The second session of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group (OEIWG), established by the UN Human Rights Council, explores the possibility of elaborating an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Global Human Rights Defence delivered an oral statement at the Palais des Nations, under Cluster 3, dedicated to Principles 6, 7 and 8 on implementation and monitoring of the future instrument.
In its statement, GHRD welcomed the progress reflected in the Rev. 1 text, in particular Principle 6, which recognises the role children played in shaping the Protocol and reaffirms, drawing on Article 12 of the CRC, every child’s right to be heard in matters affecting them.
However, GHRD warned that this commitment currently appears only in the preamble and called for it to be translated into concrete obligations for States Parties.
As a central example of this gap, the case of Pakistan was pointed out – a country whose Constitution guarantees free education to every child aged between 5 and 16, yet more than 25 million children remain out of school, the world’s second-largest such population. The organisation stressed that chronic malnutrition, insufficient infrastructure, and disability continue to exclude children from the education system, and that the persistence of this crisis shows that children’s voices have not been meaningfully heard in the design of the State’s response.
GHRD urged that children in Pakistan be actively consulted in shaping the education policies that affect them and requested that periodic reporting under Article 44 of the CRC explicitly assess whether States have fulfilled this obligation of participation.
The intervention forms part of GHRD’s broader engagement throughout the OEIWG sessions, where the organisation has stood alongside youth panelists from different regions, arguing that child participation cannot be limited to the drafting phase of the Protocol but must extend to its ongoing implementation and monitoring.