Committee on the Rights of the Child

Sevent y-second session

17 May-3 June 2016

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 Slovakia

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, if possible before 1 March 2016 (10,700 words maximum).

The Committee may take up any aspect of children’s rights set out 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.

1.Please provide information about the results of the evaluation of the National Action Plan for Children 2009-2012 and updated information on the new action plan for 2013-2017.

2.Please provide updated information on the progress made towards electing the first Children’s Commissioner and on steps taken in response to the reports of the Public Defender of Rights (Ombudsperson) in respect of monitoring children’s rights.

3.Please provide updated information on the progress made in designing and implementing a method for tracking State budget resources allocated to the implementation of children’s rights and in strengthening the State party’s disaggregated data collection system, with a special focus on Roma children and children with disabilities.

4.Please provide information about specific measures taken to increase awareness of the Convention among children in marginalized situations, especially Roma children, and about systematic training to relevant professional groups specifically on the provisions of the Convention and its Optional Protocols.

5.Please inform the Committee about steps taken to ensure independent monitoring of the Anti-discrimination Act.Please indicate the measures taken to protect Roma and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex children from hate speech. Please also provide information on measures taken to ensure accountability of and commensurate sanctions against perpetrators of such acts.

6.Please provide information on awareness-raising and other measures taken to address misinterpretations of the term “best interests of the child” by, inter alia, the media, religious and political groups. Please indicate whether the State party intends to amend and bring into conformity with the Convention the new definition in the Family Code of a stable family, consisting of a mother and a father,as being the most suitable environment for the comprehensive and harmonious development of the child.

7.Please provide updated information on the measures taken to ensure that Roma children are not subjected to verbal and physical attacks and harassment and on charges brought against perpetrators. Please also inform the Committee about steps taken to improve cooperation between the police and Roma communities and the funding allocated for this purpose.

8.Please provide information about steps taken to ensure that all cases of Roma girls who have been sterilized are effectively investigated, victims are awarded compensation and perpetrators are sanctioned.

9.Please inform the Committee about steps planned to ensure that corporal punishment is explicitly prohibited in all settings, including the home.

10.Please provide information about training provided to the personnel of child protection authorities on identifying child victims of violence as well as about measures taken to prevent physical and sexual abuse of children. Please inform the Committee specifically about steps taken to ensure that child victims of abuse are not placed in detention facilities and that they are not revictimized.Please provide information about measures in place for ensuring quality control of crisis centres founded by municipal and regional governments.

11.Please provide information about steps taken and planned to ensure and expedite the deinstitutionalization of existing residential social care institutions and to transfer children from residential institutions to family or family-type environments.

12.Please provide information about measures taken to address the reported shortage of doctors, especially in the countryside, and on measures taken to improve access to healthcare and address malnutrition, the spread of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and syphilis, and substance abuse among children in segregated Roma settlements. Please also provide information on steps taken to ensure that Roma women and children are not segregated in paediatric, gynaecological, obstetric and other health facilities.

13.Please provide updated information on measures taken to improve the standard of living of children in segregated Roma settlements, including ensuring access to adequate housing.Please inform the Committee about measures envisaged to ensure that Romani families with children living in the settlements thatwill not be legalized under the draft Building Act are protected from forced evictions and provided with adequate housing.

14.Please provide updated information on measures taken toincrease the enrolment rates and decrease the dropout rates of Roma children at all levels of the education system and to ensure that Roma children are not disproportionately placed in schools for children with mild disabilities or segregated schools or classes.

15.Please also inform the Committee about progress made in ensuring that all children, especially those belonging to Roma and Hungarian minorities, have access to education in their mother tongue.

16.Please provide information on progress made towards ensuring that all children, especially those in a socially disadvantaged environment, have access to preschool education.

17.Please inform the Committee about legislative and policy steps taken and planned to fully implement the principle of inclusive education and to overcome the existing obstacles to the inclusion of children with special education needs in mainstream schools.In particular, please provide information about progress made in implementing the 2014 “National programme for the development of the living conditions of citizens with disabilities in all areas of life”, including with regard to deinstitutionalization and the deadlines set to achieve full implementation.

18.Please inform the Committee about the measures taken to expedite the process of appointing a guardian or caregiver as well as a custodian for unaccompanied children,to prevent their disappearance from foster homes and to immediately launch search efforts to find them. Please provide information about measures taken to ensure that refugee camps and immigration facilities provide appropriate conditions and services for children. Please also indicate the measures taken to ensure that Muslim refugee and asylum-seeking children and their families are not discriminated against in the application of the European Union’s relocation and resettlement schemes in the State party.

19.Please provide information about the measures taken to prevent and eliminate trafficking of children for sex, and specifically about support provided to children who leave institutional care, in order to ensure that they do not become victims of human trafficking. Please also provide information about the measures taken to ensure that all cases of trafficking in children are investigated and prosecuted as such and not as offences that carry lighter sanctions.

20.Please provide information on the results of monitoring the application of special requirements for interrogating children, as provided for in the Criminal Code.

21.Please provide information about follow-up to the Committee’s recommendations on the implementation of the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC/C/OPSC/SVK/CO/1) and on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/SVK/CO/1).

Part II

In this section, the Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update (no more than three pages) on the information presented in its report regarding:

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

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

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

(d)Budget allocated for developing measures for the realization of the rights of the child by different ministries and by local authorities;

(e)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statistics and other information, if available.

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

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

(a)Child victims of ill-treatment, violence and abuse, including sexual abuse, as well as the number of complaints, investigations, prosecutions and convictions in that regard;

(b)Crisis centres for children;

(c)The number of cases of bullying in schools and the percentage of schools that have implemented a system for recording and documenting cases of bullying;

(d)Children living in poverty and extreme poverty;

(e)Roma children in the education system;

(f) Refugee children and asylum-seeking children;

(g)Unaccompanied children (including disappearances from foster homes and appointment of a guardian or caregiver).

3.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic and national 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)Placed in institutions;

(c)Placed with foster families;

(d)Adopted domestically or through intercountry adoptions.

4.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic and national origin and geographical 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.

5.Please provide data, disaggregated by, inter alia, age, sex, socioeconomic background, geographical location and ethnic origin, for the past three years, on:

(a)The enrolment and completion rates, in percentage, of the relevant age groups in pre-primary school, primary school and secondary school;

(b)The number and percentage of dropouts and repetitions;

(c)The teacher-pupil ratio.

6.Please update any information contained in the report that may be outdated and provide information on recent developments relating to the rights of the child.

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