A 11 Initiative submitted comments to the Draft General Comment no. 25 on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment to the Committee on the Rights of the Child

On 15 November 2020, A 11 Initiative submitted its comments to the Committe on the Rights of the Child in line with the Committee’s call for comments on the text of the Draft General Comment no. 25 on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment.

The submission focuses on guarantees related to the child’s right to privacy in the context of the digital environment – the right to protection of personal data, and the right to access, amend and seek the erasure of their personal data from all parties that collect and process personal data in the digital environment. A 11 Initaitive also wrote comments related to the protection of privacy of children in conflict with the law, and in the context of the digital environment, paying particular attention to privacy of correspondence, as well as the right to protection of privacy of children victims of rights violations.

Additionally, A 11 Initiative addressed the issue of the right to education in relation to the digital environment, specifically from the standpoint of emergency and disaster situations, focusing on the examples of problems in access to education of children across the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Namely, a vast majority of countries switched to some form of distance learning during the pandemic, while distance learning mostly included some form of internet content/lessons. However, there are great disparities across the world in access to the internet and therefore education among children from particularly disadvantaged groups. Therefore, A 11 Initiative emphasized that the General Comment ought to remind States parties to the Convention of their obligation to ensure equal access to education without discrimination to each child, especially during times of emergency or disaster.

You can access the submission on the following link.

 

This submission is created under the “Reclaiming Privacy: A Tool to Fight Oppression” project implemented by organizations Partners – Serbia, Share Defense, “Da se zna”, Belgrade Open School, ATINA and A 11 Initiative with the support of EU Delegation to Serbia.

Content of this submission is the entire responsibility of Partners – Serbia, Share Defense, “Da se zna”, Belgrade Open School, ATINA and A 11 Initiative and that content by no means expresses the official views of the European Union.