Committee on the Rights of the Child

Sixty-eighth session

12–30 January 2015

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the combined third to fifth periodic reports of Uruguay

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, if possible before 15 October 2014 (max. 10,700 words).

The Committee may take up any aspect of children’s rights recognized in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party.

Part I

Under this section the State party is requested to submit replies to the following issues.

1.Please provide further information on the organization, functions, activities and human and financial resources of the Honorary National Advisory Board on the Rights of Children and Adolescents, established by the Code on Children and Adolescents, as the body responsible for coordinating public policies on children. Please also provide information on the functions of the Uruguayan Institute for Children and Adolescents (INAU) and its relationship with the Honorary National Advisory Board and other bodies working in the field of the rights of the child. Please provide further information on the implementation of the 2010–2015 plan of action of the National Strategy for Children and Adolescents and on any future plans for a system to evaluate the outcome of the plan of action in terms of the rights of children and adolescents.

2.Please provide information on how the State party decides on the allocation of the budget for children and adolescents and what measures have been taken to ensure balanced distribution between the various regions in order to reduce poverty and inequality among children and adolescents.

3.Please provide information on the measures adopted, or to be adopted, in order to establish a national centralized system for the collection of data on children and adolescents.

4.Please indicate how the Convention is publicized among children and adolescents and whether it has been incorporated into school curricula. Please explain how the Convention has been integrated into the training courses referred to in the State party’s report (CRC/C/URY/3-5, para. 69) and whether those courses cover all professionals working with and for children and adolescents, particularly in justice administration, the education system, medical services and protection services.

5.Please inform the Committee whether the Participation Councils in the field of education have been set up and what they do. Please also provide information on the measures adopted to ensure the effective participation of children and adolescents in all areas that concern them and what measures have been taken to ensure that their voices are heard.

6.In the light of the recommendations made by the Committee against Torture in May 2014 (CAT/C/URY/CO/3, para. 13), please provide information on the measures adopted to investigate and punish the perpetrators of the ill-treatment and torture of adolescents held at System of Adolescent Criminal Liability (SIRPA) facilities, as well as at other institutions where children and adolescents are held. Please provide information on the outcome of the investigations carried out, measures taken to prevent similar cases occurring in the future and the complaints mechanisms available. Please provide information on measures adopted to comply with the conclusions and recommendations contained in the Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (A/HRC/13/39/Add.2).

7.Please provide additional information on the activities and outcome of the implementation of the Integrated System for the Protection of Children and Adolescents from Violence, on other measures adopted to prevent violence in all spheres, including in schools and within the family, and on their outcome, in the capital and elsewhere in the country. Likewise, please provide information on protection measures available for children and adolescents victims of violence, including domestic violence, in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

8.In the light of the recommendation made by the Human Rights Committee in its concluding observations in 2013 (CCPR/C/URY/CO/5, para. 18), please indicate what steps the State party has taken to act on that recommendation and whether complaints alleging the sexual abuse of girls held at an admissions centre for adolescents have been investigated, and with what result.

9.In the light of paragraph 260 of the report of the State party, please provide information on measures adopted to promote inclusive education for children with disabilities.

10.Please provide additional information on measures adopted by the State party to guarantee appropriate support services for families at risk or in situations of vulnerability with the aim of ensuring that children are not separated from their family environment. Please also provide information on measures adopted to ensure that children are separated from their parents only as a last resort and that siblings are not separated when alternative family care measures are applied. Please provide information on measures introduced to promote deinstitutionalization, as well as to improve the monitoring of alternative measures of family care and the entrusting of children and adolescents to female “carers”.

11.Please provide information on the Adoption Act (Act No. 18590) of 2009, the recent amendments made to that Act and any measures taken to cut down the lengthy adoption procedures.

12.Please also provide information on the implementation of the National Adolescent Health Programme and the Comprehensive Model for the Prevention of Early Pregnancy, as well as on support measures available to adolescent mothers.

13.Please provide information on measures taken by the State party to reduce the high dropout and repetition rates among secondary school students. Please also provide information on measures adopted to facilitate access to education in rural areas and for children of African descent.

