UN Committee adopts general comment on access to justice

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has adopted a new general comment regarding access to justice following debates over abortion terminology and parental rights. The committee of experts previously circulated a draft of this document last year, which faced objections from the Holy See and the government of Argentina.

The Holy See described the draft's inclusion of a right to effective access to safe abortion services for adolescent girls as unacceptable. The Holy See stated that international law does not recognize a right to abortion and that a lack of access to the procedure does not violate international human rights obligations. The Holy See also criticized the draft for treating children as autonomous agents independent of their families and opposed references to LGBTQ children, noting those terms lack a generally accepted legal definition in international law.

Egypt also objected to the references to LGBTQ children and stated that any mention of abortion must follow national legal standards. Due to these controversies, the committee postponed its final decision on the text earlier this year. The final language of the general comment will remain unavailable until the edited version is published in the coming weeks.