New UN Opportunity for Romani Children to Combat Rights Violations
13 October 2014
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (OPCRC) came into force on the 14th of April this year. This new Optional Protocol gives children (including Romani children) the opportunity to directly complain to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child about violations of their rights.
Romani children will now be able to lodge individual complaints with the Committee on the Rights of the Child about violations of rights stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and get redress.
As has already been emphasized, Romani children constitute a particularly vulnerable group. First as members of a minority facing exclusion and discrimination, and second as children in need of protection and care by parents or guardians. The OPCRC might provide some hope for those Romani children who still face school segregation, are overrepresented in state care institutions, are routinely denied access to medical care etc. A recent report of ERRC in Serbia revealed that Romani children continue to be overrepresented in special education or study in segregated schools. Another report indicates that Romani children are also subjected to overrepresentation in institutional care in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Slovakia. The recent story of approximately 500 Albanian Roma street children who were rounded up by Greek police over a decade ago prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics, and subsequently ‘disappeared’ from a state care facility, provides a shocking insight about the vulnerability of such children.
An individual complaint can only be brought in connection with a right contained in the Convention on the Right of the Child or its optional protocols. The concerned state must have ratified the OP which is a precondition of lodging the complaint. According to article 5 of the OP, an individual complaint can be brought either by a victim or group of victims (including children of any age) or by someone who represents the children or the group of children (it can be a lawyer, doctor, parent, friend etc.). The individual complaint may be in connection with physical or other state authorities’ abuses including issues faced while in state care, school segregation, discrimination in access to their rights, or other issues covered in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The individual complaint must not be anonymous, must be made in writing and must be submitted within one year from the exhaustion of the domestic remedies. For a full list of the admissibility criteria of a complaint please see art.7 of the OP.
Besides the individual complaint procedure, the children (or their representatives) will be able to bring to the attention of the Committee of the Child grave or systemic violations of rights contained within the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Protocols through the inquiry procedure. The inquiry procedure applies when the Committee receives “reliable information indicating grave or systemic violations by a State party of rights set forth in the Convention or in the Optional Protocols thereto on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography or on the involvement of children in armed conflict” (article 13). Once the Committee has been notified, it will invite the Government to make observations in relation to the information received without delay and it may delegate one or two members to conduct an inquiry and report urgently on the facts. As a result of the investigation, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child will provide concrete recommendations to the state concerned to immediately stop the violation or systemic problem.
Although the OP has a series of positive developments, it also has its weaknesses. So far, the Optional Protocol to the Convention to the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure has been signed by 45 states and ratified by only 11 states including Albania, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Gabon, Germany, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Thailand, and Belgium.
For the protection of vulnerable Romani children it is imperative that more states with significant Roma populations ratify the OP. Therefore, it is important that we all coordinate efforts to pressure these states to ratify the OP which can make a significant difference to protect those who are vulnerable.
A first step in such a joint effort is that NGOs join the International Coalition for the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (OPCRC). There is no membership fee and the membership form is available at the hyperlink above. As a member of the Coalition, you will be part of an international campaign to accomplish justice for children worldwide. As an individual or an NGO you can send a letter to your government asking that the state ratifies (and signs if that is the case) the OPCRC.
In conclusion, the OPCRC marks a positive step forward to deliver justice to all children, including Romani children, whose rights have been violated. The optional protocol follows the “best interest of the child” approach and ratification by states should be understood as a commitment by authorities to fulfil their obligations to take all measures necessary to respect the rights of the most vulnerable children (including Romani children).
