CRIN - Child Rights Information Network
The Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, now in its second edition, is a practical tool for to assist in understanding the implications of each article of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. It is a recommended programming tool to any institution, governmental or non-governmental, that is involved in child rights work. The section on each article in the Handbook is structured to include: 1. a concise summary of the article’s implications and its relationship with other articles; 2. relevant extracts from the Guidelines for Initial Reports and the Guidelines for Periodic Reports prepared by the Committee on the Rights of the Child; 3. detailed consideration of the background to and implications of individual elements of the article; 4. occasional boxed examples from States Parties’ Reports and other official reports and recommendations (the Handbook has not attempted to analyze reports and other information provided by non- governmental organizations). These boxes are not intended necessarily to denote good or best practice, but to illustrate and illuminate issues raised by the article. The examples used have not been evaluated, and may not even describe current practice; 5. a concluding “Implementation Checklist”: this emphasizes that the articles of the Convention are interdependent and identifies other closely related articles. The Checklist poses questions designed to be used to investigate progress towards implementation. The checklists are a tool to assist in understanding and exploring the implications of each of the articles in the CRC. The checklists draw from the developing global knowledge base about children’s rights and provide insights into the interventions which may need to be considered. To quote from the manual: “The Checklists have no official status. Each Checklist has been drafted to help all those involved in implementation – Governments, UNICEF and other United Nations agencies and international bodies, NGOs and others – to investigate the implications of the article for law, policy and practice and to promote and evaluate progress towards implementation. The Checklists concern implementation, not reporting. They should not be confused with the official Guidelines for reporting prepared by the Committee on the Rights of the Child to advise States Parties in the preparation of Initial and Periodic Reports under the Convention (relevant extracts from these Guidelines are included under each article in the Handbook). Each Checklist includes a reminder that no article should be considered in isolation – that the Convention is indivisible and its articles interdependent. The Checklists emphasize that in implementing each article, regard should be paid to the “general principles” highlighted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and that other articles which are particularly closely related should be identified. Each Checklist starts with a standard set of questions about general measures of implementation for the article in question: have the responsible government departments and other agencies been identified and appropriately coordinated, has there been a comprehensive review and adoption of an implementation strategy, budgetary analysis and allocation of resources, development of monitoring and evaluation and necessary training and so on. Further questions relate to the detail of implementation. The questions are drafted so that they can be answered “YES”, “NO”, “PARTIALLY” or “DON’T KNOW” (insufficient information available to assess implementation). Answering “yes” or “no” to the questions which make up each Checklist does not necessarily indicate compliance or non-compliance with the Convention. The Checklists can be used as the basis from which to develop more detailed and sensitive checklists for national or local use. Beyond the basic “YES”, “NO” or “DON’T KNOW” answers, the questions provide a framework for collecting together the relevant information to build up a full analysis of and commentary on implementation. So if the answer to a Checklist question is “YES”, a summary could follow of the relevant law, policy and practice, and references to more detailed information which confirms the realization of the particular right for all relevant children. If “NO”, an outline of the situation, and a summary of action required for compliance could be made. The answer “PARTIALLY” would be accompanied by information on the state of implementation, and on further action required. If the answer is “DON’T KNOW”, there could be a summary of available information and an outline of the gaps in information which make it impossible to determine the state of implementation of the particular right.”
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