Committee on the Rights of the Child

Eighty-fifth session

11–29 May 2020

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Tunisia

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 14 February 2020. 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 indicate the steps taken to develop a comprehensive law on children’s rights. Please explain the measures taken to review laws to ensure their compatibility with the Convention, including the progress made in revising discriminatory provisions in the Code of Personal Status of 1956 to ensure that girls have the same inheritance rights as male members of their family. Please indicate the measures taken to develop a comprehensive policy and strategy on children’s rights to implement the Convention.

2.Please provide information on the mandate and activities of the Ministry of Women, Family, Childhood, and Seniors, regarding coordination in the area of children’s rights. Please indicate efforts to establish a comprehensive monitoring and accountability system on issues related to children. Please explain how the State party’s budgeting process allows for the specific identification of budgets allocated to child-related issues in the relevant sectors and bodies at all levels, including indicators and a follow-up system.

3.Please indicate any measures taken to prevent child marriages, including measures taken to raise public awareness of the harmful consequences of child marriage.

4.Please provide information about:

(a)The progress made in addressing the inequality, discrimination and disparities across the State party in children’s access to public services, in particular health care and services, and education, including disparities between public and private schools;

(b)The impact of austerity measures on children’s enjoyment of their rights, especially on those in disadvantaged situations, such as children with disabilities, children living in poverty and children living in rural areas.

5.Please explain how authorities at all levels integrate the best interests of the child in all matters concerning them. Please describe the measures taken and mechanisms in place to ensure meaningful child participation within the family, in school, in the community, and in judicial and administrative proceedings. Please indicate the measures taken to adopt the national action plan to promote the involvement of children in the areas of laws and institutional mechanisms, family life and public life.

6.Please explain the specific measures taken to implement the provisions of Organic Act No. 58 of 2017 to combat violence against women that apply to boys and girls, including those taken to prevent and respond to all forms of violence, abuse and neglect, including sexual abuse and corporal punishment, in all settings. Please indicate the measures taken to encourage child victims to report instances of violence, abuse and neglect, and provide data on the reports received and action taken thereon.

7.Please explain how child victims of all forms of violence, abuse and neglect, including sexual abuse, are provided with remedies and support, including rehabilitation and social reintegration. Please indicate the human, technical and financial resources allocated to the support services for child victims. Please provide updated information on the status of the draft law on child victims of crime, explaining the measures thereunder to provide such children with the protection required by the Convention.

8.With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendations (CRC/C/TUN/CO/3, para. 44), please provide information about:

(a)The family support services and programmes to reduce poverty and whether female-headed households are given priority;

(b)The progress made in strengthening family-based alternative care for children and reducing the number of children in residential care, including children with disabilities;

(c)The efforts to facilitate the full inclusion of children with disabilities into society.

9.Please provide information on the measures taken to address child poverty, including in rural areas. With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendations (CRC/C/TUN/CO/3, para. 52), please provide information on the measures taken to make quality health services available and accessible to all children across the State party. Please indicate the specific measures taken to implement the national strategy to reduce maternal mortality (CRC/C/TUN/4-6, paras. 190–191) and the results achieved.

10.With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendations (CRC/C/TUN/CO/3, para. 56), please indicate the steps taken to make available quality and accessible education in rural areas. Please provide information on the progress made in preventing school dropout and repetition. Please indicate the specific measures taken to implement the plan to promote high-quality preschool education (CRC/C/TUN/4-6, para. 213) and the results achieved.

11.Please explain the measures taken to protect and provide services to refugee and migrant children and their families, including those arriving across the Tunisian-Libyan border. Please describe the measures taken to implement the Law on the Prevention and the Fight Against the Trafficking in Persons of 2016. Please indicate any plans to establish specialized reception facilities for child victims of trafficking in human beings.

12.Please explain the efforts to eliminate child labour, especially in domestic and agricultural work, and the worst forms of child labour, including begging. With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendations (CRC/C/TUN/CO/3, para. 66), please indicate the specific measures taken to develop a juvenile justice system in line with the Convention. Please indicate any measures taken to revise the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2015 to ensure that children cannot be charged thereunder.

13.Please provide information about the measures taken to:

(a)Implement the Committee’s previous recommendations on the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/TUN/CO/1);

(b)Repatriate Tunisian children who are involved in armed conflicts (“foreign fighters”), and rehabilitate and reintegrate the returnees.

Part II

14.The Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update (no more than three pages) on 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, statistics and other information, if available

15.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and social sectors by indicating the percentage of each budget line in terms of the total national budget and the gross national product. Please also provide information on the geographic allocation of those resources.

16.Please provide, if available, updated statistical data disaggregated by age, sex, disability, ethnic origin, national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, for the past three years, on:

(a)Cases of violence against children, child neglect and abuse and the number of investigations and prosecutions carried out and sentences issued;

(b)Children who are victims of harmful practices, including child marriage or female genital mutilation, or who are at risk of such practices;

(c)Child victims of sale, trafficking, prostitution and pornography and the number of investigations and prosecutions carried out and sentences issued;

(d)Children of incarcerated parents and children living in prisons with their mothers;

(e)Infant and child mortality;

(f)Children who use illicit drugs or substances;

(g)Girls having undergone abortions, in particular unsafe abortions;

(h)The number of children seeking asylum in the State party, including unaccompanied or separated children and children who have left the reception centres, and those granted refugee status;

(i)The number of expulsion orders issued against children;

(j)Children in street situations;

(k)Children living in poverty and in inadequate housing.

17.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographic location regarding the situation of children deprived of a family environment, for the past three years, on the number of children:

(a)Separated from their parents;

(b)Orphaned;

(c)Living with extended families;

(d)Adopted (formally and informally);

(e)Placed in institutions.

18.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographic location, for the past three years, on the number of children with disabilities:

(a)Living with their families;

(b)Living in institutions;

(c)Attending regular primary schools;

(d)Attending regular secondary schools;

(e)Attending special schools;

(f)Out of school;

(g)Abandoned by their families.

19.Please provide, if available, updated statistical data disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic origin, national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, for the past three years, on children in conflict with the law who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)In pretrial detention;

(d)Serving a sentence in detention and the length of the sentence.

20.Please provide information on how the planning, implementation and monitoring of measures to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals integrate a child rights-based approach, including with regard to child participation and data-collection, and how they promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and its Optional Protocols.

21.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have become outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.

22.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.