Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the fourth periodic report of Timor-Leste *

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 information on the measures taken towards the adoption of a comprehensive law on children’s rights in line with the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto.

3.Please provide additional information on:

(a)Evaluation of the implementation of the national action plan for children (2016–2020) and the adoption of a new action plan;

(b)The measures taken to strengthen the coordination of children’s rights policies and whether the National Commission for the Rights of the Child is the body in charge of the implementation of the Convention;

(c)Progress made in the adoption of a child rights approach to budgeting and measures taken to address corruption;

(d)The measures taken and the challenges remaining to improve the collection of data on children, including in the implementation of the Primero software platform.

4.Please inform the Committee about:

(a)The legal and institutional framework to prevent and address all forms of discrimination against children;

(b)The measures taken to ensure non-discrimination against children with disabilities, children born to unmarried parents, children born as a result of sexual relations among family members, children of returnees andlesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children;

(c)The measures taken to guarantee children’s rights to express their views and to be heard in all settings;

(d)Specific examples of the effective implementation of the principle of the best interests of the child in legislation and in policies affecting children.

5.Please provide updated information on:

(a)The challenges remaining to achieve universal birth registration through the implementation of the civil birth registry;

(b)The reasons why the draft legislation on civil registry has not been adopted;

(c)Steps taken to identify so-called stolen children and to grant them birth certificates and nationality;

(d)Measures envisaged to ensure children’s right of access to safe and appropriate information, in particular in the digital environment;

(e)Measures taken to protect children’s right to privacy in the digital environment.

6.Please provide updated information on:

(a)Progress made and the challenges remaining in the implementation of the Act for the Protection of Children and Young People in Danger, adopted in 2023;

(b)The reasons why a helpline for child victims of violence has not yet been established;

(c)The steps taken to remove the obstacles to the prohibition of corporal punishment in all settings;

(d)The measures taken and obstacles remaining for the effective and legal prohibition of child marriage and the measures taken or envisaged to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18;

(e)The measures envisaged to ensure the protection of children from violence in the digital environment.

7.Please provide updated information on:

(a)The results of the parenting education programme and the measures envisaged to expand it nationwide;

(b)The results achieved and the challenges remaining for the effective implementation of the Child and Family Welfare System Policy;

(c)The measures envisaged to accelerate deinstitutionalization and, in the context of institutions, to ensure oversight and the periodic review of placements;

(d)The steps envisaged to regularize informal adoption.

8.Please provide updated information on:

(a)The measures taken or envisaged to improve access for children with disabilities to social services and to inclusive education;

(b)The early results of the Integrated Health Programme, introduced in 2023 to ensure that children have equal access to basic health services;

(c)Specific measures envisaged to expand the coverage of policies addressing child malnutrition, in particular in regions with chronic malnutrition;

(d)The status of the draft policy on the promotion of breastfeeding;

(e)Action taken to tackle the high rates of alcohol and tobacco use among adolescents.

9.Please inform the Committee about:

(a)Measures taken to ensure that poverty reduction measures, such as the Bolsa da Mãe programme, cover all children living in poverty;

(b)Steps envisaged to protect children from the adverse impact of increasing urbanization on their rights and health;

(c)Measures taken to protect children from the adverse impact of climate change and environmental degradation.

10.Please provide detailed and updated information on:

(a)Action taken to ensure access to and the quality of early childhood education;

(b)The measures taken to ensure higher rates of enrolment in preschool, primary and secondary education;

(c)Steps taken to increase the budget allocated to education and increase the number of qualified teachers;

(d)Measures taken to improve learning outcomes across the country.

11.Please provide updated information on:

(a)The legal and policy framework applicable to asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children;

(b)Measures taken to ensure the rights of Indigenous children, in particular regarding teaching of their language and culture;

(c)The status of the draft national action plan on child labour and the estimated time frame for its adoption;

(d)Any plans for a national policy on children in street situations;

(e)Progress made to prevent trafficking in children.

12.Please provide updated information on:

(a)The status of the legislation on juvenile justice that was proposed for adoption in 2010 and the extent to which it is fully in line with the Convention;

(b)The steps envisaged to further expand capacity and specialist training of personnel in child justice administration;

(c)The measures taken to ensure that children’s rights are fully respected in the context of pretrial detention;

(d)The steps taken to ensure the availability of alternative mechanisms for dispute resolution.

13.Please provide further information about the measures taken to implement the recommendations contained in the Committee’s concluding observations on the report of the State Party under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, including on the following issues:

(a)The measures taken to criminalize the compulsory recruitment and use of children under 18 years of age in the armed forces;

(b)The measures taken to carry out studies on the full social implications of the experiences of the children involved in hostilities during the State Party’s armed struggle for independence, identify former child soldiers and provide appropriate psychological and rehabilitative services;

(c)The specific legal provisions that define offences in line with the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict;

(d)The specific legal provisions that ensure the prohibition of the offences under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Part II

14.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

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

16.Please provide 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)Child victims of abuse and neglect, particularly in care institutions;

(b)Early pregnancy;

(c)Complaints, investigations, prosecutions and sentences related to gender-based violence, sexual abuse or sexual exploitation against children and child sexual exploitation material;

(d)Child victims of child labour;

(e)Children in street situations and/or in hazardous labour, and the number of such children who receive support from social solidarity institutions.

17.Please provide updated data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographical location, on the number of children deprived of a family environment who are or who have been living in:

(a)Alternative care facilities;

(b)Foster families;

(c)Situations of informal adoption.

18.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographical 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.

19.Please provide updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic and national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on the number of children suspected of, accused of or recognized as having infringed criminal law who are or who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to alternative mechanisms for dispute resolution;

(c)In police stations or pretrial detention;

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

20.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.

21.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.

22.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.