Rights of the Child Realizing the Rights of the Child and Family Reunification

A/HRC/RES/49/20View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2022.

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 topics

Child Migrants Child Soldiers Child Welfare Family Reunification Immigration Policy Internet Rights of the Child Social Security

What does this mandate say?

44 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the rights of the child, and takes note with appreciation of her report on the rights of the child and family reunification;

Calls upon States to consider ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto, and calls for renewed efforts towards their full implementation by all parties;

Also calls upon States to take all measures necessary to ensure full respect for and the protection and fulfilment of the rights of the child, without discrimination of any kind, giving particular attention to the right to, as far as possible, know and be cared for by his or her parents and the right to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations, as recognized by law, without unlawful interference, and taking positive measures to prevent family separation, including by reuniting separated family members, unless such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child, and refraining from actions that may constitute arbitrary or unlawful interference with family life;

Urges States to put into place, if they have not yet done so, appropriate legislation, policies, systems and procedures to ensure that the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in all actions affecting children, including those who may become or who have been separated from their families, and in all decisions taken relating to their family reunification, regardless of the child’s status, including in the context of cross-border migration;

Reaffirms that children shall not be separated from their parents against their will except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, including through psychosocial evidence, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child and that such determination is necessary in a particular case, such as one involving abuse or neglect of the child by the parents or one where the parents are living separately and a decision must be made as to the child’s place of residence;

Encourages States to take further actions to support family reunification, unless it is not in the best interests of the child, taking into account that many children living without parental care have families, including at least one living parent and/or other living relatives;

Calls upon States to enhance policy coherence with respect to family reunification by reviewing relevant laws, policies and procedures, placing particular priority on the prevention of family separation;

Urges States to take effective measures to address existing barriers to efficient, transparent, child-friendly and age-, disability- and gender-responsive family reunification procedures, including by facilitating access to application processing and consular services, accelerating proceedings, providing all necessary information in a timely, accessible and child-friendly manner and by working towards easing financial burdens, taking into account that having insufficient financial resources should not prevent family reunification;

Recalls that the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that a child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State, and that States parties shall, in accordance with their national laws and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, ensure safe and appropriate quality alternative care for such a child, prioritizing family-based interim care;

Urges States to strengthen child welfare and child protection systems and to improve care reform efforts, which should include increased multisectoral collaboration and comprehensive intersectoral policies between, inter alia, the child protection system and the welfare authorities in charge of health, food security and nutrition, education, justice, immigration, law enforcement and gender equality, and the active coordination among all relevant authorities and to improve cross-border cooperation, capacity-building and training programmes for relevant stakeholders and to enhance mechanisms to hold accountable those who profit from exploitation, including child labour, the sale of children and child trafficking;

Also urges States to take all appropriate and reasonable measures necessary to prevent businesses from causing or contributing to abuses of children’s rights in the context of migration, and calls upon all business enterprises to meet their responsibility to respect the rights of the child by undertaking child rights due diligence, appropriate to their size, the risk of severe impact and the context of their operation, as outlined in the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its general comment No. 16 (2013) on State obligations regarding the impact of the business sector on children’s rights, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the International Labour Organization Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, and the Children’s Rights and Business Principles;

Recalls that, in accordance with article 10 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, applications by a child or his or her parents to enter or leave a State party for the purpose of family reunification shall be dealt with by States parties in a positive, humane and expeditious manner, and that States parties shall further ensure that the submission of such a request shall entail no adverse consequences for the applicants and for the members of their family;

Calls upon all States to protect refugee, asylum-seeking, migrant and internally displaced children, in particular those who are unaccompanied or separated from their families, who are particularly exposed to violence, abuses and risks in connection with armed conflict and trafficking in persons, and to continue to pay more systematic and in-depth attention to the provision of trauma-informed, gender-, age- and disability-specific assistance and protection in response to the development needs of those children through, inter alia, screening for protection concerns, including the proactive identification of children who are victims of trafficking, programmes aimed at rehabilitation, education and physical and psychological recovery and, where appropriate and feasible, local integration and resettlement, to give priority to family tracing and family reunification and reintegration and, where appropriate, to cooperate with international humanitarian and refugee organizations, as well as with child protection actors in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes;

Urges States to ensure that equal rights and appropriate standards of protection are provided to every child, including those above 15 years of age, regardless of their migration or other status, in accordance with their obligations under international law;

