CMW/C/GC/3-CRC/C/GC/22
residence status; citizenship status; age; economic status; political or other opinion; or other
status.
4.
By virtue of their complementary mandates and shared commitment to strengthening
protection of all children in the context of international migration, both Committees decided
to develop these joint general comments. While the present comment is based on the
provisions of both Conventions, it is important to underline that the human rights norms
clarified herein are built on the provisions and principles of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child. Therefore, the authoritative guidance contained in the present joint general
comment is equally applicable to all States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child and/or the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant
Workers and Members of Their Families.
A.
Background
5.
The present joint general comment builds on the increasing attention that both
Committees have given to the rights of children in the context of international migration
through a number of initiatives, including:
(a)
Committee on the Rights of the Child general comment No. 6 (2005) on treatment of
unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, which includes a set
of recommendations specifically for those migrant children outside their country of origin
who are unaccompanied and separated;
(b)
A day of general discussion held in Geneva in September 2012 by the Committee on
the Rights of the Child, on the rights of all children in the context of international migration,
for which the Committee drafted a background paper and adopted a report, with conclusions
and recommendations;1
(c)
The endorsement in 2016 by the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families of the recommended principles to guide
actions concerning children on the move and other children affected by migration. 2 In
addition, both Committees are members of the Inter-Agency Working Group to End Child
Immigration Detention;
(d)
The increasing number of recommendations made by both Committees in recent years
to States parties to their respective Conventions on a variety of human rights issues that affect
children’s rights in the context of international migration.
6.
The present joint general comment also builds on other United Nations resolutions
and reports, various outputs of the United Nations human rights mechanisms and United
Nations, intergovernmental and civil society initiatives relating to children in the context of
international migration, including:
(a)
The statement by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the
duties of States towards refugees and migrants under the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (E/C.12/2017/1), in which the Committee recalled in particular
that “protection from discrimination cannot be made conditional upon an individual having
a regular status in the host country”, and also recalled that “all children within a State,
including those with an undocumented status, had a right to receive education and access to
adequate food and affordable health care”;
(b)
The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, in which the Heads of State
and Government undertook to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all
refugee and migrant children, regardless of their status, and giving primary consideration at
all times to the best interests of the child, and to comply with their obligations under the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. 3
1
2
3
2
See www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/Discussion2012.aspx.
Available from www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CMW/Recommended-principle_EN.pdf.
General Assembly resolution 71/1, para. 32.