Children's rights and accountability under international law

Gamze Erdem Türkelli

Chapter 12 in Research Handbook on Accountability for Human Rights Violations, 2025, pp 197-214 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Accountability for children's rights is often not distinguished from accountability for human rights more broadly. It is true that in the abstract, there is nothing that would categorically differentiate accountability for children's human rights. Yet, in the concrete, there are several conditions that set children's rights apart from the viewpoint of accountability. First, children's rights are accompanied by several specific principles such as the best interests of the child, survival and development, due deference, and the evolving capacities of the child, which ought to be taken into account when addressing rights violations. Second, children have some legally recognized rights under the nearly universally ratified UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that are differentiated for children or specific to children. Third, despite the wide-ranging rights recognized as legally belonging to children, children are often denied formal agency in the exercise of their rights. For instance, children often do not have the right to choose their own political representation and need proxy in legal and administrative proceedings, including those meant to seek accountability from third parties. Often, children's rights to be informed, consulted, and listened to are not respected. Finally, owing both to children's formal lack of voice and to the current design of accountability procedures and systems, children face difficulties in accessing effective and child-friendly remedies for violations of their rights. This chapter will delve into the context, content, and contours of accountability for violations of children's rights under international human rights law, focusing on treaty-based obligations and their implementation through United Nations and regional human rights systems (treaty bodies and courts), and trace a way forward that centres children as rights-holders.

Keywords: Children's rights; Best interests of the child; Evolving capacities; Child-focused accountability; Participation rights; Positive obligations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035306923
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