General Comments

The Committee produces General Comments to explain the rights contained in the CRC and its Optional Protocols and provide guidance with respect to particular issues. General Comments are key standards that help States improve both the way they write their reports and the way they implement the treaties.

Child Rights Connect raises awareness and promotes the use of General Comments, monitors the development of new General Comments and coordinates substantive inputs from our members to ensure progress of the standards. We also advocate for meaningful inclusion of children’s views in all General Comments and provide advice to the Committee and other stakeholders on how to do this meaningfully. 

The Committee works on the development of a new General Comment or the updating of an old one once at a time.

  • To learn more about General Comments and get advice on how to engage, read our FactsheetEnglishEspañolFrançais
  • To read the General Comments, visit the Committee’s webpage

To produce its General Comments, the Committee invites all interested parties to submit their ideas of themes, comment on the concept note and submit contributions. 

General Comment No. 26

The launch of the General Comment No. 26 on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change, Monday 18 September 2023, marked a historic milestone because it’s the very first time the Committee on the Rights of the Child has officially recognised children’s rights to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. General Comment No. 26 provides authoritative and comprehensive guidance on how environmental challenges directly impact children’s rights and outlines the crucial steps that States must take to ensure that children can grow up in a world that’s not only clean, green, and healthy but also sustainable. Praised by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, David Boyd, as “a vital step forward,” this document represents a long awaited momentum toward securing a better future for our planet and its youngest inhabitants.

It has three major pillars. First, it sheds light on the harmful impacts of the triple planetary crisis, comprised of the climate emergency, the collapse of biodiversity and pervasive pollution on specific rights. Second, it clarifies how environmental protection is beneficial to children’s rights and underscores that children have the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Finally, it specifies that States are responsible not only for protecting children’s rights from immediate harm, but also for foreseeable violation on their end. States can now be held accountable for environmental harm occurring within and outside their borders.

The Committee went from carrying out consultations with over 700 children from 26 countries for GC25 to 16,331 children from 121 countries for GC26, through online surveys, focus groups and in-person national and regional consultations. The newly launched document is the outcome of international and intergenerational engagement as the Committee also received inputs from States, experts, and other stakeholders through two rounds of consultations on the concept note and first draft of the general comment.

The GC26 has been currently translated in the following languages:

Child Rights Connect partnered with Terre des Hommes Germany, one of our member organisations, to contribute to the draft of the child-friendly version of the GC26 which is accessible in the following languages:

Furthermore, Terre des Hommes Germany has produced a child-friendly animation in collaboration with their Children’s Advisory Team.

General Comment No.27

During its 95th CRC Session, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted the Concept Note for the General Comment no.27! The theme decided is:

Children’s Rights to Access to Justice and Effective Remedies

The General Comment will cover the following scope:

  • Clarification of concepts and terminology in relation to children’s right to effective remedy and children’s access to justice.
  • Guidance on ensuring the empowerment of all children as rights-holders, including child human rights defenders, as well as to those children who are involved in justice processes (such as accused, victim, including victim of sexual violence, witnesses, those in need of care and protection, claimants and respondents).
  • Emphasis on the need to establish efficient and orderly complaints mechanisms and procedures that are accessible to all children in all settings and the role of national human rights institutions in that regard
  • Clarification of the role that civil society organisations, social services, lawyers and other actors can play to pro-actively support children to realise their rights
  • Key focus on children’s legal standing; the right to free, quality legal aid; the right to be heard and accompanied during all stages of the proceedings and the right to be fully informed throughout the entire procedure
  • The necessity to mobilise sufficient human, financial and technical resources to ensure full access of the child to the right to justice and effective remedies, including to ensure appropriate budget at the central-, regional- and local levels

You can find the full concept note here.

We will keep you informed of the next steps to know how you could contribute to the process of development of this General Comment.

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It is unique in its global outreach and its diversity, constituting a strong and credible global voice on children’s rights.

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