COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Forty-ninth session

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 1346th MEETING

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva,on Tuesday, 16 September 2008, at 3 p.m.

Chairperson: Ms. LEE

CONTENTS

CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS OF STATES PARTIES (continued)

Initial report of Uganda under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (continued)

Initial report of Uganda under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (continued)

This record is subject to correction.

Corrections should be submitted in one of the working languages. They should be set forth in a memorandum and also incorporated in a copy of the record. They should be sent within one week of the date of this document to the Editing Unit, room E.4108, Palais des Nations, Geneva.

Any corrections to the records of the public meetings of the Committee at this session will be consolidated in a single corrigendum, to be issued shortly after the end of the session.

GE.08-44053 (EXT)

The meeting was called to order at 3.10 p.m.

CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS OF STATES PARTIES (agenda item 4) (continued)

Initial report of Uganda under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/UGA/1; CRC/C/OPAC/UGA/Q/1 and Add.1; HRI/CORE/1/Add.69) (continued)

Initial report of Uganda under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC/C/OPSC/UGA/1; CRC/C/OPSC/UGA/Q/1 and Add.1); HRI/CORE/1/Add.69) (continued)

At the invitation of the Chairperson, the delegation of Uganda took places at the Committee table.

Mr. PARFITT said that a report of the Ugandan Human Rights Commission referred to rituals involving the killing of children, some of whom had been sold for that purpose. The Commission had recommended the creation of a commission of enquiry to investigate the facts, but Parliament appeared not to have acted on the recommendation. Perhaps education programmes on that vicious traditional practice could be put in place. In any event, it would be useful to have fuller information on the subject.

The Chairperson noted that, according to the delegation, all the perpetrators of offences covered by the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict were out of the country and that assistance from the international community would be desirable to deal with them; she asked what the Government had done to obtain such assistance, in particular at the regional level and in East and southern Africa.

It seemed that the traditional practice of "matu put", under which the perpetrator of a crime asked for pardon in public before a council of elders, facilitated the solution of many problems. However, could that practice be used equally by women as well as men and did the council of elders include women?

She was not clear as to what legislative measures had been taken to punish the offences covered by the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. A bill on the prevention of trafficking in persons, which prohibited the sale of children, the use of children as prostitutes, and child pornography, had of course been submitted to Parliament, but the definitions of those offences contained in article 3 of the Protocol did not really apply to trafficking. She wanted to know how that bill would enable Uganda to fulfil its obligations under the Protocol.

There were also real problems of gender equality in the application of the Protocol in Uganda. For example, the shelters for victims took in many more girls than boys. The Government was planning to adopt stricter legislation and regulations and introduce compulsory education, measures whose adoption would be welcome indeed. But it must not be forgotten that many child victims were above school age. It would thus be interesting to know whether the shelters offered specific programmes for such children.

Mr. FILALI asked whether there were any plans to invest Uganda’s courts with jurisdiction over international crimes constituting violations of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that he shared the Committee’s concern about the challenges confronting Uganda. It should not be forgotten that Uganda had acceded to independence in 1962 and had had a Constitution only since 1995. Following the adoption of the Constitution it had been necessary to revise all the existing laws, a task which had imposed a heavy burden on Parliament and explained why it could take up to three years for a bill to be passed. And many problems could arise at the very moment when an act was about to be promulgated. That was what had happened to the child protection bill: a year and a half after it had been drafted, the problem of trafficking in persons had emerged – a new problem on which there were no data. The original plan had been to incorporate trafficking offences in the child protection bill, but it had been decided in the end to draft a separate bill. Although the production of legislation was sometimes slow, there was nevertheless a genuine will to complete the process.

The dissemination of pornography by electronic means was another new challenge, and an effort was being made to establish an appropriate legislative framework for dealing with it. The amendment of the Electronic Media Act would have the effect of extending the powers of the Media Council to enable it to tackle the dissemination of pornography more effectively.

The trafficking bill, which was based on the experience of other countries in that field, was currently before Parliament and should be adopted in the next few months. The national plan of action on the application of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict should also be adopted very shortly.

