Committee on the Rights of the Child

Sixty-fifth session

13–31 January 2014

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the fourth periodic report of Yemen (CRC/C/YEM/4)

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, if possible before 1 November 2013.

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).

Please indicate whether a timeframe for the adoption of the amendments and the Legislative Policy Paper have been agreed upon within the transitional process. Please provide information on how the rights of the child are being incorporated in the process of elaboration of new Constitution of the State party.

Please provide information on how children and children’s rights have been included in a meaningful manner in the ongoing national dialogue in the State party.

Please provide information on the objectives and goals of the National Strategy for Children and Youth (2006-2015). Please also provide information about the financial and human resources allocated to ensure the implementation of the strategy. Please indicate whether indicators and monitoring benchmarks have been developed to evaluate its implementation, in line with the Committee’s previous concluding observations (CRC/C/15/Add.267, para. 19).

Please provide updated information on the status of the Bill establishing a national independent human rights institution (NHRI) and also an observatory of children’s rights.

Please provide information on concrete actions undertaken by the State party to harmonize the definition of a child with article 1 of the Convention and to ensure that all persons below the age of 18 years are considered as children. Please also provide information on measures taken, to adopt a minimum age of marriage and to increase the minimum ages under relevant topics such as criminal responsibility and labour, in conformity with international standards.

Please provide detailed information on the measures undertaken and foreseen to prevent discrimination against Akdham / Muhamasheen / marginalized children.

Please provide information on concrete measures undertaken to eliminate traditional and cultural beliefs which contribute to the persistent discrimination against girls in the State party.

Please indicate whether any of the measures aimedatimproving the rate of birth registrations, mentioned in paragraph 107 of the report, have been implemented. Please also indicate how the State party ensures that relevant authorities comply withthe Prime Minister’s Decision No. 120 (2006), which states that birth registration is free of charge.

Please indicate what measures have been taken to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment in the home, in alternative care settings as well as a sentence for a crime. Please provide information on how the State party guarantees the respect of the prohibition of corporal punishment in the school and in the penal system.

Please provide detailed information about the National Plan against Female Genital Mutilation (2008), in particular about its implementation and achievements so far in the State party. Please also indicate measures undertaken to curb the practice of child marriage and address the issue of so-called honour killings in the State party.

Please provide updated information on the establishment of a framework to set up an alternative family care system in the State party, mentioned in paragraph 140 of the report. Please indicate how the State party monitors the quality of the care services provided to children placed in institutions and under family foster care (kafalah), in line with article 25 of the Convention.

Please provide information on mechanisms in place to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities are guaranteed, inter alia, through the services offered by the Disability Fund for Care and Rehabilitation. Please indicate whether the State party has conducted an assessment of the situation of children with disabilities with respect to their access to health care, education and housing as recommended by the Committee in its previous recommendations (CRC/C/15/Add.267, para. 54, 2005) and if so, indicate what the outcome was.

Please provide information on steps taken to address the deterioration of health services and destruction of health facilities due to the recent 2011-2012 crisis in the State party. Please indicate measures taken to address the decline in the immunization rates, the worsening of malnutrition amongst children and the increased outbreak of communicable diseases, such as measles. Please also indicate measures in place to prevent the outbreak of diseases associated with the poor access to water and sanitation of children, in particular diarrhoea.

Please provide information on measures taken to address the challenges to children’s access to education, inter alia, those derived from the 2011-2012 conflict situations, such as the reconstruction and re-equipment of infrastructure. Please also provide detailed information on the implementation and results of the National Strategy for Girl’s Education.

Please provide information on the situation of (a) internally displaced children, (b) migrant children and (c) children in street situations, and indicate the specific measures taken to provide such children with protection, access to education and health care services.

Please provide information about the prevalence of child labour in the State party as well as on measures taken to increase the minimum age of child labourers. Please also provide detailed information on the implementation and achievements of the programmes aiming at the protection of children from the worst forms of child labour, mentioned in paragraph 502 of the report.

Please provide information on measures taken to address the trafficking of Yemeni children to neighbouring countries for the purposes of labour exploitation and sale of organs, as well as the use of Yemini girls for their sexual exploitation under the guise of “tourism marriages”. Please also provide information on the progress made in implementing the Committee’s recommendations regarding the implementation of the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC/C/OPSC/YEM/CO/1, 2009).

Please comment on information indicating that children are at risk of being sentenced to death in the State party. Please also comment on reports indicating that individuals have been sentenced to death and/or have been executed even though they were under 18 years at the time of having committed their alleged crimes. Please provide data on the number of children sentenced to death.

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; and

(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statistics and other information, if available

Please provide data for 2010, 2011 and 2012 on the budgets allocated for children at the national, provincial and municipal levels (in absolute terms and as a percentage of the national budget and of gross domestic product) in the fields of education, health, social services and child protection.

With reference to children in care, please provide disaggregated data (by sex, age, reason for placement and type of care) for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012 on the number of children deprived of a family environment and placed in institutions and in kafalah placement, and specify the average length of placement.

Please provide, for 2010, 2011 and 2012, disaggregated data (by age, sex, socio-economic status and geographic location) on:

(a)The number of reported cases of child victims of abuse, including sexual abuse;

(b)The number of reported cases of child victims of sexual exploitation, in particular prostitution and “tourism marriages”;

(c)The number of reported cases of child victims of economic exploitation, in particular the number of children working in high risk sectors;

(d)The number of reported cases of child victims of trafficking;

(e)The number of child victims who have had access to social rehabilitation and reintegration services, specifying the type of service;

(f)Legal proceedings instituted against the perpetrators of such offences and the outcomes of such proceedings;

(g)The number of children living or working on the street, and among these, the number in social rehabilitation programmes.

Please provide data for 2010, 2011 and 2012 disaggregated (by age, sex, socio-economic situation and geographic location) on children deprived of their liberty, including those in pretrial detention, specifying the offences for which such children have been convicted, their sentences and place of detention and the number of children who have benefited from alternatives to deprivation of liberty.

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.