ABSTRACT
This article focuses on ex ante Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) as a sub-set of Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA). CRIA is recommended by the Committee on the Rights of the Child to predict the likely impact of proposals for legislation or policy on children’s rights guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. While ex post evaluation of outcomes is also recommended, the Committee emphasises the importance of prospective assessment to help ensure that legislation, policy and delivery of government programmes respect children’s rights. This article will demonstrate why CRIA is suitable to predict the likely impact of proposals for economic policy on the human rights of children. It discusses core elements of CRIA procedure and examines CRIA in practice, drawing on experience in seven states where the assessment has been introduced at some level of government: Belgium, Bosnia–Herzegovina, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, New Zealand and the UK. This will provide insights into methodological approaches as well as challenges likely to affect CRIA of economic programmes. The core elements of CRIA and HRIA procedure are comparable, and so the article contributes to better understanding HRIA of economic policy generally.