The National Council for Children was not able to work at its full capacity for want of sufficient human and financial resources.

Ms. TIBENDANA (Uganda) said that it was the function of the National Council for Children to help to produce and promote policies and programmes on the survival, development and protection of children, to attend to the planning and coordination of all the programmes affecting children in accordance with the guidelines contained in the plan of action, and to sponsor, promote and encourage the efforts of institutions, organizations and individuals to improve the situation of children. It was empowered to seek financial and other resources from the Government and from donors, to set up ad hoc committees, and to recruit the necessary personnel to perform technical and specialized work. It had the power to summon any commission and initiate any discussion on matters concerning children. The Council’s membership included representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry for Women and Development, the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry for Gender, Labour and Social Development.

Mr. KINOBE (Uganda), replying to the question about the budget resources allocated for children, said that the amount was bigger than it appeared at first sight, for the resources were divided among various bodies performing various tasks. For example, children’s survival was a matter for the Ministry of Health, their development for the Ministry of Education, and their protection for the Ministry for Gender, Labour and Social Development.

The CHAIRPERSON asked which body was responsible for coordinating the activities relating to the application of the Protocol and, if it was the National Council for Children, whether the Council was really able to stand up to powerful ministries such as Health.

Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that the National Council for Children was indeed the body responsible for coordination. The Ministry of Health was responsible for carrying out the activities, which was why major resources were allocated to it, but the Council was empowered to summon any agency or person, as it saw fit, to supervise and evaluate the activities, and to make recommendations. Thus, the only obstacle to the proper functioning of the Council was its lack of resources.

16.Ms. ORTIZ (Country Rapporteur for the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography) said that there seemed to be a lack of coordination between civil society and the various bodies responsible for applying the Protocol. She also feared that the shortage of resources was preventing the Council from doing its work.

17.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that the coordination of the various activities seemed to be producing good results, as could be seen from the relevant health, gender-equality and education statistics. However the Council's effectiveness, limited by the shortage of resources, could be improved.

18.Turning to the child protection units of the armed forces, he said that the population had undoubtedly been traumatized by the abuses committed by the security forces. However, as a result of the measures taken, including the improvement of the army's image and the appointment of mothers of families to lead the protection units in order to gain the victims' trust, people were no longer afraid to turn to the units.

19.The Government was trying to improve the situation with regard to birth certificates. For example, schools were encouraged to ask for a birth certificate at the time of enrolment. It was also hoped that the issuance of an identity card to all Ugandans aged over 18 would facilitate the registration of all citizens, especially by prompting parents to register their children.

20.The sale of children was not covered by specific legislation but by several articles of the Penal Code.

21.Certain members of the Human Rights Commission were specifically responsible for children’s issues. For the moment the shortage of resources made it impossible to create a special department for children’s rights. As a constitutional body, the Commission drew up its own budget, which it submitted to Parliament for approval.

22.There were no sex education courses in the schools, but the relevant ministries and civil society organizations had established sex education programmes.

23.Ms. ORTIZ (Country Rapporteur for the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography) noted that children were separated from their parents and were sometimes even sold as a result of economic migration and asked what the Government was doing to tackle that problem.

24.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that poverty did sometimes compel parents to part from their children. The problem was being tackled under the Poverty Eradication Action Plan.

25.Mr. NAMARA (Uganda) said that the authorities were very strict when it came to issuing travel documents, especially to children. Parents had to state in writing where their children were going, and the authorities might make contact with the embassies of the countries of destination to verify the facts. Persons accompanying children who were not their own had to prove that the children were their responsibility. Many children had thus been taken back to their parents. Furthermore, if a bus or other means of public transport was carrying unaccompanied children not in possession of travel documents, the officers of the migration service returned the children to their point of departure and ensured that action was taken against the transport company.

26.In the case of children coming from Sudan, officers had been deployed along the border with that country, and children without documents or not accompanied by their parents were not allowed to enter Uganda. For prevention purposes, all children entering Uganda must be registered by the migration service, and the authorities tried to ensure that the children were monitored, for some of them, ostensibly entering as students, were in fact there to work and were sometimes exploited as domestic servants. Persons employing such children were liable to prosecution under the labour legislation.

