Committee on the Rights of the Child

Seventy-fifth session

15 May-2 June 2017

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the combined third and fourth periodic reports of Qatar

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 23 February 2017. 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 provide information on measures and programmes introduced by the State party to ensure equal enjoyment of the rights set forth in the Convention by all children in the State party, particularly children born out of wedlock, children with disabilities, migrant children and children from minorities. Please also provide information on the measures taken to address the persistence of gender stereotypes and attitudes that impede the full enjoyment of all human rights by girls.

2.Please explain what measures have been taken to explicitly prohibit in law corporal punishment in the home, alternative care settings, day care and schools. Please clarify whether legal defence such as “reasonable chastisement” is admissible to justify corporal punishment in the home. Please provide information on measures taken to prevent domestic violence and sexual violence against children, including migrant girls employed in domestic work, to protect and support child victims and to prosecute and sanction perpetrators. Please clarify whether domestic violence and marital rape are criminalized.

3.Please provide information on the rights of mothers and fathers both in law and in practice with regard to equality in child custody and guardianship matters, including the application of hadana. Please also provide information on both the law and the practice regarding child support provided by fathers to sons and daughters, and regarding inheritance for boys and girls.

4.Please provide additional information on the situation of children deprived of a family environment, particularly in relation to kafala. Please also provide information on the number of residential care facilities in use, and indicate whether the State party licenses and undertakes regular inspections of the facilities.

5.Please provide information on living conditions for children living in prison with their mothers, particularly on how their access to nutrition, including breastfeeding, and to health and education services, is ensured. Please clarify how the best interests of the child are taken as a primary consideration when sentencing pregnant women or women with young children, including in cases involving extramarital relations.

6.Please provide updated information on the implementation of the national strategies on persons with disabilities referred to in the State party report (CRC/C/QAT/3-4, paras. 249 and 250), including a strategy on inclusive education. Please elaborate on how such strategies have facilitated the deinstitutionalization of children with disabilities, including psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, and on the provision of community-based support and inclusive education for them.

7.Please inform the Committee about the legal or administrative procedures in the State party for seeking asylum and refugee status, and about protection and support provided to refugee and asylum-seeking children, including access to basic services such as health care and education. Please clarify how the State party respects the principle of non-refoulement. Please provide information on any specific measures taken to respond to the situation of refugees from the Syrian Arab Republic.

8.Please inform the Committee about measures taken to prevent the detention of migrant children, including those who are with their families, and to ensure that they enjoy the rights to have their best interests taken as a primary consideration and to family unity in migration processes. Please describe the measures that have been taken to ensure access to education and health care for migrant children, including those in an irregular situation.

9.Please provide more detailed information on measures taken to combat child labour and its worst forms, including penalties prescribed by law, and to provide support to victims and promote awareness-raising initiatives about the value of education and the rights of children in that regard. Please also provide information on measures taken to ensure respect for the minimum age of employment and authorized hours of work, including inspections, especially in the agriculture and family business sectors and for domestic workers.

10.Please inform the Committee about measures taken to raise the minimum age for criminal responsibility, which currently remains at the age of 7, and to bring children aged between 16 and 17 into the juvenile justice system. Please clarify whether life imprisonment is a lawful penalty for offences committed by children above 16 years of age, and whether the death sentence and corporal punishment are permissible under sharia law for offences committed while under the age of 18, and if so, under what conditions.

11.Please provide information on measures taken to implement the Committee’s recommendations to review the Criminal Code in relation to the coverage of all purposes and forms of the sale of children, equal treatment of women and men in the criminalization of prostitution and the abolition of the requirement of “double criminality” for the prosecution of offences covered by the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (see CRC/C/OPSC/QAT/CO/1, paras. 22 and 24).

12.Please provide information on measures taken to follow up on the recommendations made by the Committee in its concluding observations on the State party’s initial report submitted under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/QAT/CO/1, para. 19).

Part II

13.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 and 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

14.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on 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.

15.Please provide, if available, updated statistical data disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, geographic location, socioeconomic status and migratory status, for the past three years, on the number of:

(a)Complaints received by the National Human Rights Committee from children or on behalf of children, and those investigated or followed up by the Committee;

(b)Incidences of domestic violence and sexual violence against children, including the number of cases reported and perpetrators prosecuted and sentenced;

(c)Girls married under 18 years of age;

(d)Girls subjected to female genital mutilation;

(e)Children living in prison with their mothers;

(f)Children with non-communicable diseases and ill-health, including those who are overweight or obese, have mental health needs and drug and substance abuse issues;

(g)Children who are not Qatari nationals residing in the State party;

(h)Asylum-seeking and refugee children residing in the State party;

(i)Working children, disaggregated by the type of work;

(j)Child victims of the worst forms of child labour who have been identified, disaggregated by the type of work;

(k)Children convicted of a crime, disaggregated by the type of crime and sentence, and children in detention as a result of criminal sentences;

(l)Child victims of trafficking who have been identified, and perpetrators prosecuted and sanctioned, as well as information on the types and severity of sanction imposed;

(m)Children identified as possibly having been recruited for or used in hostilities prior to their arrival in Qatar.

16.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, geographic location and nationality regarding the situation of children deprived of a family environment, for the past three years, on the number of children:

(a)Separated from their parents;

(b)Placed in institutions, disaggregated by the length of placement;

(c)Placed with foster families;

(d)Adopted domestically (applicable to non-Muslim children) or through intercountry adoptions.

17.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability 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 regular primary schools;

(d)Attending regular secondary schools;

(e)Attending special schools;

(f)Out of school;

(g)Abandoned by their families.

18.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, geographic location and ethnic origin, for the past three years, on:

(a)The enrolment and completion rates, in percentages, of the relevant age groups in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools;

(b)The number and percentage of dropouts and repetitions;

(c)The teacher-pupil ratio.

19.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.

20.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.