Research by ISS and Utrecht University helped inform the Dutch government’s decision to withdraw its reservation to children’s right to social security under the UN Child Rights Convention.
Netherlands to withdraw reservation to UN Child Rights Convention
On 10 March 2026 the new Minister of Social Affairs and Employment Hans Vijlbrief submitted the ‘First Progress Report on the National Poverty and Debt Program’ to the Second Chamber of the Duch Parliament. In the letter to Parliament [in Dutch] accompanying the report, the Minister has communicated the Dutch government decision to withdraw the reservation of the Netherlands to Article 26 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Article 26: children’s right to social security
Article 26 CRC addresses the children’s right to benefit from social security. The Netherlands is the only state in the world that has registered a reservation in relation to this article. The main motivation was government reluctance to recognize an independent child right to security, and thereby, for example, the possibility of child social security claims made independently from their parents or caregivers. Both the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Dutch children’s rights organizations such as the Kinderrechtencollectief have called for withdrawal of this reservation for a long time.
Research behind the government decision
In 2024, Merel Jonker (Associate Professor in family law at Utrecht University) and ISS Professor of international law and development dr. Karin Arts, conducted research commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs exploring the legal consequences of both the reservation and a possible withdrawal thereof. This resulted in the report [in Dutch] ‘The Legal Social Security Position of Minors in the Netherlands: An Exploration of the Legal Consequences of Withdrawing the Reservation to Article 26 CRC’, submitted to Parliament in June 2024. The report is referenced in the above-mentioned letter to Parliament as underpinning the government decision to withdraw the reservation. This withdrawal can only be formalized after parliamentary approval.
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