27.Ms. TIBENDANA (Uganda) read out the articles of the Penal Code which in some cases could be used effectively to suppress trafficking in children, the sale of children and child pornography. The articles in question related inter alia to the theft or abduction of children aged under 14, offences punishable by seven years’ imprisonment, the provision of premises in order to incite girls under 18 to immoral behaviour, punishable by five years’ imprisonment, living on the proceeds of prostitution, punishable by seven years’ imprisonment, the abduction and sale of children to reduce them to slavery and the abduction of children under 18 for sexual purposes, punishable by seven years’ imprisonment. All those provisions could be used pending the adoption of the new legislation.

28.Ms. SMITH said that Uganda must ensure that all the provisions of the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography were covered by the draft legislation.

29.Mr. KOTRANE asked whether the provisions on the abduction of children were intended to protect all children aged under 18 and not just the under-14s. The provisions of the Penal Code were not in harmony with the provisions of the Protocol and, in that sense, were incomplete. For example, not all the cases of the sale of children, their forced labour or illegal adoption, or child prostitution or child pornography were classified as crimes. Against the argument that a lack of funding was the reason for the delay in aligning Uganda's legislation with the Protocol, he said that the alignment of legislation was not the most costly of activities and that it was possible to obtain the assistance of partners of choice such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The State party had ratified the Optional Protocol in 2001; a State's first duty following ratification was in fact to undertake extensive legislative activity to adapt its legislation to the requirements of the Protocol.

30.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that Uganda's legislation defined a child as any person aged under 18 years. However, where work was concerned, for example, the minimum age was fixed at 16 years. Under Ugandan law a person who had sexual relations with a child aged under 18, even with the child's consent, was deemed to have manipulated the child. Uganda had a good legal framework, but it was true that it was not always easy to apply the law and that there were few convictions.

31.Uganda had been at war for 20 years, and most of the financing which it had received had been used to solve problems in the war zones and to protect children in those zones. But the application of the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography was now going to become a national priority.

32.The National Council for Children had prepared all the written replies, for it acted as coordinator of all the ministries with regard to the rights of the child. There was no competition between the National Council and the Ministry for Gender, Labour and Social Development.

33Ms. HERCZOG asked what rehabilitation measures were available for children subjected to various forms of exploitation and whether there was a programme for perpetrators of such acts.

34.Mr. OTIM (Uganda) said that the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programme was divided into six areas. Children thus received assistance designed to address their specific problems - health, socio-economic, etc. The assistance was furnished by bodies specializing in each area, and children were referred to one or other of those bodies in the light of their situation.

35.The CHAIRPERSON said that the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programme was not aimed specifically at the children covered by the Optional Protocol, i.e. child victims of clearly defined offences. She wished to know whether a distinction was made between such children and other vulnerable children and whether they had access to specific rehabilitation measures and psychological and social support to deal with the specific trauma which they had suffered. She also wished to know whether there were any rehabilitation programmes for perpetrators of the offences covered by the Protocol.

36. Mr. OTIM (Uganda) said that there were specific programmes, for example for child victims of rape, who could obtain psychological and social support from specialized NGOs as well as having access to other rehabilitation measures.

37.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that permanent telephone lines had been established, with the aid of civil society organizations, for child victims of rape. Such children were often stigmatized. Rape was often committed by a person close to and usually older than the victim. When rape was committed by a minor, the case was dealt with by the juvenile courts, with the aim of securing the minor's rehabilitation and reintegration in society.

38.The Ministry for Gender, Labour and Social Development had prepared the instrument of ratification of the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Matters of Inter-Country Adoption; it was currently being examined by ministers. Activities to boost the people's awareness of the importance of the question of adoption were carried out by civil society organizations in partnership with the Ministry. Workshops were held for the various stakeholders, judges and adoption professionals to ensure that the concepts of inter-country and national adoption would be properly understood by the time the Hague Convention was ratified, for under Uganda's traditional social system children tended to be taken care of in the African way, without completing legal procedures as in other countries.

