The role of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in monitoring child abuse and neglect

This article illuminates the important role the Committee on the Rights of the Child played in monitoring child abuse and neglect in the implementation of the now thirty years old Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Attention is first given to the core mandate of the Committee: the monitoring of the progress made and the remaining difficulties in the implementation of the CRC in each of its 196 State parties. The remainder of the article considers how the Committee has attempted to provide guidance in addressing child abuse and neglect through specific recommendations given to individual State parties in its Concluding Observations, thorough considerations presented at the Days of General Discussion, and in the Committee's General Comments.