Committee on the Rights of the Child

Fifty-ninth session

16 January–3 February 2012

Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

List of issues concerning additional and updated information related to the consideration of the third and fourth combined periodic report of Thailand (CRC/C/THA/3-4)

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, if possible before 21 November 2011.

The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights contained in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party.

Part I

In this section, the State party is requested to submit its responses to the following questions (30 pages maximum).

1.Please inform the Committee whether the State party is considering the withdrawal of its reservation under article 22 of the Convention in order to enhance the rights of all children in the territory of the State party.

2.Please inform the Committee of measures taken to review the Child Protection Act of 2003 and bringit into full compliance with all the rights under the Convention.

3.Please clarify which single body in the State party has the mandate and authority to effectively coordinate the implementation of the rights of children under the Convention across relevant sectors andinstitutions and all regions and to monitor such implementation systematically throughout the country.

4.Please provide details and figures on the budgetary allocations and investments made to implement all children’s rights at the national and regional levels in 2009 and 2010.

5.Please inform the Committee of the contributions of business and industry towards the attainment of children’s rights in all regions of the State party. Please provide information on measures taken to regulate the activities of business and industry with a view to protecting children’s rights and the environment in which they live, in both urban and rural areas.

6.Please provide information on the data collected on children by the National Information Centre and the National Statistics Office, and in the database on children with disabilities referred to in paragraph 19 of the State party report. Please indicatewhether any steps have been taken to establish a comprehensive system for the collection of data on children that can be disaggregated, analysed and evaluatedregularly.

7.Please inform the Committee of the measures taken to eliminate both direct and indirect discrimination against children in vulnerable situations, particularly girl children, children of indigenous, religious or ethnic minority communities, children of refugees and asylum-seekers, children of migrant workers, children in street situations, children with disabilities, children living in rural areas, and children living in poverty, as raised in the Committee’s previous concluding observations (CRC/C/THA/CO/2, para. 24). Please also provide information on the measures taken to eliminate the regional disparities, especially in the southernmost provinces, in access to social, health and education services.

8.Please clarify whether the Civil Registration Act of 2008 and regulations by the Ministry of Interior, which provide for late birth registration as well as registration cards forethnic groups of highland people and abandoned infants, also extend to children of asylum-seekers and migrants workers. Please provide information on steps taken to remove the monetary penalty for late birth registration.

9.Please inform the Committee about the measures taken to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment of children in the home and in alternative care settings. Please indicatewhether the State party has taken steps to review and amend thelegislation thatallows “reasonable” punishment for the purposes of discipline in all settings.

10.Please provide more information on the measures taken:

(a)To undertake a comprehensive study to assess the situation of children placed in alternative care institutions, including their living conditions, care plans and available services;

(b)To promote foster-care arrangements for children;

(c)To set standards for all forms of alternative care and establish monitoring and oversight systems.

11.Please inform the Committee of the measures taken to implement its previous recommendation (CRC/C/THA/CO/2, para. 67) to adopt and implement legislation for the protection of asylum-seeking and refugee children, and ensure that policies and programmes are implemented to guarantee the protection of these children, in particular those in camps. Please provide information on the services available to asylum-seeking and refugee children in camps.

12.Please inform the Committee of the steps taken to provide legal protection to children working in all areas of the informal sector that are not covered under the Labour Protection Act of 1998. Please also indicatewhether the National Plan of Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (2004-2009) has been evaluated. If so, what is the outcome?

13.Please indicate whether the State party is considering increasing the minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is currently set at the low age of 10 years. Please indicatewhether the State party is taking any measures to ensure that detained persons underthe age of 18 are separated from adults. Please also provide information on the measures that have been taken to address the detention of children, including pretrial detention, as well as on policies and programmes to reintegrate into society children who were in conflict with the law.

Part II

In this section the Committee invites the State party to briefly (three pages maximum) update the information presented in its report with regard to:

(a)New bills or laws, and their respective regulations;

(b)New institutions (and their mandates) or institutional reforms;

(c)Recently introduced policies, programmes and action plans and their scope and financing;

(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statisticsand other information, if available

1.Please provide, if available, statistical data (disaggregated by sex, age, ethnicity, national origin and socio-economic background) on how many children are living in informal and formal alternative care.

2.Please specify the number of children with disabilities, up to the age of 18, disaggregated by age, sex, socio-economic background and type of disability, covering the years 2009, 2010 and 2011:

(a)Living with their families;

(b)Living in institutions;

(c)Placed in foster care.

3.Please provide, if available, statistical data on:

(a)The number of children living in hill tribe areas of the State party;

(b)The number of children who have been victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as the number of complaints, investigations and prosecutions carried out in this regard in 2009 and 2010;

(c)The number of children who live in refugee camps;

(d)The number of children of migrant workers;

(e)The number of working children;

(f)The number of children in detention centres, disaggregated by sex and age, for 2009 and 2010.

4.In addition, the State party may list areas affecting children that it considers to be of priority with regard to the implementation of the Convention.