Committee on the Rights of the Child

Seventy-eight h session

14 May-1 June 2018

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Considerati on of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the report submitted by Angola under article 8 (1) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 16 February 2018. The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights set out in the Optional Protocol during the dialogue with the State party.

1.Please provide information on whether the State party explicitly prohibits and criminalizes the recruitment and use in hostilities of children under the age of 18 by the armed forces, non-State armed groups, police forces, militias and private security companies, in all circumstances, including in cases of emergency. If such provisions do not exist, please inform the Committee of the measures envisaged to enact such laws, including in the context of the current Penal Code reform.

2.Please indicate whether the State party intends to define the recruitment of children under the age of 15 as a war crime and to give effect to the signature in 1998 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court by ratifying it. In relation to paragraph 22 (e) of the State party’s report (CRC/C/OPAC/AGO/1) stating that the precepts of the Military Penal Law do not apply to children of less than 16, please clarify how and in what circumstances would military penal law apply to children aged 16 and 17 years.

3.In the light of the information provided in paragraphs 30 to 33 of the State party’s report, please provide information on the measures taken to specifically disseminate the provisions of the Optional Protocol to the public at large and children in particular, and to train professionals working for or with children who are likely to have been involved in armed conflict, especially immigration officials and medical and social workers, as well as the police, lawyers, judges and members of the armed forces.

4.Noting that a large percentage of Angolans are not registered in the civil registration system, please provide information on the measures taken to ensure the availability of psychosomatic tests carried out by qualified personnel in provinces outside Luanda, to prevent underage recruitment, and on the nature of those tests.

5.Noting that an estimated 30,000 girls were abducted by parties to the civil war that ended in 2002 and used as wives and sex slaves, and that many of them had children as a result of those abuses, please provide information on the support provided to those girls and their children for their physical and psychosocial reintegration.

6.Taking into consideration paragraphs 39 to 43 of the State party’s report, please provide additional information on the efforts of the State party to address the issue of land mines and the provision of medical and psychological support to child victims of land mines, particularly in rural areas.

7.Noting the heavy influx of child refugees from the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since March 2017, please provide information on the measures taken and envisaged to provide support to children who were or may have been victims of offences under the Optional Protocol, including unaccompanied and separated children. Please also provide the Committee with information on the living arrangements of those children.

8.Please provide information on the measures taken to collect data on the number of children who were or may have been involved in armed conflict among the asylum-seeking and refugee communities. Please also provide information on how programmes for their physical and psychosocial recovery address the specific needs of girls and boys.

9.Please provide the Committee with information on the measures taken to prevent the recruitment and use of children in Cabinda by armed groups associated with the Front for the Liberation of the State of Cabinda and protect children from armed violence in that province.

10.Please provide information on whether extraterritorial jurisdiction has been established for crimes covered under the Optional Protocol in the State party and, if so, under which specific legislation.

11.Noting that Angola has not signed the Arms Trade Treaty, please provide information on the measures in place to guarantee that arms and other forms of military assistance are not sold or transferred to countries where children are known to be, or may potentially be, recruited and used in hostilities by parties to a conflict.