A/HRC/27/31 A. Legislative measures 42. Article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates the requirement for States parties to take all necessary legislative measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the Convention. This includes incorporating into national legal frameworks all international human rights commitments, ensuring that services and medications are available at appropriate levels of the health system to maximize safe uptake, ensuring nondiscrimination in access to health-related information and services, and removing impediments to realizing the child’s rights to health and survival. 43. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has determined that “a comprehensive review of all domestic legislation and related administrative guidance to ensure full compliance with the Convention is an obligation” and that States parties “need to ensure, by all appropriate means, that the provisions of the Convention are given legal effect within their domestic legal systems”.23 This should begin with an assessment of the existing legislative framework and structures for any potential impediment to, or discriminatory effect on, reducing child mortality and morbidity. Alongside an analysis of data on priority child health issues, such an assessment can highlight where current legislative measures are sufficient, where amendments or repeal may be needed and where legislative gaps exist that need to be filled. 44. States are required to enact national laws that: (a) Incorporate international human rights commitments relevant to child health and survival; (b) Place a statutory obligation on the State to provide the services, programmes, human resources and infrastructure needed to realize children’s rights relating to health and survival, including those considered core obligations;24 (c) Recognize children as rights-holders and define the scope of their rights relating to health and survival based on international human rights obligations; (d) Clarify what services children, pregnant women and parents are entitled to claim, and disseminate that information; (e) Provide a statutory entitlement to essential, child-sensitive, high-quality health and related services for pregnant women and children under 5, including birth registration and other social services, irrespective of their ability to pay; (f) Regulate public and private services and medications relating to child health to ensure that they cause no harm and are of good quality; (g) Enable public participation and dialogue in legislative processes by ensuring functional national and subnational political processes and public forums; (h) Provide a framework for access to effective, child-friendly legal remedies, both judicial and non-judicial, in the case of human rights violations in relation to child health and survival, and ensure that statutes of limitation are not unduly restrictive.25 23 24 25 CRC/GC/2003/5, paras. 18-19. E/C.12/2000/4, paras. 43-44; CRC/C/GC/15, para. 73. General Assembly resolution 60/147, annex, para. 7. 9