COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Fifty-second session

14 September-2 October 2009

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVENTION

ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

List of issues to be taken up in connection with the considerationof the second periodic report of Mozambique (CRC/C/MOZ/2)

PART I

Under this section the State party is requested to submit in written form additional and updated information, if possible, by 3 August 2009 .

Please indicate which judicial institution of the State party deals with potential conflicts between domestic laws and international conventions, and in such cases, which would prevail. Please also indicate whether the Convention has been invoked or referred to directly in domestic courts, and if so, please provide examples of such cases.

Please provide updated information on the steps taken to establish the National Youth Council and ensure that this mechanism receives sufficient human and financial resources to effectively coordinate the realization of children’s rights. Please also clarify its mandate vis-à-vis the mandates of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Social Welfare and the National Human Rights Commission.

Please indicate the concrete measures taken to improve the situation of children in the most disadvantaged provinces of the country in terms of education, health, nutrition status and access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and the steps taken to reach children not covered by the social

GE.09-43253 (E)

security system. Please also indicate the measures taken to address the inequitable budget allocations to those provinces.

Please explain what measures are being taken to assess the impact of the economic and financial crisis on children, to ensure that gains on child and maternal health, nutrition, education, well-being and special protection are being preserved, and that allocations to child-related budget lines and classifiers are being maintained or increased despite the decrease in resources. Please provide information on any evaluation undertaken of the cash transfer programmes for highly vulnerable families.

Please explain how the effects of likely reductions in foreign aid are being mitigated in the social sectors and whether there is a systematic effort to protect these sectors with public investment, especially for pro-poor policies and programmes. Please explain how the Poverty Observatory’s recommendations are being taken into account for policy and budget review.

Please indicate whether the principle of the best interests of the child referred to in paragraphs 129 to 133 of the State party’s report has been explicitly included in all legislation concerning children, as well as in the National Action Plans referred to in paragraphs 55 and 58 of the State party’s report.

Please provide precise data on the number of complaints received from the national Child Parliament (CP) and on the subjects raised by the CP over the past three years, and indicate how those complaints were taken into consideration and addressed. Does the State party envisage institutionalizing the CP and its countrywide structure, providing it with a budget and adopting clear guidelines to ensure that children’s views are fully taken into consideration and receive adequate response? Please also indicate the measures foreseen to ensure that all children including those out of school are represented in the CP and can be elected into it.

Please elaborate on the traditions and customs referred to in paragraph 87 of the State party’s report which continue to perpetuate violence, discrimination and are damaging to children, and provide information on the measures adopted to curb them and to raise awareness about the provisions of the new Family Law.

Given the extent of violence, sexual abuse and harassment of children within the school system, please indicate the measures adopted to prevent those abuses and punish the perpetrators. Please also indicate whether the State party has revised its Criminal Code to ensure full protection of children against all forms of sexual violence and exploitation as indicated in paragraph 374 of the State party’s report.

Given the alarming increase in the rate of HIV/AIDS infection (16.1 per cent in 2005) and consequences such as the exponential increase of AIDS orphans (estimated to reach 1.8 million by 2010 with one third due to AIDS), please provide information on measures being taken to:

Prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS;

Subsidize treatment with affordable and sustainable antiretroviral drugs to all HIV-positive children, women and men;

Increase coverage of treatment and counselling to dramatically reduce parent-to-child transmission;

Conduct specific prevention and awareness-raising campaigns especially among adolescents;

Combat stigmatization and discrimination against AIDS orphans;

Conclude specific cross-border agreements to provide services and prevent HIV infection in the migrant population.

Please provide detailed information on the measures adopted to prevent and combat child labour. Please explain how the National Employment and Professional Training Strategy of 2006 will contribute to the elimination of child labour and how this strategy is linked to the National Action Plan for Children (PNAC), the Poverty-Reduction Strategy Paper, and education policies.

Please indicate the steps taken by the State party to promote the establishment of a regional anti-trafficking prevention and response mechanism to strengthen data collection and border monitoring and provide victims of trafficking with shelter, medical, psychosocial and, if appropriate, repatriation support. Please also indicate the measures adopted to prevent internal trafficking.

Please indicate the issues affecting children that the State party considers to be the priorities requiring the most urgent attention with regard to the implementation of the Convention.

PART II

Under this section, the State party is invited to briefly (3 pages maximum) update the information provided in its report with regard to:

New bills or enacted legislation: (the Law against Human Trafficking, the Family Law, the Children’s Act and the Statute on Legal Assistance for Minors);

New institutions: (the National Youth Council and the National Human Rights Commission);

Newly implemented policies, and newly implemented programmes and projects, and their scope: (the National Action Plan for Children, the Action Plan for Orphan and Vulnerable Children, the National Programme to Prevent and Combat the Exploitation of Child Labour, and the three-year National Plan on Prevention of Violence against Children).

PART III

Data and statistics, if available

Pursuant to article 4 of the Convention, please provide updated data relating to the following areas.

With reference to child abuse and neglect, please provide disaggregated data (by sex, age, and types of violation reported) for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 on the following:

The number of reported cases of child abuse;

The number and percentage of reports that resulted in either a court decision or other types of follow-up, including prosecution;

The number and proportion of child victims who received counselling and assistance in recovery.

Please provide data covering the last three years on the number of children used in sexual exploitation, including prostitution, pornography and trafficking, as well as the number of those children who were provided access to recovery and social reintegration services, specifying the type of services. Please also provide data on the legal proceedings engaged against perpetrators of such offences over the same period.

With reference to the right to education, please provide disaggregated data (by sex, age group and province) for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 as a percentage of the relevant age group on:

The rates of literacy of those under and over 18 years of age;

The rate of enrolment in preschools, primary schools and secondary schools;

The percentage of children completing primary and secondary education;

The number and percentage of dropouts and repetitions;

The ratio of teachers to pupils and the number of children per class;

The proportion of children benefitting from scholarship and fee exceptions;

The proportion of qualified and unqualified teachers receiving professional training.

4.Please provide data covering the last three years on the number of:

Persons below 18 years of age who have been tried as adults;

Persons below 18 years of age detained in adult penitentiaries;

Children below the age of criminal responsibility who have come into conflict with the law;

The reported cases of abuse or ill-treatment of children that occurred during the arrest and/or detention of children in conflict with the law, as well as the type of follow-up given to those cases.

PART IV

The following is a preliminary list of major issues (other than those already covered in part I) that the Committee may take up during the dialogue with the State party. They do not require written answers. This list is not exhaustive, as other issues may be raised in the course of the dialogue:

Definition of the child.

Birth registration.

Family environment and, in particular, the situation of female-headed households.

Child abuse, neglect and domestic violence.

Corporal punishment and other forms of degrading punishment (including a follow-up to the State party’s concluding observations of 2002).

Children and women with disabilities.

Health (including mental health, adolescent health and teenage pregnancies).

Early and forced marriages, rape and “purification”.

Standard of living.

Street children (assessment, policies and programmes).

Child sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Administration of juvenile justice (including training for judges and police and extension of the system to the whole country).

Impact of war on the culture of violence.

Child refugees.

-----