Also urges States to ensure the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health to all children, without discrimination of any kind and regardless of their status, including but not limited to sexual and reproductive health and psychosocial health, throughout their life course, and to redouble efforts to prevent, respond to and eliminate all forms of violence, online and offline, including sexual and gender-based violence and domestic violence, and all forms of exploitation and neglect and harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation;

Further urges States to ensure that children have access to justice and timely, effective, inclusive and gender-, disability- and age-responsive remedies when their rights are violated in the context of cross-border migration, and to uphold child-sensitive due process guarantees in administrative and judicial proceedings related to family reunification and separation, taking into account the best interests of the child as a primary consideration and that the child shall be provided the opportunity to be heard in such proceedings, either directly or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law, and to provide the child with relevant information concerning violations and reparation mechanisms, access to effective legal representation and assistance for children and, where relevant, for and through their parents, caregivers and legal guardians;

Urges States to comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto, emphasizing the importance of accountability for all violations and abuses of the rights of the child;

Calls upon States to continue to foster international cooperation to tackle the existing gaps with respect to family reunification, strengthen family tracing and enhance policy coherence and the availability and accessibility of safe and regular family reunification processes, and to provide universal access to functioning civil registration systems, taking into account that the collection, use and retention of, and access to, children’s personal data, in particular biometric data, should comply with strict enforcement of appropriate rules thereon and shall be consistent with States’ obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

Also calls upon States to take appropriate measures to respond to the separation of children from their families in cross-border migration settings, including humanitarian contexts, inter alia, by giving priority to family tracing and family reunification and reintegration and, where appropriate, by strengthening cooperation with international humanitarian and refugee organizations, in line with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law;

Migration and international protection

Calls upon States to use alternatives to the detention of migrant children, including by promoting the use of non-custodial solutions implemented by competent child protection actors engaging with the child and, where applicable, his or her family;

Urges States to undertake a preventive approach to family separation in the context of migration by ensuring that no child is subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her family, and that children have the protection of the law against such interference and can fully enjoy their right to preserve family relations and grow up in a family environment, including by:

Recognizing the importance of family reunification and promoting its incorporation into relevant national legislation in order to enable migrant children to grow up with their families;

Ensuring that the principle of the best interests of the child is a primary consideration in all actions concerning children undertaken pursuant to migration laws, policies and programmes, and that all migrant children, regardless of their migration status, are treated first and foremost as children, including by developing procedures and guidance that uphold the rights of the child and are directed to all relevant institutions and persons involved in migration procedures;

Developing and putting into practice a best interests assessment and determination procedure, with the participation of child welfare authorities, aimed at identifying and applying comprehensive, secure and sustainable measures on a case-by-case basis, including in cases requiring further integration and settlement in the country of current residence, return to the country of origin or resettlement in a third country;

Taking specific measures to ensure that the right of the child to preserve family relations is duly taken into account when assessing the child’s best interests in decisions on family reunification in the context of migration and that any restrictions thereof are legitimate, necessary and proportionate;

Ensuring that unaccompanied and separated children are identified promptly and protected during border controls and other migration-control procedures within States’ jurisdiction, with the participation of qualified authorities, including welfare authorities, in line with a multidisciplinary, child-friendly and age-, disability- and gender-responsive approach, that children are identified and treated as such, promptly referred to child protection authorities and other relevant services and appointed a guardian, if unaccompanied or separated; and increasing efforts to put into place the measures necessary to trace and reunite unaccompanied or separated children with their families, taking into consideration the best interests of the child as a primary consideration;

Enabling unaccompanied and separated children to communicate with their families without delay by facilitating access to means of communication along routes and at their destination, as well as access to consular missions, local authorities and organizations that can provide assistance with contacting family members, except when this is not in the best interests of the child;

Ensuring that decisions with regard to family reunification in the country of origin are guided by the best interests of the child as a primary consideration and are not pursued when against States’ obligations under international law, including where there is a reasonable risk that such a return would lead to the violation of the rights of the child;

Taking steps to facilitate the joint temporary accommodation of families with children that are in transit or at their destination, in a safe and child-friendly environment;

Considering providing avenues for status regularization for migrants in an irregular situation residing with their children, including when a child has been born or has lived in the country of destination for an extended period of time, or when returning a child to the parent’s country of origin would be against international obligations, including the child’s best interests;

Taking appropriate measures for children’s inclusive and meaningful participation relating to family reunification, taking into account that every child capable of forming his or her views has the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child, including by providing children with all relevant information in a timely, child-friendly and age- and disability-responsive manner;

