ARC calls on Government to ratify the protocol on child rights

ARC has strongly urged the Government to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure at the earliest, to enhance child protection measures in the country and to uphold its international legal obligations and responsibilities under the Convention. The Maldives is already a signatory to the Optional Protocol, since 28 February 2012.

The Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure establishes an individual complaint mechanism designed to allow children, groups of children or their representatives, who claim that their rights have been violated, to bring an individual complaint before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. What is more significant is that it allows children to approach the UN if their rights are not being protected by the State and all domestic remedies to seek justice have been exhausted.

ARC remains committed to working with the Government and all stakeholders to promote and protect the rights of children in the Maldives, and will continue to encourage the immediate adoption of the full spectrum of tools and mechanism provided to it as a State Party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is also important that such provisions be translated domestically to improve the situation of childrens rights in the country.

ENDS

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