COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILDForty-third session11-29 September 2006

Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict

List of issues to be taken up in connection with the consideration of the initial report of MALTA (CRC/C/OPAC/MLT/1)

1.Please provide disaggregated data (by sex, age groups, ethnic minority, urban and rural areas) covering the period between 2003 and 2005 on the number and proportion of children under the age of 18 recruited into the armed forces or into the police.

2.Please provide data for 2004-2006 on budget allocations and trends (in percentages of the national and regional budgets or gross domestic product) allocated to the implementation of the Optional Protocol.

3.Please clarify which authority is in charge of the implementation of the Optional Protocol.

4.Please clarify the meaning of “direct participation” in the hostilities in the legislation and practice of the State party.

5.Please provide information on measures adopted with regard to the physical and psychological recovery of refugee and migrant children entering Malta who may have been involved in armed conflict.

GE.06-42722 (E) 050706

6.Please provide information as to whether Malta assumes extraterritorial jurisdiction over war crimes that involve conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 into the armed forces, or using them to participate actively in hostilities. Please also clarify whether, in the case that extraterritorial jurisdiction has been assumed, there is a requirement of double criminality for such offences.

7.Also in relation to extraterritorial jurisdiction, please indicate whether there is any legal provision criminalizing the recruitment or involving in hostilities of a person under 18 if committed outside Malta by or against a Maltese citizen.

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