Committee on the Rights of the Child

Fifty-ninth session

16 January-3 February 2012

Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

List of issues concerning additional and updated information related to the third and fourth combined periodic report of Azerbaijan (CRC/C/AZE/3-4)

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional updated information, if possible by 1 October 2011.

The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights contained in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party.

Part I

In this section, the State party is requested to submit its responses to the following questions (30 pages maximum).

1.Please provide updated information on the implementation of the Master Plan on transformation of State child institutions mentioned in paragraphs 39 and 40 of the State party report.

2.Please provide additional details on the coordination mechanisms between the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs and the National Commission on Minors, and other relevant agencies of the State party to ensure the effective implementation of the Convention.

3.Please provide updated information on the steps taken by the State party to establish an independent children’s ombudsperson to address complaints from or on behalf of children.

4.In view of the increased financial resources of the State party accruing from its extractive industries, please indicate in detail, with statistics, measures undertaken to increase allocation of the financial resources of the State party to the education and health care of all children, including those in an asylum-seeking, refugee or internal displacement situation.

5.Please provide detailed updated information on measures undertaken by the State party to strengthen its data collection system in follow-up to the Committee’s previous recommendations (CRC/C/AZE/CO/2, paragraph 19).

6.Please provide updated information on the adoption of the draft Law on Protection of Children Against All Forms of Corporal Punishment which was submitted by the State party’s Commissioner for Human Rights to the Parliament in 2008.

7.Please indicate what measures have been taken in pursuance of the State party’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009 to develop inclusive education for children with disabilities and combat the stigmatization that they face in society.

8.Please provide information on measures, if any, undertaken to ensure safeguards against the negative environmental impact that may arise from the extractive industries of the State party.

9.Please provide updated information on measures undertaken by the State party to:

(i)Address the increasing rates of suicide amongst adolescents;

(ii)Effectively monitor and enforce the prohibition of sale of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products to adolescents;

(iii)Monitor and prevent substance abuse by adolescents.

10.Please provide information on measures, if any, undertaken by the State party to ensure adequate psychological and material support, and appropriate assistance for children, including children in street situations and those living in the region of Nagorny Karabakh and its surrounding regions.

11.Please provide updated information on the draft Law on Juvenile Justice. In that context, please also provide information on any measures taken to create (i) alternatives to imprisonment of children in conflict with the law, (ii) specialized juvenile courts.

Part II

In this section the Committee invites the State party to briefly (three pages maximum) update the information provided 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

1.Please provide, if available, statistical data (disaggregated by nationality, age, sex, ethnic origin, geographic location, and socio-economic status) and trend analysis of such data for the period 2008, 2009 and 2010 on:

(a)The budgetary allocations for programmes aimed at implementing the Convention or otherwise for the benefit of children;

(b)The number of marriages of girls under the age of 18;

(c)The number of children deprived of a family environment, specifying the type of residential care institution, foster home and/or other form of alternative care that these children are placed in and measures for providing follow-up support to children who have left these institutions.

(d)The enrolment rates at primary and secondary school levels for non-citizen children, including stateless children;

(e)The number of judicial proceedings undertaken for alleged violations of child rights;

(f)The total number of children with disabilities and the percentage of those among them attending regular school;

(g)The number of child victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking, as well as related prosecutions, convictions and sentences pronounced;

(h)The number of children who are subject to situations of economic exploitation, including that of domestic work and/or other situations.

2.Please update the Committee with regard to any data in the report which may be outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.

3.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.