Age determination of unaccompanied migrant children : an appraisal of the jurisprudence of the Committee on the Rights of the Child

Abstract

Unaccompanied migrant children arriving in Europe without documentation face an immediate hurdle to access the special protection measures that most states have in place for them. Many European states seek to establish the chronological age of a person using methods of age determination that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which oversees the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, has found unreliable and to infringe children’s rights. This article examines the Committee’s jurisprudence through a consideration of its General Comments and a series of decisions under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure. It concludes with reflections on the contribution that the Committee’s jurisprudence makes to states’ guidance on age determination methods that are consistent with children’s rights.