Committee on the Rights of the Child
Seventy-seventh session
15 January-2 February 2017
Item 4 of the provisional agenda
Consideration of reports of States parties
List of issues in relation to the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Guatemala
The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 13 October 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 the coordination mechanisms of the Social Welfare Secretariat and the National Commission on Children and Adolescents with regional agencies responsible for implementing laws and public policies for the protection of children and adolescents. Please report on the results of the Policy on the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents in Guatemala and Plan of Action 2004-2015 and provide information on any existing strategies and future plans for the protection of children and adolescents.
2.Please provide information on measures to combat and eliminate multiple discrimination and prejudice against children and adolescents based on sex, their belonging to an indigenous people, disability, migration status, asylum or refugee status, social status, gender identity and sexual orientation. Please also indicate what reparation is available to children and adolescents under existing protection mechanisms, such as the criminal definition of discrimination and the public policy to counter racial discrimination.
3.Please report on the current status of the bill on the prohibition of corporal punishment and on any strategies to identify and prevent all forms of violence against children and adolescents in all settings, including the home, schools, institutions and through the Internet. Please provide information on measures to protect, rehabilitate and compensate children and adolescents who have suffered violence and to bring those responsible to justice.
4.Please provide information on measures to establish a system of foster families for children and adolescents who have been abandoned and placed in institutional care and whose rights are at risk of being violated. Please report on the results of the education and information workshops referred to in the State party’s report (see CRC/C/GTM/5-6, para. 195 (ii)). Please provide information on the current situation of the children and adolescents who survived the fire at the home known as “Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción” and on any strategy for the deinstitutionalization of children.
5.Please provide information on any community services accessible to children and adolescents with disabilities, such as schools, health centres, parks, museums and cultural and sports facilities, that promote their inclusion in the community. Please describe the measures in place to ensure the effective delivery of quality inclusive education services.
6.Please report on the evaluation of the strategy to combat child malnutrition. Please describe the measures taken to raise awareness and ensure the availability of sexual and reproductive health services, and to guarantee access to family planning methods and services for children and adolescents living in urban and rural areas, in accessible formats and in indigenous languages. Please provide information on the existing advisory services for young mothers aged between 10 and 14 years of age.
7.Please indicate what percentage of the budget is allocated to the protection of the rights of children and adolescents in the K’atun National Development Plan 2032 and provide information on the strategies designed to overcome poverty in families with children and adolescents in rural areas. With reference to the information provided in the State party’s report (see CRC/C/GTM/5-6, para. 192), please provide updated information on the children and adolescents benefiting from the “My Secure Bond” programme or other programmes operating at the local and municipal levels.
8.Please describe the measures in place to prevent children from dropping out of school, particularly in rural and indigenous areas, and provide information on any agreements aimed at improving the quality of education services, including through the use of technological tools and the Internet. With reference to the information contained in the State party’s report (see CRC/C/GTM/5-6, para. 247), please indicate how many primary and/or secondary schools provide free education, without enrolment or monthly fees.
9.Please provide information on special measures to eliminate discrimination against indigenous children and adolescents, to prevent the exploitation of indigenous child labour in the agricultural and other sectors, and to guarantee them access to quality health care and education. Please provide information on the consultation mechanisms in place to guarantee the right of indigenous children and adolescents to be heard in the context of projects for the exploitation of natural resources and to ensure the conduct of environmental impact studies that take into account individual and collective violations of children’s rights and, where applicable, reparations.
10.Please provide information on measures to prevent the emigration of unaccompanied children and adolescents and to identify unaccompanied children arriving from third States. Please describe the measures taken to ensure the availability of psychosocial support services for children and adolescents who have been deported and/or returned by third States, to guarantee them access to education, to ensure their safety and to protect them from reprisals and violence.
11.Please provide information on joint strategies with civil society to improve the social inclusion of children and adolescents and to prevent their recruitment by illegal groups, particularly by the gangs known as maras. Please also provide information on measures to ensure the physical and psychological recovery and the social reintegration of children and adolescents separated from maras.
12.Please provide information on the proposed changes in the area of juvenile justice, the changes proposed to the juvenile criminal justice system at the ministerial level and the related legal reforms currently subject to parliamentary scrutiny.
