Committee on the Rights of the Child
Eighty-sixth session
7–25 September 2020
Item 4 of the provisional agenda
C onsideration of reports of States parties
List of issues in relation to the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Greece
The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 15 June 2020. The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights set out in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party.
Part I
1.Please clarify the roles of the National Mechanism for Development, Monitoring and Assessment of Action Plans for the Rights of the Child (established by Law No. 4491/2017) and the National Observatory on the Rights of Children in coordinating the implementation of the Convention at different levels, and specify their human and financial resources. Please provide information on progress made in adopting the national action plan on the rights of the child, in particular on the time frame for adoption, the budget allocated for its implementation and the extent to which children have participated in its formulation. Specify the amount allocated to the children’s rights department of the Greek Ombudsman.
2.Please describe what plans have been developed: to align legislation and practice with the Convention, including regarding child marriage and inheritance, marriage under sharia law and in the Roma community, social housing, mandatory religious education and the long residence requirement for nationals of countries outside the European Union to claim benefits; to establish a central database on children; to introduce a child-rights approach to budgeting and budgetary allocations for children, in particular those in vulnerable situations; and to ensure the sustainability of services funded from external sources.
3.Please specify how the determination of the best interests of the child is ensured, including with regard to migrant children, and provide data on the use of the “best interests assessment tool” in asylum and relocation procedures. Please specify when it is mandatory to seek and take into account children’s views. Please comment on the compliance of Law No. 4636/2019 with the Convention, in particular regarding the use of accelerated asylum procedures, weaker procedural safeguards, immigration detention and the practice of conditioning the quality of reception on school enrolment.
4.Please specify the measures taken to facilitate the early birth registration of Roma children and the correction of birth certificates, plans developed to remove the indication of parents’ religion from identity documents and progress achieved in the transliteration of non-Greek names in identity documents. Please explain whether children who are born in Greek territory can acquire Greek citizenship given that they might become stateless otherwise. Given that Greek law recognizes civil partnerships for same-sex couples, please explain how filiation of children born to such couples is established and the conditions under which the children can acquire Greek citizenship.
5.Please provide information on: progress made in implementing the actions on bullying and the plans to strengthen teacher training to prevent, detect and address different forms of violence, including violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and to toughen sanctions for abuse by teachers; any mechanisms monitoring the implementation of Laws No. 3500/2006 and No. 4322/2015; any complaints mechanisms and support services for children; and efforts made to improve the collection of data on children victims of violence.
6.Please specify the measures taken: to deinstitutionalize children with disabilities (in line with ministerial decision No. 60135/1579) by ensuring access to day care and developing community services, including for leisure and play, including for children with severe disabilities; to prevent and address violence in institutions; to strengthen access to quality health care; to provide adequate financial support; and to improve data collection. Please provide information on progress made in implementing Laws No. 3699/2008, No. 4368/2016 and No. 4547/2018 regarding inclusive education. Furthermore, please provide information about the situation of children in the children’s care centre in Lechania.
7.Please specify how the measures taken have contributed to improving access to health care and quality education for all children. Also, please inform the Committee on progress made in strengthening the teaching capacity and integrating children’s rights and sexual education into school curricula and teacher training courses. Please specify what efforts have been made: to improve school infrastructure and transportation; ensure safe access to schools; provide and maintain a sufficient number of certified playgrounds for young children and spaces for adolescents; and increase the provision of early childcare. Please provide information on the measures taken to address the issues related to intersex children.
8.Please provide information on: measures taken to prevent and address suicide among children and their impact on its prevalence; the impact of measures taken to address substance abuse; measures taken to address issues related to children in street situations; any plans developed to address the abandonment of babies; the impact of the “no child alone” scheme; and the composition of the youth parliament and how the representation of children of different origins and children with disabilities is ensured in that parliament and in student councils.
9.Please clarify what steps have been taken: to promote equal parenting; to align the child’s right to maintain personal relations and direct contact with a non-resident parent with the Convention; and to ensure proper application of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Clarify what progress has been made in adopting the national deinstitutionalization strategy, increasing family support and community services, strengthening foster care, including for unaccompanied children, establishing standards for care provision and emergency accommodation, and ensuring that placements undergo review.
10.Regarding migrant children, please describe the efforts being made: to ensure appropriate reception conditions and capacity; to review the “containment policy”; to ban immigration detention and “protective custody”; to establish guardianship; to facilitate family reunification; to prevent and effectively address psychological distress and cases of violence and self-harm; to ensure access to quality education, health care, appropriate information, legal assistance and interpretation; to expeditiously investigate reports of violence and deaths among unaccompanied children and migrant children and bring the perpetrators to justice; to ensure victim identification, protection and support in cases of exploitation and abuse; and to address negative attitudes. Provide information about the impact of the “hot spot” policy on children’s rights.
