Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the combined third to seventh periodic reports of Lesotho *

1.The State Party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, of 10,700 words maximum, by 15 February 2026. 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

2.Please provide updated information on:

(a)The status of the Children’s Protection and Welfare (Amendment) Bill of 2023, including the timeline for its enactment, and measures to address delays in harmonizing domestic legislation with the Convention;

(b)The impact, implementation and monitoring of and resource allocation for various child-related policies;

(c)Measures taken to strengthen the capacities, staffing, coverage and cross-level coordination of the National Child Protection Coordinating Committee.

3.Please explain:

(a)The steps taken to increase budget allocations for child rights implementation and improve budget tracking, and how these allocations prioritize marginalized groups, such as children in rural areas and children with disabilities;

(b)Any efforts made to strengthen collection of data on children, particularly those in vulnerable situations of vulnerability, and make data available and accessible to the public and all relevant stakeholders;

(c)Whether the Human Rights Commission is operational and has the capacity to address children’s rights violations, and whether the Office of the Ombudsman has the mandate and capacity to receive and investigate complaints from children and on children’s rights violations.

4.Please explain the measures envisaged or taken:

(a)To eliminate discrimination in law and practice against girls, children with disabilities, children with albinism, orphaned children, children of unmarried parents, pregnant girls and children with HIV, and discrimination against children with regard to access to services, particularly children with disabilities and children from rural and mountainous areas;

(b)To ensure that the outcomes of the Children’s Parliament and other platforms are taken into consideration in public decision-making, and to address norms and attitudes that discourage children’s active and meaningful participation in families, schools, alternative care and communities;

(c)To address the backlog of unregistered births, expand birth registration in rural communities and raise awareness about the importance of birth registration.

5.Please provide updated information on the measures taken:

(a)To explicitly prohibit corporal punishment in all settings and to promote positive and non-violent forms of child-rearing and discipline;

(b)To address, prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children, including sexual and gender-based violence, abuse, neglect and domestic violence and abuse;

(c)To strengthen detection, reporting, investigation, protection and judicial intervention in cases of violence against children, in particular sexual and gender-based violence; and to address cultural norms that normalize child abuse and exploitation, perpetuate stigma and mean that child victims stay silent;

(d)To enforce the prohibition of child marriage in practice, particularly in customary courts, and address cultural acceptance contributing to such practice.

6.Please explain the measures taken:

(a)To develop a regulatory framework aimed at recognizing, supporting and monitoring informal kinship care;

(b)To strengthen community-based child protection and family support services;

(c)To continue and expand the community programme whereby families provide foster care, started in 2018;

(d)To provide the Central Adoption Authority and Adoption Unit with adequate resources to carry out their mandate effectively.

7.Please provide information on the measures taken to adopt a human-rights based approach to disability; to ensure that the Persons with Disability Equity Act 2021 is enforced; and to ensure that children with disabilities, including children with albinism, and their families receive support for their development, inclusion and integration, have access to assistive devices and healthcare and are protected from stigmatization and discrimination.

8.Please update the Committee on the measures taken:

(a)To address disparities in access to health services for children in rural and mountainous areas;

(b)To reduce infant, under-5 and child mortality rates, improve immunization rates and to promote exclusive breastfeeding;

(c)To amend the Mental Health Act and to prioritize children’s mental health explicitly in the Mental Health Policy and Strategic Plan 2023–2027;

(d)To prevent teenage pregnancies, to decriminalize abortion in all cases, eliminate sexually transmitted infections and improve access to sexual and reproductive health services and education, including access to abortion services and counselling for adolescents;

(e)To address the high prevalence of HIV, particularly among adolescent girls.

9.Please provide updated information on the measures taken:

(a)To strengthen social protection for children and address child poverty;

(b)To expand access to safe drinking water, to end open defecation and to improve access to safe hygiene services, particularly in or close to households and schools;

(c)To address the adverse effects of climate change and environmental degradation on children’s enjoyment of their right of access to clean water and other rights.

10.Please update the Committee on the measures taken:

(a)To strengthen and expand access to inclusive education for children with disabilities, pregnant girls and adolescent mothers, children from minority ethnic groups and children in rural areas;

(b)To address low school enrolment and high dropout rates among boys in rural areas;

(c)To regulate school fees for secondary schools;

(d)To strengthen the provision of vocational training;

(e)To expand early childhood education, especially in rural areas.

11.Please provide updated information on:

(a)Measures to prevent the exploitation of children in labour, particularly cattle herding, domestic service and commercial sexual exploitation;

(b)Efforts to collect data on children in street situations and any programmes targeting their protection and integration, psychosocial support and community-based interventions.

12.Please provide updated information on steps taken:

(a)To raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility;

(b)To increase the use of non-custodial measures, diversion and rehabilitation;

(c)To ensure that the Juvenile Training Centre meets safety, security, living and educational standards and has separate facilities for girls.

Part II

13.The Committee invites the State Party to provide a brief update, of no more than three pages, on the information set out in its report with regard to the following:

(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

14.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and social sectors, 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 geographical allocation of those resources.

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

(a)Cases of abuse and violence perpetrated against children, including all forms of corporal punishment, domestic violence, sexual and gender-based violence and abuse and sexual harassment, and the investigations carried out, prosecutions brought and sentences handed down in such cases;

(b)Cases of child marriage and the prosecutions brought and sentences handed down in such cases;

(c)Children in alternative care;

(d)Children living in poverty;

(e)Adolescent pregnancies;

(f)Substance abuse among children;

(g)Asylum-seeking, refugee, migrant and unaccompanied children, indicating whether they are in detention;

(h)Children in street situations;

(i)Children who are victims of trafficking, and the investigations carried out, prosecutions brought, sentences handed down to perpetrators and reparations afforded to victims in cases of trafficking in children.

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

(a)Separated from their families, including data on the duration of the separation;

(b)Placed in institutions and foster care, indicating the specific institution in each case and the overall number of institutions;

(c)Placed in informal kinship care.

17.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographic location, on the number of children with disabilities who are or who have been:

(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, if available, updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic and national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, on children alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed criminal law who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)In pretrial detention;

(d)Serving a sentence in detention, indicating the length of the sentence.

19.Please provide information on how a children’s rights-based approach is integrated into the planning, implementation and monitoring of measures for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including with regard to the participation of children and data collection, and on how those measures promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto.

20.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have become outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.

21.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.