OSVRT NA OSNOVNE AKTIVNOSTI KOMITETA UJEDINjENIH NACIJA ZA PRAVA DETETA

Abstract

The paper reviews the basic activities and the role of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child as a supervisory body for the interpretation and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Since the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is a non-judicial body, its basic role is supervisory and advisory. Hence, the views of the Committee have the importance of "soft law", i.e. a source of law in the material sense, which does not diminish the essential strength of the interpretation of the rules of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In this sense, three basic fields of activity of the Committee can be distinguished. First, the Committee issues General Comments related to the interpretation and application of certain rights or areas of the Convention, which has the meaning of authentic interpretation. Furthermore, the Committee also adopts Concluding Observations in relation to the implementation of the Convention in individual countries based on the periodic reports that the countries are obliged to send to it. Finally, the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention from 2011 also provides a procedure for submitting individual communications to the Committee, claiming there is a violation of the specific rights of the child by a certain state towards an individual child.