A/HRC/37/33
compulsory recruitment, nor take direct part in hostilities. Moreover, where a child has
been displaced from his or her country of origin as a result of a humanitarian situation,
article 22 provides that children seeking refugee status must receive appropriate protection
and humanitarian assistance. Where such children are unaccompanied, they must be
assisted in tracing members of their family in order to achieve reunification, where
possible.
12.
The above-mentioned articles should be read in conjunction with the norms set out
in both international humanitarian law and international refugee law. International
humanitarian law requires States to accord children special respect and care, and to give
them preferential treatment. Unaccompanied and separated children should be identified,
and family reunification pursued. International refugee law recommends that States take
measures necessary to protect refugees who are minors, and particularly unaccompanied
children.
13.
The impact that humanitarian situations and emergencies have on children’s lives,
and on the enjoyment of their rights, is acknowledged regularly by the Committee on the
Rights of the Child in its concluding observations, as well as in its general comments No. 1
(education), No. 6 (unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin),
No. 11 (indigenous children), No. 12 (right of the child to be heard), No. 15 (health), No.
16 (impact of business on children’s rights), No. 17 (rest, leisure and play) and No. 20
(rights in adolescence), and in joint general comment No. 3 (2017) of the Committee on the
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and No.
22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (human rights of children in the
context of international migration), to be read in conjunction with joint general comment
No. 4 (2017) of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families and No. 23 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child
(State obligations regarding the human rights of children in the context of international
migration in countries of origin, transit, destination and return).
A.
Equality and non-discrimination
14.
According to article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the obligations
of the State under the Convention apply to each child within the State’s territory and to all
children subject to its jurisdiction. The Committee on the Rights of the Child clarified in its
general comment 6 (2005) that State obligations cannot be arbitrarily and unilaterally
curtailed either by excluding zones or areas from a State’s territory or by defining particular
zones or areas as not, or only partly, under the jurisdiction of the State. Moreover, the
obligations of the State under the Convention apply within the borders of the State,
including with respect to those children who come under the State’s jurisdiction while
attempting to enter the country’s territory. The rights stipulated in the Convention therefore
extend not only to children who are citizens of a State party but also to all children within
the State party’s jurisdiction – including asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children –
irrespective of their nationality, immigration status or statelessness.
15.
In responding to humanitarian situations, as well as in planning and recovery efforts,
States must, in accordance with article 2, ensure that all children have equal opportunities
for the realization of their rights, without discrimination of any kind. During periods of
instability, the most vulnerable in society find themselves in an even more precarious
situation. Emergencies can further marginalize those already at risk of discrimination, and
existing patterns of discrimination are often amplified.6 Children who are particularly
vulnerable to rights violations in humanitarian situations include children in extreme
poverty, migrant children, internally displaced and refugee children, children in street
situations, indigenous children, children belonging to religious and/or ethnic minorities, and
separated and unaccompanied children.
6
4
Child Protection Working Group, Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action,
Global Protection Cluster, p. 15.
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