In October 2020, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child published its second follow-up progress report on individual communications lodged under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in a communications procedure. According to Article 11 of the Optional Protocol and rule 28 of the Rules of procedure under the Optional Protocol, State Parties are under the obligation to ‘give due consideration to the views of the Committee’ and to submit as soon as possible to the Committee information on action taken in light of these views.

In its second follow-up progress report the Committee lists the information it received from Spain regarding actions the Government of Spain took in light of the views of the Committee in four cases. All four cases date from 2016 and 2017 and were lodged against Spain by unaccompanied migrant children; one regarding a summary expulsion, the other three regarding the procedure for age determination.

From the information of Spain on its actions in all cases it becomes clear that Spain was not yet able to fully implement the views of the Committee. Spain was faced with a dissolved Parliament, but is considering to implement relevant measures to implement the views and prevent further violations when new government administrations have been installed. The complainants were invited to respond to the information Spain sent to the Committee clarifying its actions. They critically assessed Spain’s information. One argued for example that summary expulsions without age assessment had taken place after the Committee adopted its views. Another argued that age assessment still follows a flawed procedure.

The Committee, in all four cases, does not assess the level of compliance by Spain. It decided to maintain the follow-up dialogue and request regular updates from Spain on the status of implementation of its views.