Committee on the Rights of the Child

Fifty-fourth session

25 May–11 June 2010

Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

List of issues to be taken up in connection with the consideration of the third and fourth periodic reports of Belgium (CRC/C/BEL/3-4)

In this section the State party is requested to submit additional, updated information in writing, if possible before 6 April 2010 .

The Committee will take up all aspects of children’s rights contained in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party. The present list of issues covers only some questions on which the Committee would like additional information before the dialogue.

Part I

1.Please inform the Committee whether the Government of the German-language Community has an action plan for children and how children’s rights are integrated into various sectoral policies. Please indicate what measures have been taken to establish a mechanism to follow up the implementation of the rights of the child in the German-speaking Community.

2.Please inform the Committee of the measures taken to comply with its recommendation that the national plan of action for children should be provided with budget allocations and follow-up mechanisms (CRC/C/OPAC/BEL/CO/1).

3.With regard to the decree of 4 April 2004 on school participation adopted by the Flemish authority, please indicate how children are helping to draft education policy in the Communities.

4.Please provide the Committee with information on the procedures governing children’s participation in judicial and administrative proceedings, particularly opportunities for children to express their opinions and for those opinions to be taken into consideration. Please also provide the Committee with information on the technical means used by the State party to enable children to participate in judicial proceedings without revealing their identity to other parties.

5.Please indicate how article 12 of the Act on patients’ rights, which provides for the possibility of a child being involved in the exercise of his or her rights, is implemented, particularly when the child refuses treatment or a medical intervention.

6.Please provide information and data on bullying and violence in schools, particularly against children of foreign origin, with disabilities or because of their sexual orientation. Please also describe the measures aimed at solving that problem and developing a culture of tolerance in schools, and the results obtained.

7.Please indicate the measures taken to allow children to be educated in their language of origin or of choice, irrespective of which Community they reside in.

8.Please indicate the mechanisms available to children for filing complaints of neglect, ill-treatment, abuse or violence and describe how such complaints are dealt with.

9.Please indicate which categories of children do not have appropriate social and medical cover.

10.Please indicate the policies and measures adopted or envisaged to reduce the placement of children in institutions, particularly in the French Community.

11.Indicate what problems affecting children the State party considers to be priorities and in need of urgent attention with regard to the implementation of the Convention.

Part II

In this section, the State party is invited to update briefly (three pages maximum) the information provided in its report, at federal as well as Community and regional level, on :

Bills and new acts

New institutions and their functions

Recently introduced policies

Recently launched action plans and programmes, and their scope

Newly ratified human rights instruments

Part III

Statistic s , if available.

1.Please provide up-to-date figures for 2007, 2008 and 2009 on persons aged under 18 who have been tried as adults. Also provide data on reported cases of physical abuse or ill-treatment of children during arrest and/or detention, and the follow-up given to such cases.

2.Please provide an analysis of trends in budget allocations (in absolute figures and as percentages of the Federal and Community budgets) for the implementation of the Convention in 2007, 2008 and 2009, in the fields of education, health, social services and child welfare.