Committee on the Rights of the Child

Seventy-sixth session

11-29 September 2017

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the report submitted by Guinea under article 8, paragraph 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 June 2017.

The Committee may take up any aspects of the children’s rights set out in the Optional Protocol during the dialogue with the State party.

1.In relation to paragraphs 19 and 23 of the State party’s report (CRC/C/OPAC/GIN/1 and Corr.1), please describe the status and the mandate of the Guinean Committee on the Protection of Children’s Rights and the relationship between that Committee and the Guinean armed forces’ unit for the advancement and protection of children.

2.With respect to paragraph 128 of the State party’s report, please specify the measures taken over the past three years to disseminate information on the Optional Protocol to the police force’s Office for the Protection of Gender, Children and Morals, the police in general, the armed forces, children and the general public.

3.In relation to paragraphs 22, 56, 63, 66, 113, 127 and 128 of the State party’s report, please provide information on the number of individuals who have received training on the Optional Protocol geared to professionals working with or for the benefit of children, among others; to members of the police and armed forces; and to private security firms. Please also provide information on the prevention policies and strategies on which such training is based.

4.Please provide detailed information on the measures taken to prevent children under the age of 18 from joining the armed forces or armed groups, given that many children, in particular those in rural areas, do not have a birth certificate.

5.Please provide information on the measures taken to supervise military education under the programme for the enrolment of Guinean students in the military schools of neighbouring countries and to monitor whether such children are taught to use firearms. Please also provide information on children’s opportunities to leave these schools voluntarily.

6.Please specify how the child protection system referred to in paragraph 65 of the State party’s report helps to identify children who are vulnerable to practices contrary to the Optional Protocol by reason of their economic and social status, in particular children who are refugees or asylum seekers.

7.Please provide information on the consequences suffered by those responsible for the recruitment of 9,000 young volunteers in 2001, at least 1,600 young people in 2009 and children in refugee camps in the Guinée-Forestière region between 2000 and 2002, referred to in paragraphs 26, 27 and 29, respectively, of the State party’s report.

8.In relation to paragraphs 107 and 108 of the State party’s report, please provide information on acts covered by the Optional Protocol that have been committed by Guinean military personnel outside Guinean territory and in respect of which article 18 of the 2012 Code of Military Justice has been invoked.

9.Please provide information on the rehabilitation, demobilization and social and occupational reintegration policies referred to in paragraphs 26, 27, 112 and 114 of the State party’s report.