share information on human rights defenders, with special focus on human rights awards and laureates
Photo: ILO
With Costa Rica as the tenth country to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children or their representatives will have the possibility to file an individual complaint as from April 2014,when the Protocol comes formally into effect, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announcement on 14 January.
This is third and last chapter in the series of animated videos to which I referred earlier. This is the chapter dealing with collective rights and the issue of enforcement. Unfortunately I see a major error with regard to the latter as the clip does not make clear that the Treaty Bodies complaint procedures are only open to those who reside in countries that have (1) ratified the treaty in question (b) recognised the right of individual complaint. For everybody there are the co-called ‘charter-based’ procedures (mechanisms) which are even less legally binding. These together constitute the global level of complaint procedures, against which one can then place the regional systems.
For the rest a solid and neutral explanation of the history and cohesion of the international system.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 