ABSTRACT
While the Committee on the Rights of the Child is responsible for monitoring the overall implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the international level, states parties bear the responsibility of ensuring that the CRC is implemented in practice at national level. According to UNICEF, the increasing commitment of states parties to promote and protect children's rights under the CRC is reflected in the rapid proliferation of independent national human rights institutions dedicated to children's rights promotion and protection over the past 15 years. 1 According to a 2012 UNICEF Global Study of Independent Human Rights Institutions for Children, there are now more than 200 such institutions in existence in over 70 countries worldwide. 2 Indeed, the committee ‘… considers the establishment of such bodies to fall within the commitment made by states parties upon ratification to ensure the implementation of the Convention and advance the universal realization of children's rights’ . 3 The establishment of an independent body to monitor the implementation of children's rights is an integral part of the combined efforts at national level to secure optimal implementation of the CRC. 4