39.Campaigns had been carried out to make communities aware of the seriousness of the scourge of the abduction and ritual killing of children, but the problem had still not been completely eliminated. Parliament had conducted an investigation into the issue. Its conclusions had not yet been published.

40.Almost all the perpetrators of crimes against humanity were living abroad and thus could not be arrested by the Ugandan authorities. The delegation invited the Committee to join the Ugandan authorities in calling on the United Nations, yet again, to intervene to secure the arrest of the perpetrators of such crimes.

41.It was true that gender equality was an issue in traditional justice, for the committees and councils of tribal elders were dominated by men. The membership of such bodies was often determined by the customs of individual tribes, and it was difficult to get things changed.

42.Ms. AIDOO said that she was worried that the quest for peace pursued by the authorities of the State party by means of traditional purification and reconciliation, from which women and girls were usually excluded, might work to the detriment of the justice which ought to be dispensed to children who had suffered violations within the meaning of the protocols. She would also like to know whether the Government furnished financial support to NGOs in their efforts to offer child victims of prostitution and pornography psychological and social support and opportunities of reintegration.

43.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that the peace process was not an end in itself and that more attention should be given to girl victims of violations. NGOs did not receive any direct funding from the Government as organizations, but the Government, which was fully aware of its role and its responsibilities, collaborated with NGOs and funded the programmes and policies which they then helped to carry out. That indirect support could also take the form of exemptions from the taxes on some of the materials and equipment used.

44.Ms. ORTIZ (Country Rapporteur for the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography) said that she would like to know what specific measures and procedures, under the legislation in force, enabled the State party to bring proceedings against perpetrators of the offences covered by the Protocol (sexual exploitation, sale of children for adoption, child pornography, etc.), what resources were available to the State party for that purpose, and what results had been obtained.

45.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that, pending the adoption of comprehensive general legislation on the subject, the existing laws already allowed in fact for proceedings to be instituted against anyone who engaged in such acts. He did not have any figures on the number of arrests or prosecutions but would ensure that the relevant data were included in the next report, together with an account of the results obtained between now and then.

46.Mr. PARFITT asked whether a boy of 17 who had consensual sex with a girl of 17 could be prosecuted for incitement to immoral behaviour.

47.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that the Penal Code prohibited all sexual relations with girls aged under 18, with or without consent, regardless of the age of the male. However, the sentences imposed for such offences, classified as incitement to immoral behaviour, were now less severe than previously, when the High Court had been able to hand down a sentence of death. Such cases were now heard by the magistrate's courts, which took the circumstances (degree of maturity, etc.) of the sexual relationship between the two young people into account.

48.Ms. SMITH pointed out that the case under discussion was not covered by the Protocol.

49.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that the Convention defined a child as any person under 18 and that the purpose of the Ugandan legislation was to protect all children, in particular against sex acts classified as offences.

The meeting was suspended at 4.25 p.m. and resumed at 4.40 p.m.

50.Ms. AIDOO asked whether the child protection bill which had been under consideration in Uganda since 2006 addressed the matters covered by the two optional protocols and whether the authorities planned to give priority to children in their strategy and programmes to combat poverty. She also asked whether the birth-registration system really worked in practice and whether there were any arrangements for registering older children in addition to newborn babies and infants under 12 months old.

51.Mr. CITARELLA asked whether under the major reforms now under way the Government intended to recast all of the legislation on children, which might entail the repeal of some of the existing laws.

52.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that it was the Government's deliberate intention to equip Uganda with various legal instruments of general scope (articles of the Constitution, legislation and codes) to provide proper protection for children and prevent infringement of any of their rights, including the rights contained in the Convention and the two optional protocols. Since children were not the only victims of trafficking in persons and sex offences, it seemed more appropriate and more effective to produce general legislation on the subject rather than to include in the legislation a specific chapter on children. The same applied, for example, to the minimum age for recruitment into the armed forces, which had been fixed in the Uganda People's Defence Force Act; that was why the legislation on children appeared to be piecemeal.

