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UN conventions on participation for children
from See, listen and include - Participation for children and young people with disabilities in the Nordi
”We need to study in more detail how we address structures in society that limits accessibility and participation. It can be incredibly demanding to get your own initiatives up and running, so it is sometimes easier just to stay at home on the sofa and watch TV.”
Nordic youth delegates
UN conventions on participation for children
The right to participate and to have a say for children and young people with disabilities is specifically laid down in two of the UN’s nine core conventions; The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted in 1989 and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006. All countries, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland, have ratified the conventions. For information on the status of ratification and implementation of conventions and additional conventions in the different countries, go to OHCHR.org11 .
All countries report to and are regularly appraised by the UN in relation to follow-up and compliance with the conventions. The work on the conventions is monitored by the UN’s respective committees. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, for example, monitors whether countries assign children the rights to which they are entitled. Each country must therefore submit a report every five years to this Committee, describing their efforts to comply with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This implies that a breach, for example, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, regardless of the level of administration in the Nordic region, may result in the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issuing a notice. Such notices gain international attention and may expose the Nordic region, individual countries and the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland to international criticism.
Each country’s reports can be found in the UN’s database, where you can also read recommendations made by the committees for work on rights for each country.