13.Please describe the measures taken to give effect to the Committee’s recommendations in relation to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/GTM/CO/1), particularly the recommendation concerning the criminalization, through the reform of the Criminal Code, of violations of the provisions of the Optional Protocol relating to the recruitment of children under the age of 18 years into the armed forces and non-State armed groups and their direct participation in hostilities.
14.Please describe the measures adopted to give effect to the Committee’s recommendations in relation to 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/GTM/CO/1), particularly the recommendation concerning the adoption of legislation and measures to criminalize and punish all the offences covered by the Optional Protocol and to ensure that alleged perpetrators are prosecuted.
Part II
15.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 or enacted pieces of legislation and their accompanying regulations;
(b)New institutions, their mandates and funding;
(c)Newly adopted and implemented policies and programmes and their scope;
(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.
Part III
Data, statistics and other information, if available
16.Please provide information on the consolidated budget, disaggregated by budget item, covering the past three years, in terms of resources allocated for the benefit of children and adolescents. Please provide budgetary information disaggregated by age, sex, disability, ethnic and national origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location. Please provide information, disaggregated by age, sex and urban/rural location, on the local authority budget allocated to the protection of children’s rights.
17.Please provide information on the budget allocated to family support services at the departmental and municipal levels. Please indicate the percentage breakdown of service coverage by age, ethnic and national origin, migration or refugee status and disability.
18.Please provide statistical data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years on:
(a)The number of children and adolescents who have been victims of abuse and violence, together with additional information on the type of violence (torture, sexual violence, corporal punishment, domestic violence, street violence, etc.) and the type of assistance afforded to child victims, the compensation received and action taken, including the trials of perpetrators and the sentences handed down in the State party. Where possible, please also provide information on the offenders, specifying whether they were members of criminal gangs, police officials, family members, school staff or other;
(b)Investigations and convictions in cases of sexual violence and harassment that particularly affect girls in educational establishments, specifying the type of sanction imposed on those responsible;
(c)The number of children detained by the police and processed by the justice system, the number of children deprived of their liberty or placed in alternative sentencing programmes and the number of complaints of torture and ill-treatment received.
19.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic and national origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years on:
(a)Child mortality;
(b)Maternal mortality;
(c)Malnutrition;
(d)Children and adolescents infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS (specifying cases of mother-to-child transmission);
(e)Birthweight;
(f)Vaccination coverage;
(g)Child and adolescent pregnancies;
(h)Child and adolescent suicides;
(i)Number of child and adolescent drug users;
(j)Actual coverage of drinking water and sanitation facilities.
20.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years on the number of children and adolescents:
(a)Abandoned;
(b)Separated from their parents;
(c)Living in care institutions;
(d)Placed with foster families;
(e)Adopted domestically or through intercountry adoptions.
21.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years on the number of children and adolescents with disabilities:
(a)Living with their families;
(b)Living in institutions;
(c)Attending mainstream primary schools;
(d)Attending mainstream secondary schools;
(e)Attending special schools;
(f)Not attending school.
22.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location for the past three years on:
(a)School enrolment and completion rates as percentages of each relevant age group in preschool education centres and in primary and secondary schools;
(b)The number of students in each category of school (public schools, State-subsidized private schools, private schools);
(c)Examination results for each category of school referred to in the previous subparagraph;
(d)The number and percentage of dropouts and grade repetitions. Please specify the underlying reasons, if known;
(e)The ratio of teachers to pupils.
23.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years on the number of children and adolescents:
(a)Engaged in child labour (please provide information broken down by type of work, including hazardous work);
(b)Living on the street;
(c)Victims of human trafficking, specifying for which purpose;
(d)Victims of sale, specifying for which purpose;
(e)Victims of prostitution;
(f)Victims of child pornography.
24.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, on the number of family reunifications in countries of destination or origin in which the State party has played a part, relative to the total number of unaccompanied immigrant children and adolescents.
25.Please provide the Committee with an update on any information in the report that may now be out of date and replace it with data collected more recently or other new developments.
26.In addition, the State party may provide the Committee with a list of issues relating to children and adolescents that it considers to be priorities in relation to the implementation of the Convention.