Committee on the Rights of the Child

Seventy-seventh session

15 January-2 February 2018

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 Panama

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 progress in adopting the bill establishing a system of guarantees and comprehensive protection for the rights of children and adolescents. Please provide information on progress in reviewing public policies for children and adolescents (see CRC/C/PAN/5-6, para. 8).

2.Please inform the Committee of measures taken to collect data from the various institutions dealing with children in a single information system and to ensure that the financial resources needed for this system are available and that the information gathered is disseminated regularly, with the aim of informing public policy.

3.In the light of the State party’s report (see CRC/C/PAN/5-6, paras. 20 and 22), please provide information on measures taken to identify investments benefiting children throughout the budget process and in the allocations made by central Government to municipalities, and to create a participatory system through which children and adolescents are involved in setting national, provincial and local budgets.

4.Please provide updated information on the measures taken to ensure that both the amendment of Decree No. 123 and Bill No. 81 on environmental impact assessments and prior consultation include compulsory evaluation of the impact of works, projects and activities on the rights of the child.

5.Please provide information on the steps taken to create a positive image of adolescents and prevent discrimination against them, including among the security forces, with a special focus on Afro-Panamanian, indigenous and pregnant adolescents. Please also provide information on measures taken to ensure that school regulations avoid discriminating against any children or adolescents. Please also explain what mechanisms exist to give children and adolescents a voice in any judicial or administrative proceedings that affect them.

6.In the light of the State party’s report (see CRC/C/PAN/5-6, para. 102), please provide information on the steps taken to develop a comprehensive strategy to eliminate violence, particularly sexual violence, against children and adolescents and on the measures taken to ensure that the services and human resources needed for the holistic recovery of victims are available. Please also describe the measures, including legislative measures, planned to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings.

7.Please provide information on the steps taken to guarantee that all children’s homes in operation meet standards, that the necessary resources are available to ensure that they are monitored regularly, and that children are institutionalized only as a last resort. Please also provide information on progress made under the Welcoming Family programme and the eight programmes provided for in Act No. 46 and on progress in amending this Act.

8.Please provide information on comprehensive programmes and policies for children and adolescents with disabilities. Please also provide information on how these programmes and policies focus on protection, early detection, intervention, treatment and rehabilitation and facilitate access to information, inclusive education and social services.

9.Please provide information on progress in adopting the act on sexual education so as to guarantee access to contraception and prevent pregnancy in adolescence. Please also provide information on policies and strategies relating to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS among children and adolescents. Please provide information on programmes to prevent malnutrition and child mortality, which remain widespread among the indigenous population. Please also state whether any surveys have been conducted on the potential existence of female genital mutilation as a practice among the indigenous population.

10.Please provide information on measures taken to more rapidly expand coverage of education, including early years care and education, to improve the education infrastructure and to guarantee the availability of qualified teaching staff, especially in provinces with high levels of exclusion and poverty. Please also provide data on the impact of technical and vocational training programmes, especially for children and adolescents lacking an education.

11.Please provide information on the results of the project to introduce effective policies against child labour, the fellowship programme for the eradication of child labour and the national plan against trafficking in persons. Please also provide information on steps taken to protect children engaged in the worst forms of child labour, especially in the informal and domestic sectors.

12.Please provide information on the measures taken to revoke the curfew and on existing manuals and protocols on the penalties that may be imposed on children, in particular children between 12 and 14 years of age. Please also provide information on steps taken to prevent the use of tear gas in detention facilities and the detention of children and adolescents.

Part II

13.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)Policies and programmes recently introduced and to which areas of the State party they apply;

(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statistics and other information, if available

14.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 (including young children). In addition, please indicate what percentage of the total national budget and the State party’s gross domestic product each budget item represents. Please provide information, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, ethnic origin and nationality, rural/urban population and geographical location, on the budget that the national, provincial and local authorities allocate to protecting the rights of the child.

15.Please provide statistics for the last three years, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin and nationality, rural/urban population and geographical location, on:

(a)Child and adolescent victims of sexual exploitation, pornography and child prostitution, the type of assistance provided to child victims, the compensation received and any follow-up, including the prosecution of offenders and any rulings handed down;

(b)Child and adolescent victims of sexual violence, sexual abuse and harassment, particularly cases occurring in educational establishments, specifying the type of penalty to which the perpetrators were sentenced;

(c)Cases of physical abuse and corporal punishment reported, investigated and punished, and the penalties imposed.

16.Please provide data for the last three years, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin and nationality, rural/urban population and geographical location, on:

(a)Infant mortality;

(b)Maternal mortality;

(c)Malnutrition;

(d)Birth weight;

(e)Vaccination coverage;

(f)Child and adolescent pregnancies;

(g)Abortion;

(h)Child and adolescent suicides;

(i)Children and adolescents infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS (specifying cases of mother-to-child transmission);

(j)Mental illness;

(k)The number of child and adolescent drug users;

(l)Actual coverage of drinking water and sanitation facilities;

(m)The number of children and adolescents living in poverty and extreme poverty.

17.Please provide data for the last three years, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban population and geographical location, on the number of children and adolescents:

(a)Abandoned;

(b)Separated from their parents;

(c)Living in shelters;

(d)Living with foster families;

(e)Adopted domestically or through intercountry adoptions.

18.Please provide data for the last three years, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban population and geographical location, 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;

(g)Receiving treatment as a part of special physical or mental health rehabilitation programmes.

19.Please provide data for the last three years, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, nationality, rural/urban population and geographical location, on:

(a)School enrolment and completion rates as percentages of each relevant age group in preschool education establishments 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)Qualification levels of teachers in each category of school;

(e)The ratio of teachers to pupils;

(f)The number and percentage of dropouts and repeated years. Please specify the causes, if known.

20.Please provide data for the last three years, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin and nationality, rural/urban population and geographical location, on:

(a)The number of children and adolescents at risk of becoming stateless;

(b)How long the process of determining the refugee status of children and people lasts;

(c)The number of child and adolescent asylum seekers who have been deported;

(d)The number and percentage of child and adolescent refugee pupils with respect to each category of school;

(e)The number of child and adolescent refugees who benefit from the “Beca Universal” [universal bursary] programme.

21.Please provide data for the last three years, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin and nationality, rural/urban population and geographical location, on the number of children and adolescents who:

(a)Are engaged in child labour (please provide information disaggregated by type of work, including hazardous work);

(b)Live on the street;

(c)Are victims of human trafficking (please specify the purpose of the trafficking);

(d)Are victims of sale (please specify the purpose of the sale);

(e)Are in detention (provisionally or otherwise) or have been prosecuted, convicted or sentenced to social and educational penalties (please provide information disaggregated by the nature of the offence);

(f)Have been detained for breaking the curfew.

22.Please update any information contained in the report that is out of date and provide the Committee with information on any new developments.

23.The State party is also invited to provide the Committee with a list of issues relating to children and adolescents that it considers to be a priority in terms of implementing the Convention.