Integrating child-friendly and gender-, disability- and age-responsive measures into the migration laws, policies and procedures relevant to the protection of children from the effects of family separation, including by addressing risks of violence and abuse, sexual and gender-based violence, both online and offline, exploitation and human trafficking in all its forms and manifestations, and the smuggling of migrant children;

Encourages States to develop effective and accessible family reunification procedures that allow children to migrate in a regular manner and to facilitate access to procedures for family reunification for migrants at all skill levels through appropriate measures;

Calls upon States of origin, transit and destination to find effective and timely responses to the needs of unaccompanied or separated children as soon as they are identified as such, including, where appropriate and feasible, their integration, voluntary and safe return, in keeping with the principles of due process, the best interests of the child and the principle of non-refoulement, in accordance with international law, and urges States to develop agreements that standardize approaches for identifying and implementing sustainable solutions for unaccompanied or separated children, including a procedure for monitoring their return;

Children allegedly associated with armed forces and armed groups, including those designated as terrorists by the United Nations

Urges States to ensure that children associated, or allegedly associated, with armed groups or terrorist groups are treated primarily as victims, with the best interests of the child as a primary consideration, to consider non-judicial measures as alternatives to prosecution, and alternatives to detention for those accused of crimes, as stipulated in relevant General Assembly resolutions relating to juvenile justice, and to take measures that are focused on rehabilitation and reintegration in an environment that fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child, in accordance with relevant provisions of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol thereto on the involvement of children in armed conflict;

Stresses that States should not detain, prosecute or take punitive measures against children who have been associated with armed forces or armed groups solely for their membership in such forces or groups, while recalling that detention should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, in line with their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

Also stresses the need to pay particular attention to the treatment of children associated, or allegedly associated, with all non-State armed groups, including those who commit acts of terrorism, in particular by establishing standard operating procedures for the rapid handover of such children to relevant civilian child protection actors;

Encourages States to redouble efforts to ensure that children are reunited with their families and communities or integrated into a family and community environment as soon as possible after their release from armed forces or armed groups unless contrary to the best interests of the child, and to invest in measures to decrease stigma and discrimination against children associated or allegedly associated with such forces or groups, including those designated as terrorist groups by the United Nations;

Also encourages States to focus on long-term and sustainable reintegration and rehabilitation opportunities, with special attention paid to programming across the humanitarian-development nexus, for children affected by terrorism and armed conflict that are gender-, disability- and age-responsive, including access to health-care services, psychosocial support and education programmes, as well as to raising awareness and working with communities to avoid the stigmatization of such children and to facilitate their return and family reunification, while taking into account the specific needs of all girls and boys, to contribute to the well-being of children and to sustainable peace and security;

Follow-up

Encourages the special procedures and other human rights mechanisms of the Human Rights Council to continue to integrate a child rights perspective in the implementation of their mandates and to include in their reports information, qualitative analysis and recommendations on the rights of the child, paying attention to the adverse impact of family separation on the full enjoyment of the rights of the child;

Invites all human rights treaty bodies to continue to integrate the rights of the child into their work, in particular into their concluding observations and general comments and recommendations, paying attention to the adverse impact of family separation on the full enjoyment of the rights of the child;

Welcomes ongoing efforts to mainstream the rights of the child into the work of the United Nations system, requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a comprehensive report, in an accessible format, in follow up to the high-level panel on human rights mainstreaming held in 2020, with specific recommendations on how to strengthen a child rights-based approach in the work of the United Nations, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, including the United Nations Children’s Fund, other relevant United Nations bodies and agencies, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, relevant special procedure mandate holders, regional organizations and human rights bodies and civil society, including through consultations with children themselves, and to present the report to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-fifth session;

Decides to continue its consideration of the question of the rights of the child in accordance with its programme of work and its resolutions 7/29 of 28 March 2008 and 19/37 of 23 March 2012, and requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to organize its annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child in 2023 on the theme, “Rights of the child and the digital environment”, and to make the discussion fully accessible to persons with disabilities;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on the rights of the child and inclusive social protection, in close cooperation with all relevant stakeholders, including States, the United Nations Children’s Fund, other relevant United Nations bodies and agencies, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, relevant special procedure mandate holders, regional organizations and human rights bodies, national human rights institutions and civil society, including through consultations with children themselves, to make the report available in an accessible and child-friendly format and to present the report to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-fourth session, and requests the Office of the High Commissioner to organize the annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child in 2024 on the theme of the rights of the child and inclusive social protection, and to make the discussion fully accessible to persons with disabilities.

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Who created this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What does this mandate say?

Migration and international protection

Follow-up

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