2010 HRC On the rights of the child: the fight against sexual violence

HRC 13th ses­sion
15 April 2010

Res­o­lu­tion A/HRC/RES/13/20

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Analysis of precedential value

The UN Human Rights Coun­cil is com­posed of elected rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 47 Mem­ber States; together, they are respon­si­ble for coor­di­nat­ing inves­ti­ga­tions of and responses to human rights vio­la­tions. This doc­u­ment was co-drafted by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of 58 Mem­ber States–39 of which were not mem­bers of the sit­ting Human Rights Coun­cil–and adopted with­out a vote in April 2010.

Used as precedent

positive legal determinants

• “Urges all States to take effec­tive and appro­pri­ate leg­isla­tive and other mea­sures or to strengthen, where they exist, leg­is­la­tion and pol­icy estab­lished to pro­hibit, crim­i­nal­ize and elim­i­nate all forms of sex­ual vio­lence and sex­ual abuse against chil­dren in all set­tings.” (para­graph 2(a))

• “Calls upon all States to pre­vent, crim­i­nal­ize, pun­ish and erad­i­cate the prac­tices of the sale of chil­dren, child slav­ery, com­mer­cial sex­ual exploita­tion of chil­dren, child pros­ti­tu­tion and child pornog­ra­phy, includ­ing the use of the Inter­net and new tech­nolo­gies for those prac­tices, and to take effec­tive mea­sures, as appro­pri­ate, against the crim­i­nal­iza­tion of chil­dren who are vic­tims of exploita­tion.” (para­graph 5)

human rights

• “Urges all States to estab­lish, main­tain, strengthen or des­ig­nate, in com­ple­men­tar­ity with effec­tive gov­ern­men­tal struc­tures for chil­dren, inde­pen­dent chil­dren’s rights insti­tu­tions, such as chil­dren’s ombudsper­sons or equiv­a­lents or focal points on chil­dren’s rights in exist­ing national human rights insti­tu­tions or gen­eral ombudsper­son offices, that are suf­fi­ciently funded and acces­si­ble to chil­dren, which should play a key role in the inde­pen­dent mon­i­tor­ing of actions taken to pro­mote and pro­tect the rights of the child, includ­ing the pre­ven­tion of sex­ual vio­lence and abuse against chil­dren, and to pro­mote the uni­ver­sal real­iza­tion of rights of child vic­tims of sex­ual vio­lence and abuse.” (para­graph 2(f))

key population and community leadership

• “Urges all States to ensure the mean­ing­ful par­tic­i­pa­tion of chil­dren in all mat­ters and deci­sions affect­ing their lives through their expres­sion of their views, and that those views are given due weight in accor­dance with their age and matu­rity, includ­ing in all admin­is­tra­tive and judi­cial pro­ceed­ings, and that dis­abil­ity-, gen­der- and age-appro­pri­ate assis­tance is pro­vided to enable the active and equal par­tic­i­pa­tion of all chil­dren.” (para­graph 2(l))

• “Urges all States to ensure an active engage­ment of chil­dren in the devel­op­ment of mea­sures of pre­ven­tion, response and mon­i­tor­ing of sex­ual vio­lence and abuse against them, includ­ing through the pro­mo­tion and devel­op­ment of child-led ini­tia­tives.” (para­graph 2(m))

key and vulnerable populations

• “Calls upon States to pay spe­cial atten­tion to the pro­tec­tion from sex­ual vio­lence and abuse of mar­gin­al­ized and vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren, such as chil­dren belong­ing to minori­ties, chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties, migrant chil­dren, indige­nous chil­dren, chil­dren work­ing and/or liv­ing on the street, refugee, asy­lum-seek­ing and inter­nally dis­placed chil­dren, in par­tic­u­lar those who are unac­com­pa­nied, and chil­dren held in deten­tion, and to take all nec­es­sary actions, includ­ing the use of deten­tion as a mea­sure of last resort, and to ensure that those who are vic­tims of sex­ual vio­lence receive spe­cial pro­tec­tion and assis­tance in accor­dance with inter­na­tional law.” (para­graph 4)