53.The fight against poverty was one of the great battles being waged by the current Government. Specific programmes had been introduced for children, especially children who found themselves heads of family as a result of the ravages of HIV/AIDS or the civil war.

54.The registration of births was still not a widespread practice, but the Government had constantly encouraged it. The legal arrangements put in place for that purpose were operational: there was a Births and Deaths (Registration) Act, and under the policy of decentralizing power the local authorities at the sub-county level were responsible for collecting civil registration data and issuing provisional certificates. Schools now required a birth certificate at the time of enrolment, and it would shortly be necessary for children to produce a document certifying their age, in other words a birth certificate, in order to obtain a national identity card.

55.It was obviously easier to register the birth of newborn babies, especially via the health institutions, than to issue birth certificates to older children. Nevertheless, thanks to the programmes and the arrangements put in place all children should gradually be registered.

56.Ms. ORTIZ (Country Rapporteur for the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography) asked which body was responsible for monitoring the actual issuance of birth certificates at the local level, what the procedure was for registering children brought into the world outside the official health system, including by traditional midwives, and which body was responsible for ensuring that all little Ugandans had a birth certificate.

57.It would also be interesting to hear about the measures taken to put an end to the improper use of the guardianship system as a means of removing children from the country, possibly for adoption, and to guarantee the protection of the children in question. Any additional information about the participation of child victims of violence or abuse in the evaluation and drafting of the prevention and rehabilitation programmes would be welcome. The delegation might supply some information about the means available to the State party for training professionals involved in the application of the Protocol and about any bilateral cooperation agreements with the countries (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan) in which Ugandan children were sold into various kinds of exploitation.

58.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that, legally speaking, failure to register a child constituted an offence, but the authorities were not at present applying the law rigorously and were instead trying to make people aware of the various advantages of possessing documents certifying one's age and identity.

59.The hospitals did not issue birth certificates as such but a simple document recording the a child's birth, which could be useful from the statistical standpoint but which must be submitted to the sub-county civil registry office for the birth to be officially recorded. The Government was hopeful of managing within the next few years to provide every child with a birth certificate.

60.It was true that many children left Uganda under a guardianship rather than an adoption procedure, for the domestic legislation was very strict and did not authorize adoption unless the adoptive parents had lived in Uganda for at least three consecutive years. The current system was not satisfactory in that it did not allow for any monitoring of the procedure once the child had left the country. Uganda might in fact accede to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Matters of Inter-Country Adoption in order to correct that defect; such a move would make it possible to create official bodies to monitor the children's situation in their adoptive families.

61.Ms. ORTIZ (Country Rapporteur for the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography) said that acceding to the Hague Convention did not necessarily mean encouraging inter-country adoptions and that, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, national adoption remained the preferred choice. However, if there were no prospective adoptive families within the country, children offered for adoption should preferably be referred to countries which were themselves parties to the Hague Convention. Countries which acceded to the Hague Convention could declare at the time of ratification whether they wished foreign organizations to establish themselves in their territory to attend to the adoption arrangements or whether only the central national agency created for that purpose would be authorized to manage the whole adoption process.

62.Mr. OTIM (Uganda) said that Uganda would have to endeavour to ratify the Hague Convention in the near future, for it was not really possible to require foreigners wishing to adopt to live in Uganda for three years. The child protection bill would have to be revised to deal with that point and a mechanism put in place for monitoring adoptions on an annual or biannual basis.

63.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that the Government would have to familiarize people with the idea that international adoption would now be a possibility, by means inter alia of awareness-raising campaigns carried out in conjunction with civil society organizations. It would in fact be necessary to make citizens understand that adoption constituted an improvement on the present guardianship system, which did not provide for any monitoring arrangements.

64.Since Uganda was not a party to the Hague Convention, it had not concluded any bilateral adoption agreements with the principal countries from which prospective adoptive parents came.

