In 1991, Canada ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and also quickly ratified two of the three optional protocols that accompanied it – the first on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the second on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
But it’s still mulling over the Third Optional Protocol seven years after it was opened for signature, six years after receiving a reminder from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (in its Concluding Observations on Canada’s Third and Fourth reports on the convention), and four years after the protocol came into force, on April 11, 2014.
The Third Optional Protocol establishes a procedure for children from ratifying states who have not found a solution at the national level to bring complaints about violations of their rights directly to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
“This government’s declared intent is to build on Canada’s record in human rights diplomacy,” the CBA Children’s Law Committee wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his capacity as Minister of Youth. “Leadership in this field, as any other, must begin at home, and requires transparent and accountable mechanisms for keeping our promises to young people.”
As Canada prepares to submit its Fifth and Sixth Reports to the UN Committee later this year, the CBA Committee says “now is the time to reassert Canada’s leadership in promoting children’s rights by ratifying that protocol.”