The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) have launched a call for submissions for a Joint General Comment on the human rights of children in the context of international migration.
The submissions relate to the situation of human rights of the following categories of children (people under the age of 18) in the context of migration:
- Children that migrate with their parents who are migrant workers;
- Children that are born to parents who are migrant workers in transit and destination countries;
- Migrant children that return to their country of origin, either voluntarily or by force, alone or with their parents;
- Children left behind by their parents (or one of them) who have migrated to another country; and
- Children that migrate unaccompanied and separated from their parents (for reasons such as seeking employment, family reunification or as victims of trafficking, labour exploitation and child labour).
The main goal of this initiative is to contribute to improving the protection of the human rights of children which are, in the context of international migration, in a particular situation of vulnerability. Specific goals of this general comment include:
- Elaborating for State Parties and other key stakeholders guidelines for developing migration, childhood and related policies aimed at protecting and realizing the rights of children in the context of migration;
- Providing the CMW and CRC Committees with a specific tool to facilitate their role to monitor the implementation of the respective treaties in States parties as mandated by the Conventions;
- Promoting a clearly articulated interpretation of relevant provisions of the CMW and CRC to assist in the further implementation of the Conventions at the domestic level in both law and in practice; and
- Highlighting the relevance of a rights-based approach in relation to the phenomenon of children in the context of migration.
The following organizations have given their submission which can be accessed below: