Children's Rights Commissioner of the Flemish Community

The Children's Rights Commissioner of the Flemish Community (also known as Kinderrechtencommissariaat, often abbreviated KRC), formally the Office of the Children's Rights Commissioner, is an independent ombuds institution attached to the Flemish Parliament in Belgium. It monitors compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in the Flemish Community and Flemish Region, handles complaints from or on behalf of minors, mediates in conflicts involving children, and advises the Flemish Parliament and Flemish Government on legislation and policy that affects children and young people.

The office was created by a Flemish Parliament decree of 15 July 1997 and took up its work in 1999. It is headed by the Children's Rights Commissioner (Kinderrechtencommissaris), who is appointed by the Flemish Parliament for a renewable six-year term. Together with the French-speaking community's Délégué général aux droits de l'enfant, it is one of the children's ombuds bodies created in Belgium's federal system.

History

The Office's mandate is grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Belgium in 1991. Belgium ratified the UNCRC in 1991, which created an obligation to set up an independent body to monitor children's rights. Drawing on that obligation, on examples from countries such as Norway (which had introduced the world's first children's ombudsperson in 1981), and on a 1996 Council of Europe recommendation, the Flemish Parliament voted on 15 July 1997 to establish a Commission for Children's Rights and the post of Children's Rights Commissioner.

After a public selection process held outside parliamentary influence, the Flemish Parliament officially appointed Ankie Vandekerckhove as the first Commissioner on 13 May 1998. Following an initial period devoted to setting up the office and recruiting a multidisciplinary staff, the office became fully operational in January 1999. The founding decree was subsequently amended in 2003 and 2005 to refine the appointment procedure and the rules on reporting to the Flemish Parliament.

Mandate and tasks

The Office's mandate is laid down in the 1997 founding decree. The Commissioner is appointed by the Flemish Parliament after a public call for candidates and a comparative assessment, must be a Belgian citizen of good standing in full possession of civil and political rights, and may not have held public elected office in the three years before the call. The mandate is six years and may be renewed once. Within the limits of those powers the Commissioner does not take instructions from any public authority and is fully independent in the exercise of his or her duties.

According to the institution's own description, the Office picks up signals from children, young people, their immediate environment and professionals working with them. It then provides information and advice, investigates complaints, mediates in disputes, and translates structural problems into dossiers, opinions and reports for the Flemish Parliament. It also tests new policy initiatives and proposed legislation against the UNCRC and issues recommendations on its own initiative or at the request of the Flemish Parliament. The Commissioner reports each year to the Flemish Parliament, and these reports are made public and discussed in the relevant parliamentary committees and, where appropriate, in plenary session.

The decree also envisages a contribution to Belgium's reporting obligations under the UNCRC: the Commissioner sends his or her reports to the federal authorities so that they may be taken into account when Belgium prepares the periodic reports it must submit to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva under Article 44 of the Convention. The Office has accordingly produced parallel reports describing developments and gaps in children's rights protection in Flanders.

Complaints line

The Office runs a Complaints Line (Klachtenlijn) where children, young people and adults acting on their behalf can report alleged violations of children's rights in fields including healthcare, education, justice, employment, mobility, family life, town and country planning and housing. The line investigates complaints in line with the legal framework, the UNCRC and ombudsman standards, and tries, wherever possible, to take into account the child's own perspective. Recent annual reports indicate that the Office handles roughly 1,200 complaints a year, many of which touch on family conflicts, mental health, school conflicts and youth care.

Monitoring closed youth-care institutions

The Office hosts the secretariat of the Supervisory Commission for Closed Youth Care Institutions (Commissie van Toezicht voor Jeugdinstellingen, CVTJ), which sends volunteer monthly commissioners into closed and semi-closed youth-care facilities to speak to the young people housed there about their living conditions. The roots of this oversight body lie in groundwork carried out by the Office around 2010, before the Commission was formally established in 2017.

Structure

The Office consists of the Children's Rights Commissioner and a multidisciplinary team of legal, policy and communications staff, plus dedicated complaints-line and CVTJ staff. The Commissioner is supported in carrying out the Office's tasks by a Consultative and Advisory Body composed of representatives of the political groups in the Flemish Parliament and representatives of civil society and the academic world. The Office is housed in the Flemish Parliament complex in central Brussels. Each year, the Flemish Parliament approves the budget needed for the operation of the Office on the basis of a proposal from the Commissioner.

International cooperation

The Office is a founding-era full member of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC), the European association of independent children's rights institutions. The first Commissioner, Ankie Vandekerckhove, was actively involved in the establishment and early development of the network and served on its Bureau. In September 2023 the Office hosted ENOC's 27th Annual Conference and General Assembly in Brussels, on the theme of the role of independent children's rights institutions in upholding children's rights in Europe.

The current Commissioner, Caroline Vrijens, sits on the ENOC Bureau and represents the Office in dealings with the Council of Europe, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and other international bodies working on children's rights.

See also

  • Children's ombudsman
  • European Network of Ombudspersons for Children
  • Convention on the Rights of the Child
  • Flemish Parliament