Committee on the Rights of the Child
Seventy-sixth session
11-29 September 2017
Agenda item 4
Consideration of reports of States parties
List of issues in relation to the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Ecuador
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 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 measures taken by the various levels of government (including decentralized autonomous governments and local authorities) to ensure that specialist staff and resources for children are available during the handover process from the national system for children and adolescents to the National Intergenerational Equality Council and from the specialized cantonal councils to the rights protection councils.
2.In relation to the information provided in paragraph 20 of the State party’s report, please provide details of any public policies that are specifically targeted at the implementation of the rights of children and adolescents and explain how children and adolescents are involved in the monitoring of those policies. Please describe the existing mechanisms for coordination between the National Intergenerational Equality Council, the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion, the Ministry of Justice and local governments in the provision of special protection for children and adolescents.
3.With reference to the State party’s report (see CRC/C/ECU/5-6, para. 24), please inform the Committee about the reporting and/or complaints mechanisms available through the Ombudsman’s Office to respond to individual cases of violations of the rights of children and adolescents.
4.Please provide information on measures taken to combat the social stereotypes and prejudices that stigmatize children born into single-parent families and/or out of wedlock. Please provide information on the measures taken to eliminate discrimination against children and adolescents with disabilities, children and adolescents of African descent and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) children and adolescents.
5.Please provide information on measures taken to prevent the separation of children and adolescents from their families, particularly children with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, and to promote the deinstitutionalization of such children and their inclusion in society and the community. Please provide information on mechanisms for the monitoring of residential and foster care and on measures to safeguard the principles of due process for children in the adoption process.
6.Please provide information on measures to ensure the right to peaceful demonstration for children and adolescents, including police procedural protocols to respect the integrity of children participating in public demonstrations.
7.Please provide information on steps taken to combat all forms of violence against children and adolescents, including sexual violence within and outside the home and at school, corporal punishment in all settings and bullying, including online harassment, in particular with regard to children with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children. Please provide information on measures to protect, rehabilitate and compensate children and adolescents who have suffered violence and to bring those responsible to justice.
8.Please provide information on measures to implement quality inclusive education, in particular as regards teacher training, changes to the curriculum, personal assistance schemes and accessibility. Please also provide information on plans to reduce the number of children and adolescents receiving special education. Please provide information on the results and current implementation of the Joaquín Gallegos Lara voucher scheme.
9.Please provide information on measures to counter the falling vaccination rate among children and adolescents and to tackle chronic malnutrition and early pregnancies, especially among girls aged 10 to 14 years.
10.Please provide information on measures to identify, register and protect unaccompanied and separated child asylum seekers and refugees. Please also provide information on measures to protect the lives and physical safety of children and adolescents in the northern border area and to prevent recruitment by armed groups and the exploitation of young girls for the purposes of domestic work or sex, and prevent murders and disappearances.
11.Please provide updated information on the measures taken to eliminate racial discrimination against children and adolescents of indigenous, African or Montubio descent, particularly in education, and on the progress made in the implementation of the Organic Act on Intercultural Education. Please indicate the consultation mechanisms in place to guarantee the right of indigenous children and adolescents to express their views in connection with projects to develop natural resources.
12.Please provide information on the scope of the specialized justice system for children and adolescents and on the number of judges, prosecutors and public defenders specializing in children’s justice. Please provide information on the practical implementation of separation by age group in detention centres for juvenile offenders (see CRC/C/ECU/5-6, para. 211). Please also describe the official procedure that adolescents in those centres can use to report infringements of their rights and the means by which they can obtain information on the judicial proceedings related to their case and on their reintegration into society.
13.Please provide additional information on how all the offences covered by the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography are defined in law, what the established punishments for those offences are and what provisions are in place regarding the trial of alleged perpetrators. Please indicate whether any assessment has been carried out of the prevention, protection and rehabilitation programmes in place for child and adolescent victims of offences covered by the Optional Protocol and, if so, what the outcome of that assessment was.
14.Please provide information on measures taken to identify and register children arriving in the territory who may have been recruited or used in hostilities by armed groups abroad, as well as on measures to ensure the physical and psychological recovery of those children and their reintegration into society. Please also provide information on measures to investigate cases of the recruitment of children by non-State armed groups (see CRC/C/OPAC/ECU/CO/1, paras. 8, 10 and 18).
Part II
15.The Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update (no more than three pages) on the information presented in its report (CRC/C/ECU/5-6) with regard to:
(a)New bills or enacted pieces of legislation and their accompanying regulations;
(b)New institutions, their mandates and funding;
(c)Recently introduced policies and programmes and their scope in the State party;
(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.
Part III
Data and statistics, if available
16.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. In addition, please indicate what percentage of the total national budget and the State party’s GDP each budget item represents. Please provide budgetary information disaggregated by age, sex, disability, ethnic and national origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location. Please provide information, disaggregated by age, sex and urban/rural location, on the cantonal and local authority budgets allocated to the protection of children’s rights.
17.Please provide information on the budget allocated to family support services at the cantonal and municipal levels. Please indicate the percentage breakdown of service coverage by age, ethnic and national origin, migration or refugee status and disability.
18.Please describe the special protection services available in practice that are tailored to children and adolescents who are at risk or whose rights have been violated and specify the budget allocated to those services at the national, cantonal and municipal levels.
19.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years on:
(a)The number of children and adolescents who have been victims of abuse and violence, together with additional information on the type of violence (torture, sexual violence, corporal punishment, domestic violence, street violence, etc.) and the type of assistance afforded to child victims, the compensation received and action taken, including the trials of perpetrators and the sentences handed down in the State party. Where possible, please also provide information on the offenders, specifying whether they were members of criminal gangs, police officials, family members, teaching staff or other;
(b)Investigations and convictions in cases of sexual violence and harassment that particularly affect girls in educational establishments, specifying the type of sanction imposed on those responsible.
20.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years on:
(a)Infant mortality;
(b)Maternal mortality;
(c)Malnutrition;
(d)Children and adolescents infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS (specifying cases of mother-to-child transmission);
(e)Birth weight;
(f)Mental illness;
(g)Vaccination coverage;
(h)Child and adolescent pregnancies;
(i)Child and adolescent suicides;
(j)The number of child and adolescent drug users;
(k)The actual coverage of drinking water and sanitation facilities.
21.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years on the number of children and adolescents:
(a)Abandoned;
(b)Separated from their parents;
(c)Living in care institutions;
(d)Living with foster families;
(e)Adopted domestically or through intercountry adoptions.
22.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years 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.
23.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years on:
(a)School enrolment and completion rates as percentages of each relevant age group in preschool education centres 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)The number and percentage of dropouts and grade repetitions, specifying the underlying reasons, if known;
(e)The ratio of teachers to pupils.
24.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, for the past three years on the number of children and adolescents who are:
(a)Engaged in child labour (please provide information broken down by type of work, including hazardous work);
(b)In street situations;
(c)Victims of human trafficking, specifying the purpose of the trafficking;
(d)Victims of sale, specifying the purpose of the sale;
(e)Victims of prostitution;
(f)Victims of child pornography.
25.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, rural/urban place of residence and geographical location, on the number of family reunifications in countries of destination or origin in which the State party has played a part, relative to the total number of unaccompanied immigrant children and adolescents.
26.Please update any information contained in the report that is out of date and provide the Committee with information on any new developments.
27.The State party is invited to provide the Committee with a list of issues relating to children and adolescents that it considers to be priorities in relation to the implementation of the Convention.