International Mechanism Submissions

The Advocates is the primary provider of legal services to low-income victims of human rights abuses in the Upper Midwest region of the United States, annually serving more than 3000 asylum seekers and youth survivors of labor trafficking in the Upper Midwest region of the United States. The Advocates’ Immigration Court Observation Project, established in 2017, sends volunteers into the Fort Snelling Immigration Court in Minnesota to observe administrative hearings for people, including children, facing removal (deportation) from the United States. In October 2023, The Advocates published Immigration Court Observation Project Issue Brief: Unaccompanied Children.

From our direct legal representation of clients and observation of juvenile cases in Immigration Court in Minnesota, we have noticed the following trends related to children’s rights to access justice and effective remedies and make the following recommendations. Our submission focuses on the barriers and needs of children as rights-holders while administrative immigration proceedings and encourages the Committee on the Rights of the Child to include standards related to immigration relief and access to justice and judicial protection for children in General Comment 27 on children’s rights to access to justice and effective remedies.