14.Please provide additional information on legal and administrative measures taken by the State party to prevent the economic exploitation of children and adolescents and on the activities of the National Committee for the Elimination of Child Labour and on the Plan of Action to Eliminate Child Labour in Waste Collection 2011–2015.

15.Please provide the Committee with information on measures adopted to prevent the excessive and disproportionate use of force or ill-treatment by public security officials against children in conflict with the law or street children arrested as a part of a police operation, and any inquiries or convictions arising from such cases.

16.As to the juvenile criminal justice system, please provide information on:

(a)How the principle of the best interests of the child has been taken into consideration and what studies were carried out in preparation for the recent amendment of articles 69 and 76 of the Code on Children and Adolescents, introducing stricter measures in the administration of juvenile criminal justice;

(b)Measures adopted to change the stereotypical image of adolescents as delinquents;

(c)Measures adopted to prevent the excessive use of the deprivation of liberty as a precautionary measure or as a punishment for adolescents in conflict with the law, given that around 50 per cent of adolescents alleged to have committed an offence are deprived of their liberty;

(d)Existing non-custodial socioeducational measures and how the relevant institutions ensure that they are applied;

(e)Conditions of detention of adolescents in conflict with the law and measures adopted to ensure the provision of adequate basic services, such as water supply and sanitation;

(f)Measures adopted to prevent overcrowding in a number of detention facilities, particularly in the Ser and Las Piedras detention facilities in Colonia Berro, where adolescents may spend up to 23 hours confined to their cells without access to training or recreational activities.

Part II

In this section the Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update (max. 3 pages) on the information presented in its report regarding:

(a)New bills or enacted legislation and any accompanying regulations;

(b)New institutions, their mandates and funding;

(c)Newly adopted and implemented policies and programmes and their scope;

(d)Newly ratified human rights instruments.

Part III

Statistical and other information, if available

1.Please provide consolidated budget information for the past three years on resources allocated to children and the social sectors, indicating the percentage of each budget line in terms of the total national budget and gross domestic product (GDP) in the State party.

2.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin and geographical location, covering the past three years, on:

(a)Cases of abuse and violence against children, including all forms of corporal punishment, with additional information on the type of assistance given to child victims and the follow-up provided, including prosecution of the perpetrators and the sentences handed down in the State party;

(b)Investigations of cases of sexual violence and rape, and the outcome of prosecutions, including information on the penalties for perpetrators, and reparation and compensation awarded to the victims;

(c)Street children;

(d)Children infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

3.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographical location, regarding the situation of children deprived of a family environment and separated from their parents, covering the past three years, citing the number of children:

(a)Separated from their parents;

(b)Living in institutions;

(c)Living with foster families;

(d)Adopted within the country or through international adoptions.

4.Please specify the number of children with disabilities, disaggregated by age, sex, types of disabilities, ethnic origin and geographical location, for the past three years, citing the number of children:

(a)Living with their families;

(b)In institutions;

(c)Attending ordinary primary schools;

(d)Attending ordinary secondary schools;

(e)Attending special schools;

(f)Not attending school;

(g)Children with disabilities who have been abandoned.

5.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and place of residence (urban or rural), for the past three years, on:

(a)Enrolment and completion rates as a percentage of each corresponding age group, for preschool establishments and primary and secondary schools;

(b)Number and percentage of dropouts and repetitions;

(c)Teacher-pupil ratio.

6.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and place of residence (urban or rural) on social protection measures during the past three years, on:

(a)The number of children involved in child labour;

(b)The number of children working in domestic service, fishing, agriculture, the lumber industry and construction;

(c)The number of children involved in hazardous work.

7.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin and type of offence, covering the past three years, giving in particular the number of:

(a)Children alleged to have committed a crime that was reported to the police;

(b)Children sentenced and the type of penalty or punishment corresponding to the offence, including length of deprivation of liberty;

(c)Detention facilities for minors in conflict with the law and their capacity;

(d)Children detained in facilities for minors and minors detained in adult facilities;

(e)Children in pretrial detention and the average length of such detention;

(f)Cases of abuse and ill-treatment of children occurring during detention or imprisonment.

8.Please provide the Committee with an update on any information in the report that may now be out of date and replace it with data collected more recently or other new developments.