Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the initial report of South Sudan *

1.The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 15 February 2022. 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

2.Please describe the measures taken or envisaged to:

(a)Implement the Child Act (2008), raise awareness of it and disseminate it in local languages, in particular in hard to reach areas, provide training for the officials responsible for the implementation of the Act and allocate the necessary resources for its implementation;

(b)Ensure that customary laws and traditions are brought into compliance with the Convention, in particular with regard to the definition of a child as a person under the age of 18, and that customary courts that handle children’s issues comply with them and uphold children’s rights;

(c)Develop a comprehensive child rights policy;

(d)Increase the budget allocations to sectors and institutions relevant for children, in particular in the areas of health, education and social protection, decrease the heavy reliance on donor funding and strengthen anti-corruption systems;

(e)Establish a comprehensive data-collection system covering all areas encompassed by the Convention.

3.Please describe the measures taken or envisaged to:

(a)Ensure the protection of children’s rights in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and mitigate the adverse impact of the pandemic;

(b)Increase human, technical and financial resources for the establishment of the Children’s Desk within the South Sudan Human Rights Commission.

4.Please indicate the measures taken or envisaged to:

(a)Eliminate laws and practices that discriminate against children, in particular girls, children with disabilities, children belonging to minority groups and children living with HIV/AIDS, and ensure their equal access to all services;

(b)Determine and apply the best interests of the child in legal, judicial and administrative procedures, in particular in the administration of customary law, and raise awareness of the best interests of the child among communities and families;

(c)Implement legislation on the prohibition of the death penalty and explain why some children were reportedly being sentenced to death until 2019;

(d)Prevent death and injury due to mines and explosive remnants of war.

5.Please describe the efforts undertaken to operationalize the Civil Registry Act (2018) and to improve its systems for the registration of children at birth, in particular children born outside of health facilities, and for determining the age of children who were not registered at birth.

6.In the light of the reported high incidence of violence against children and rape and other types of sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated against children, exacerbated in the context of armed conflict, please describe the measures taken or envisaged to:

(a)Address the root causes of violence against children, in particular cultural and traditional practices that normalize sexual and gender-based violence;

(b)Prosecute all acts of violence against children and punish the perpetrators of such acts through statutory courts, including acts of sexual violence against boys in the context of armed conflict;

(c)Strengthen the integrated services and referral mechanisms for children who are victims of all types of violence and provide legal aid and medical and psychological support;

(d)Protect children who are victims of all types of violence and their families from reprisals by perpetrators.

7.Please indicate the measures taken or envisaged to eradicate all harmful practices against children, in particular to:

(a)Enforce statutory laws on child marriage, including the strategic national action plan to end child marriage, 2017–2030, and provide adequate resources for their implementation;

(b)Raise awareness of the strategic national action plan and of the harmful effects of child marriage, in particular at the local level and among traditional leaders, parents and teachers;

(c)Address the root causes of child marriage, including lack of birth registration, poverty and the strong influence of community and traditional leaders;

(d)Eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation, in particular in the northern border regions, and other harmful practices, such as scarification.

8.Please indicate the measures taken or envisaged to:

(a)Implement the national policy on the protection and care of children without appropriate parental care and finalize guidelines on foster care;

(b)Establish a social protection programme, strengthen the social services workforce and provide adequate assistance to families living in poverty so that they are able to take care of their children;

(c)Prioritize family tracing and reunification, as well as family-based and community-based alternative care mechanisms, such as foster care;

(d)Regulate and monitor the establishment and operation of institutions for the care of children;

(e)Increase the human and financial resources of entities that provide support for support families.

9.Please indicate the measures taken or envisaged to:

(a)Set up affordable health centres with sufficient human, technical and financial resources, in particular in rural areas, which are also accessible to children with disabilities;

(b)Reduce the high mortality rates among infants and children under 5 years of age due to preventable diseases and malnutrition and the high rate of maternal mortality;

(c)Improve immunization coverage and access to HIV services, including antiretroviral treatment;

(d)Provide sexual and reproductive health services and education and prevent early pregnancy and transmission of sexually transmitted infections;

(e)Improve access to clean water and sanitation;

(f)Develop adaptations to the effects of climate change and build the resilience of communities to those effects.

