Complaints mechanisms
When we think of the word “complain”, words like “moan”, “grumble” or “lament” spring to mind. But what we are talking about here is legal complaints - i.e. court action against a violation, or filing a communication with an international body such as a UN treaty body or regional complaints mechanism.
Legal complaints about rights violations are a form of legal advocacy. This section of our website details the different types of legal complaints available for children’s rights violations at the international, regional and national levels.
International - Complain to a UN treaty body and get children’s rights issues on the international stage.
Regional - Use the regional human rights bodies (eg European Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Commission, African Commission etc), which at times can be far more progressive than the UN, and are easier to access.
National - Bring a case in your national legal system and get a directly enforceable court decision, complain to your national Ombudsperson, or use the Convention on the Rights of the Child to get your government to respect children’s rights.
Traditional forms of advocacy, such as protests, media campaigns, letter writing etc haven’t done enough to advance children’s rights. So CRIN encourages the use of stronger forms of advocacy - including legal advocacy. Using international, regional and national avenues to legally complain about children’s rights violations are all forms of legal advocacy, which you can find out more about on our legal advocacy page.
Disclaimer: This guide was published in 2013 and updated in 2014. The guide is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. This content is provided by the Child Rights International Network (CRIN) under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.