65.Mr. KRAPPMANN (Country Rapporteur for the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict) thanked the delegation for their additional oral replies; the Committee would take them into account when drafting its concluding observations, which would summarize the progress made by the State party in applying the Optional Protocol and indicate a number of matters of concern.

66.The Committee would of course encourage the State party to improve the application of the laws which it had enacted and establish an effective birth-registration system to ensure that no minors were recruited into the armed forces.

67.The Committee understood full well the Government's desire to restore peace by all available means, including the traditional methods of reconciliation. The State party might also attach greater importance to justice, which offered another means of restoring peace and reconciling the belligerents.

68.The Committee realized that the State party wanted to draw the international community's attention to the fact that some of Uganda's problems - recruitment of child soldiers, war crimes, and serious violations of children's rights - might be susceptible of international solution; it would take that point into consideration in its concluding observations.

69.Ms. ORTIZ (Country Rapporteur for the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography) said that it was crucial for the battle against the sale of children to be fought at the local level as well and that families should receive concrete support to that end, either under the anti-poverty programmes or by means of local bodies such as the secretariats for children's affairs and the local administrative councils. Such bodies should be accorded increased recognition by the district authorities, strengthened and equipped with the necessary human and financial resources.

70.It would be useful for local leaders and community elders to understand that poverty and the associated displacement of population were to a large extent responsible for the sale of children and that they must help the people most seriously affected by that problem by establishing specific programmes.

71.The birth-registration services should be accessible not only geographically but financially as well, and birth certificates and other civil-status documents should be issued free of charge in all the country's sub-counties; according to reliable sources, that was not at present the case.

72.The State party should also conclude bilateral agreements with other countries involved in the sale of children, with a view to joint efforts to tackle the problem.

73.It was impossible not to welcome Uganda's determination to guarantee universal primary education and the retention of children, especially girls, in the education system. However, the importance of education for the development of adolescents must not be forgotten.

74.If it wished to succeed in all those respects, the Government would have to create a coordination body and allocate increased funding to the National Council for Children, for children made up 50 per cent of the total population and constituted the population group most seriously affected by poverty, the armed conflict and the AIDS epidemic. They should therefore occupy a central position in national policies.

75.As a child protection bill was currently being considered by Parliament, there could not be a better time for harmonizing its text with the Optional Protocol, with a view, in addition to banning trafficking, to introducing universal jurisdiction and recourse to extradition.

76.It was important for the State party to continue on its chosen path by implementing the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programme; the need now was to strengthen the Ugandan Human Rights Commission and provide adequate training for its staff, give emphasis to prevention and to the care of victims of the acts covered by the Protocol, and criminalize those acts. The persons responsible for combating child pornography should be sent abroad for training and to familiarize themselves with the methods of fighting that battle.

77.She welcomed in conclusion the frankness of the dialogue established with the delegation, which had given the Committee a clearer picture of the situation of children in Uganda and of its application of the Optional Protocol.

78.Mr. KINOBE (Uganda) said that Uganda was proud of its status as the only country in its region to have established at ministerial level a Department for Children and Youth and of its firm determination to continue its efforts to ensure respect for the rights set out in the two optional protocols. To that end the competent authorities would have to ensure that the principles embodied in those two instruments were more widely publicized throughout the country and they would have to improve the birth-registration system in order to be able to offer more services to children.

79.He welcomed the constructive dialogue established with the Committee, whose wise advice would help to improve the application of the optional protocols, and he thanked Uganda's civil society bodies and the various international organizations, such as the United States Agency for International Development, UNICEF and Save the Children, which were helping Uganda both through their field presence and through the resources which they furnished to the various programmes carried out.

80.The CHAIRMAN welcomed the progress made by the State party in many areas despite the conflicts which it had endured and in particular the fact that it had succeeded in establishing universal primary education, securing a considerable reduction in HIV/AIDS and, above all, restoring peace through reconciliation. She invited the State party to continue along that road and in particular to establish an impartial justice system which tolerated no special dispensations and banished impunity, especially with respect to the acts covered by the two optional protocols.

81.The delegation of Uganda withdrew.

The meeting rose at 5.35 p.m.

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