Children's rights collective speaks before the UN Human Rights Council

Once every 4.5 years, countries assess each other on the extent to which human rights are observed during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The Netherlands will be assessed in November this year and the pre-session is in Geneva this week. During this pre-session, the Children's Rights Collective will talk about the children's rights situation in the Netherlands. We ask other countries to make recommendations to the Netherlands to better respect children's rights in our country.

In March 2022, the Children's Rights Collective prepared a contribution to the UN Human Rights Council with several recommendations that the Netherlands can follow to improve the children's rights situation in the Netherlands. The Children's Rights Collective used the information gathered during consultations with more than 140 organizations and experts for the NGO report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2021, and supplemented it with the most recent developments.

Talking about children's rights in Geneva

The Children's Rights Collective is in Geneva today for the pre-session in preparation for the session in November 2022, where the Netherlands will be assessed. We welcome this opportunity to talk about children's rights in the Netherlands and to explain our contribution from March. We are allowed to make a statement to the permanent representatives of various countries at the United Nations. The purpose of this is that these permanent representatives make recommendations to the Netherlands to improve compliance with children's rights. In addition to our statement, we will also engage with a number of permanent missions in Geneva to discuss our views and recommendations and answer any questions you may have. The Netherlands will be under review in November and will therefore receive the recommendations to which the state must respond.

Statement Children's Rights Collective

Our statement focuses on the acceptance of international standards and reservations, asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children, protection against (sexual) exploitation and human trafficking, and juvenile criminal law. We recommend that the Netherlands withdraw its reservations on Articles 26, 37(c) and 40 and ratify the third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communication procedure (the Complaint Protocol). In addition, we recommend that the best interests of the child be put first in asylum procedures and that we gain more insight into vulnerable groups of victims of (sexual) exploitation and child trafficking. Finally, we recommend guaranteeing a child-friendly procedure in juvenile criminal law and free legal assistance for all underage suspects.

In addition to the Children's Rights Collective, other organizations are also present, such as the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, the National Jurists Committee on Human Rights, Milieudefensie and Rutgers.

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