10.Please describe the measures taken or envisaged to:

(a)Ensure quality, inclusive, free and accessible education, in particular for girls, children in pastoralist communities and children with disabilities;

(b)Increase enrolment and retention rates in primary and secondary education and address the high number of school dropouts;

(c)Improve school infrastructure, learning materials and teacher training and increase the number of teachers.

11.Please describe the measures taken or envisaged to:

(a)Provide refugee and internally displaced children with adequate and appropriate assistance, including food, medical and psychological support, access to education and family tracing and reunification;

(b)Strengthen the social welfare system and protections, including for children living in street situations;

(c)Implement the prohibition of the worst forms of child labour, including compulsory recruitment into the armed forces and for the purposes of sexual exploitation, mining and cattle herding, in accordance with the Child Act.

12.Please provide an update to the Committee on the establishment of the child justice system, including the juvenile courts, and indicate the measures taken or envisaged to:

(a)Determine a child’s age in the absence of a birth certificate;

(b)Raise the age of criminal responsibility;

(c)Ensure that children are not detained with adults;

(d)End the overuse of detention in pretrial and post-trial procedures and replace detention with measures such as diversion, probation, counselling and community service, especially for minor offences.

13.Please describe the measures taken or envisaged to:

(a)Prevent the denial of humanitarian access and the killing, maiming and sexual abuse, including rape, of children from taking place during the military operations;

(b)Prevent the recruitment and use of children in the State party’s armed forces and by armed groups;

(c)Ensure the demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of children associated with the armed forces or non-State armed groups;

(d)Put an end to the impunity that perpetrators of the recruitment, use, killing, maiming and sexual abuse of children continue to enjoy and ensure the prompt and impartial investigation of all allegations against all suspected officers of the State party’s armed forces and armed groups;

(e)End the use for military purposes, and the destruction of, hospitals and schools.

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 the following:

(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

15.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and the social sectors, 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 geographical allocation of those resources.

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

(a)Children registered at birth or at a later time;

(b)Child marriage and female genital mutilation;

(c)Cases of abuse and violence against children, including domestic violence, corporal punishment and sexual abuse, investigations conducted and the outcome of trials, including sentences imposed on perpetrators and redress awarded to victims;

(d)Deaths of children due to mines and explosive remnants of war;

(e)Children suffering from malnutrition, stunting or preventable diseases;

(f)Immunization coverage;

(g)Adolescent pregnancy;

(h)School enrolment, drop-out and completion rates;

(i)Children engaged in the worst forms of labour;

(j)Children who are victims of trafficking;

(k)Children in street situations.

17.Please provide updated statistical data, disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, for the past three years, on children who were:

(a)Killed, maimed and sexually abused during the military operations;

(b)Recruited and used in the State party’s armed forces and by non-State armed groups;

(c)Associated with the armed forces or non-State armed groups who have been demobilized, rehabilitated and reintegrated into the community.

18.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographical location regarding the situation of children deprived of a family environment, for the past three years, on the number of children who are or who have been:

(a)Separated from their parents;

(b)Placed in orphanages, also disaggregated by duration of the placement;

(c)Placed with foster families.

19.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographical location, for the past three years, on the number of children with disabilities who are or who have been:

(a)Living with their families;

(b)Attending regular primary and secondary schools;

(c)Out of school;

(d)Abandoned by their families.

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

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)In pretrial detention;

(d)Detained with adults;

(e)Serving a sentence in detention, also disaggregated by the length of the sentence.

21.Please provide information on how a child rights-based approach is integrated into the planning, implementation and monitoring of measures for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including with regard to the participation of children and data collection, and how those measures promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto.

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

23.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.