Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Committee
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is an international treaty adopted in 1989 within the framework of the →United Nations, which aims to protect the rights of persons under the age of 18 and achieve their harmonious development. The implementation of the CRC is monitored by a Committee of 18 independent experts, which examines periodic reports submitted by States, considers individual complaints, adopts general comments to interpret certain provisions of the Convention, and carries out inquiry procedures on grave or systematic violations of children’s rights. The Committee also monitors implementation of the Optional Protocols to the CRC, on involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Article 30 of the CRC repeats practically verbatim Article 27 of the →International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, except that it also refers to indigenous origin: „In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practise his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language.” In addition, Article 17 of the CRC also has explicit relevance for the protection of minorities, as it calls on the State parties to encourage the mass media to have particular regard to the linguistic needs of children who belong to a minority group or who are indigenous.