Elimination of Discrimination Against Women;
•  Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination;
•  Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Pursuant to the CRC, Canada is obliged to file periodic National Reports with the  UN Committee on the Rights of the Child - a Committee of 10 independent experts responsible for overseeing State performance. Subsequently, a presentation is scheduled at which a Canadian delegation responds orally to questions from Committee members. The Committee also considers written and oral comments from non-governmental organizations. After having considered all the material, the Committee issues "Concluding Observations" which are publically available.

Responsibility for co-ordination of the implementation of the CRC at the federal level rests with the Division of Children and Adolescence at the Public Health Agency of Canada, with the Department of Justice responsible for legislative implementation. Similarly, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Justice share responsibility for drafting the federal portion of the National Reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Heritage Canada co-ordinates provincial input into the National Reports. Transmission of the National Reports to the UN is undertaken by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), who also leads the Canadian delegation before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. An inter-departmental committee of officials (the aforementioned departments, as well as the Department of Human Resources and Development Canada - HRCD) co-ordinates the overall work required by the CRC.

Canada submitted its First Report under the CRC in 1994 and made its presentation in May 1995.  Click here for the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Canada's First Report.  Canada's Second Report was submitted to the UN in the spring of 2001. Canada is required to present its Second Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its 34th Session in Geneva in September 2003.

UNICEF Report

The Progress of Nations

UNICEF launched  The Progress of Nations, an influential annual report of rankings on the achievements of countries in children's rights. As in past years, many issues raised by the report are relevant to the Public Health Agency of Canada's development of policies and programs for children.

Links:

•  UNICEF International

Other Useful Links:

•  Human Rights Documents and Instruments
• The Canadian Reference Guide to the United Nations
•  Say It Right: The Unconventional Canadian Youth Edition of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child
•  Child Rights Information Network
•  UNICEF
•  United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights
•  Committee on the Rights of the Child