The Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children (CCRC) is one of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's foremost national

children's rights Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors.

advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the developm ...

s, dating back to 1989. The

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

consists of more than fifty

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s. In 1991, the

Canadian Children's Rights Council The Canadian Children's Rights Council Inc. (CCRC); (french: Conseil canadien des droits des enfants inc.) is a non-governmental organization that is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and was founded in 1991. The CCRC describe themselves as a non ...

adopted the same acronym as the coalition. The CCRC released a report in 1999 called "How Does Canada Measure Up?" which criticized the way children were treated in the country, specifically focusing on children with

disabilities Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, se ...

. In 2003, the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

consulted the CCRC on the country's adherence to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Convention on the Rights of the Child The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Con ...

(CRC). The CCRC published a shortened version of the CRC and disseminated it among Canadian youth in order to promote this

international human rights instrument International human rights instruments are the treaties and other international texts that serve as legal sources for international human rights law and the protection of human rights in general. There are many varying types, but most can be clas ...

. The CCRC hosted a forum called "Children: Silenced Citizens?" in 2007 to discuss the CRC. The CCRC submitted a

plea In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a criminal case under common law using the adversarial system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response ...

on behalf of

Omar Khadr Omar Ahmed Said Khadr ( ar, عمر أحمد سعيد خضر; born September 19, 1986) is a Canadian citizen who at the age of 15 was detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for ten years, during which he pleaded guilty to the murder of U ...

in the 2009

legal case A legal case is in a general sense a dispute between opposing parties which may be resolved by a court, or by some equivalent legal process. A legal case is typically based on either civil or criminal law. In most legal cases there are one or mor ...

''Prime Minister of Canada et al. v. Omar Ahmed Khadr''. Also on 2009, the organization established a Child Rights Award. In 2010, the CCRC collaborated with YOUCAN and

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

Canada to produce a

brochure A brochure is originally an Information, informative paper document (often also used for advertising) that can be folded into a template, pamphlet, or Folded leaflet, leaflet. A brochure can also be a set of related unfolded papers put into a po ...

to inform Canadian youth about the

Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC), also known as the child soldier treaty, is a multilateral treaty whereby states agree to: 1) prohibit the conscription ...

. In 2011, the CCRC submitted a report called "Right in Principle, Right in Practice" to the

Committee on the Rights of the Child The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a body of experts that monitor and report on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee also monitors the Convention's three optional protoco ...

, making recommendations about how to improve Canadian

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

regarding children's rights. The report also stated that the Canadian government's implementation of the CRC over previous two decades has been sporadic at best. In 2018, the group advocated for a pollution tax on behalf of Canadian children and joined Gen Squeeze coalition that aimed to get

intervenor status In law, intervention is a procedure to allow a nonparty, called intervenor (also spelled intervener) to join ongoing litigation, either as a matter of right or at the discretion of the court, without the permission of the original litigants. The ...

in two court cases that the provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan have filed challenging the federal government's legal authority to impose a

carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions required to produce goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the "hidden" social costs of carbon emissions, which are otherwise felt only in indirect ways like more sev ...

References

External links

Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children – Canadian Political Parties and Political Interest Groups
– Web Archive created by the University of Toronto Libraries {{Authority control Children's rights organizations Organizations established in 1989 1989 establishments in Canada Child-related organizations in Canada Human rights organizations based in Canada Children's rights in Canada