11.Please specify what progress has been made in addressing exclusion and poverty among Roma children. Please provide information on the impact of measures taken on their ability to access food, water, housing, education and health care and to change negative attitudes. Specify the measures taken to tackle underreporting of discrimination and violence against Roma children and provide relevant statistics. Please provide data on how many Roma children enrol in, complete and drop out of school. Clarify which body is responsible for Roma inclusion.
12.Please explain how it is ensured that: deprivation of liberty is used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest possible time, in the light of the 2019 amendments to the Penal Code; reformatory measures are implemented; indicted and convicted boys and girls are detained separately from each other and from adults; and living conditions are dignified. Specify what progress has been made to integrate into domestic law European Union directive 2016/800 on procedural safeguards for children who are suspects or accused persons in criminal proceedings, to implement electronic home monitoring and to establish “children’s houses”, to address child sexual abuse and child justice through a single multi-agency facility, and “juvenile care units”.
13.Please provide information on the implementation of the Committee’s previous recommendations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, in particular regarding: the criminalization of the recruitment of children under 18 years of age in the State armed forces and by non-State armed groups; the measures taken to identify at an early stage children entering the State party who may have been involved in armed conflict abroad and to provide them with the required care and assistance; and legislation prohibiting the export of arms to States that may recruit children under 18 years of age (CRC/C/OPAC/GRC/CO/1).
14.Concerning the Committee’s previous recommendations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, please specify what plans have been made to align the Penal Code with articles 2 and 3 of the Optional Protocol and, in particular, to explicitly criminalize the sale of children, to incorporate the provisions of the Optional Protocol into its national policy framework, to provide systematic professional training on the Optional Protocol and to establish mechanisms for identifying, protecting and supporting victims of all offences under the Optional Protocol (CRC/C/OPSC/GRC/CO/1).
Part II
15.The Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update (no more than three pages) on the information presented in its report with regard to:
(a)New bills or laws, and their respective regulations;
(b)New institutions (and their mandates) or institutional reforms;
(c)Recently introduced policies, programmes and action plans and their scope and financing;
(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.
Part III
Data, statistics and other information, if available
16.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and social sectors by indicating the percentage of each budget line in terms of the total national budget and the gross national product. Please also provide information on the geographic allocation of those resources.
17.Please provide, if available, updated statistical data disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic and national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, for the past three years, on:
(a)Cases of abuse and violence against children, including all forms of corporal punishment, child sexual abuse in and outside the home, domestic violence, bullying and online and sexual violence and abuse, as well as prosecutions and sentences handed down in the State party in such cases;
(b)Cases of child deaths due to accidents, child abuse and child suicide;
(c)Cases of children living with HIV;
(d)Cases of child marriage and adolescent pregnancies;
(e)Roma children;
(f)Stateless children;
(g)Asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children, including unaccompanied or separated children, including those:
(i)In immigration detention centres, “protective custody,” reception and identification centres, shelters, police facilities, hospitals and street situations;
(ii)Deported from the State party;
(iii)Ordered to return to their country of origin without a hearing on their asylum applications or claims for international protection;
(iv)Relocated;
(v)Disappeared from reception facilities;
(vi)Trafficked for sexual and/or labour purposes, as well as prosecutions and sentences handed down in the State party in such cases;
(vii)Attending school;
(viii)With access to health care.
(h)Children working in the informal sector;
(i)Children in street situations;
(j)Children living in poverty;
(k)Children who have acquired Greek citizenship.
18.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic and national origin and geographic location regarding the situation of children deprived of a family environment, for the past three years, on the number of children:
(a)Separated from their families, including the duration of the separation;
(b)Placed in institutions under all relevant ministries, as well as on the number of institutions and data on children in each institution disaggregated by age and sex;
(c)Placed with foster families;
(d)Available for adoption;
(e)Adopted domestically, as well as through intercountry and private adoptions.
19.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic and national origin and geographic location, for the past three years, on the number of children with disabilities:
(a)Living with their families;
(b)Living in institutions;
(c)Attending child day care;
(d)Attending preschools;
(e)Attending regular primary schools;
(f)Attending regular secondary schools;
(g)Attending “integration” classes in regular primary schools;
(h)Attending “integration” classes in regular secondary schools;
(i)Receiving individualized support;
(j)Attending special schools;
(k)Out of school;
(l)Abandoned by their families.
20.Please provide, if available, updated statistical data disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic and national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, for the past three years, on children in conflict with the law who have been:
(a)Arrested;
(b)Referred to diversion programmes;
(c)In pretrial detention;
(d)Detained with adults;
(e)Indicted and detained together with convicted children;
(f)Convicted and serving a sentence in detention and the length of the sentence.
21.Please provide information on how the planning, implementation and monitoring of measures for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals integrate a child rights-based approach, including with regard to child participation and data collection, and how they promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and its Optional Protocols.
22.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have been outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.
23.In addition, the State party may list areas affecting children that it considers to be of priority with regard to the implementation of the Convention.