CRC/C/GC/19 I. Introduction 1. Article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child reads: States parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international cooperation. The present general comment will assist States parties in the implementation of article 4 in relation to public budgets. It identifies States parties’ obligations and makes recommendations on how to realize all the rights under the Convention, especially those of children in vulnerable situations, through effective, efficient, equitable, transparent and sustainable public budget decision-making. 2. Given that article 4 relates to all the rights of the child, and that all those rights can be affected by public budgets, the present general comment applies to the Convention and its Optional Protocols. It provides States parties with a framework to ensure that public budgets contribute to the realization of those rights, and, in section III, provides an analysis of the general principles of the Convention, contained in articles 2, 3, 6 and 12. 3. When referring to a “child” or “children”, the general comment includes all persons of any gender under the age of 18 whose rights are or can be directly or indirectly, positively or negatively, affected by public budget-related decisions. “Children in vulnerable situations” are those who are particularly susceptible to violations of their rights, such as, but not limited to, children with disabilities, children in refugee situations, children from minority groups, children living in poverty, children living in alternative care and children in conflict with the law. 4. For the purpose of the present general comment, the following definitions apply: (a) “Budget” includes public revenue mobilization, budget allocation and expenditures of States; (b) “Obligations of implementation” refer to States parties’ obligations in paragraph 27 below; (c) “General principles of the Convention” refer to the principles in section III; (d) “Budget principles” refer to the principles in section IV; (e) “Legislation” refers to all international, regional, national and subnational treaties and/or legislation relevant to children’s rights; (f) “Policies” refer to all public policies, strategies, regulations, guidelines and statements, including their goals, objectives, indicators and targeted results, that affect the rights of the child, or could do so; (g) “Programmes” refer to frameworks within which States parties set out to achieve the aims of their legislation and policies. Such programmes may directly or indirectly affect children, for example by affecting specific rights of the child, public budget processes, infrastructure and labour; (h) “Subnational” refers to the administrative level, or levels, below the national level, such as regions, provinces, counties or municipalities. 5. In section I, the background, rationale and objective of the general comment are presented. Section II offers a legal analysis of article 4 in relation to public budgets. Section GE.16-12638 3