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 Argentina (CRC/C/ARG/3-4)

The questions raised below relate to subjects that are considered to be priorities by the Committee and on which additional information is required. Other questions relating to the implementation of the Convention may be raised at the time of the dialogue with the State party.

Part I

Under this section the State party is requested to submit in written form additional and updated information, if possible before 6 April 2010 .

1.Please inform the Committee of the measures taken to implement Act No. 26061 at the national and provincial levels, and of the current status of the process of legislative and institutional transformation intended to guarantee compliance with the principles of the Act and the Convention. Please indicate whether or not an Ombudsman for Children and Adolescents has been appointed, as required by the Act, and if not, the reasons for the delay.

2.Please provide additional information on the implementation of the mandate of the Federal Council for Children, Adolescents and the Family, and particularly its rank, the mechanisms created for the coordination, at the national and provincial levels, of the System for the Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, and its role in initiating and promoting legislation, policies, programmes and budgets for the implementation of Act No. 26061.

3.Please indicate the current status of the adoption of the national plan of action for the rights of children and adolescents, as regards consultations on the draft plan with provincial authorities, and the validation and adoption of the draft plan, as well as its content and the provisions for financing the plan at both the national and the provincial levels.

4.Please give information on the measures taken in the area of systematic rights-based organization of statistical information on children and adolescents, at the national and provincial levels, as well as on the quality and quantity of the collection, analysis, application and dissemination of official statistical information.

5.Please inform the Committee of the measures taken to combat poverty with a specific focus on children and the most disadvantaged provinces, including those with a high proportion of indigenous population. Please include investment by sector, investment in special protection such as conditional transfer programmes and other subsidies, and investment in multicultural development.

6.Please update the information on how the State party has taken into account the United Nations study on violence against children, particularly domestic violence and violence in schools and care or detention facilities, and particularly corporal punishment and sexual abuse of children; as well as on progress in the area of legislation and regulation, and technical and professional training.

7.Please provide information on the effective implementation of the National Sexual Health and Responsible Parenthood Programme, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Health and the National Comprehensive Sex Education Programme under the Ministry of Education, as regards specific activities at the national and provincial levels to guarantee the health and sexual and reproductive rights of adolescents. In particular, please refer to activities intended to prevent teenage pregnancy and deaths caused by unsafe abortions.

8.Please explain the procedures and measures put in place in connection with the sexual exploitation, trafficking, sale, prostitution and use in pornography of children and adolescents on Argentine territory, especially as far as children from the most disadvantaged provinces such as those in the north-east are concerned. Please include the numbers of cases of children and adolescents who were detained as they entered the State party and may have been the victims of trafficking. Please also provide information on whether the causes were investigated, whether the children and adolescents were reunited with their families, whether their cases were examined pursuant to the asylum procedure, whether assistance, including psychological assistance, was offered to the victims, and whether the persons responsible were investigated and punished.

9.Concerning the institutionalization of children and adolescents, whether for their own protection or for reasons related to their criminal liability, please inform the Committee of the number of visits made by the Commission for Oversight of the Institutional Treatment of Children and Adolescents, the locations visited, the Commission’s recommendations, and the follow-up to these recommendations. Furthermore, please explain:

(a)The mechanism for filing complaints;

(b)The remedies made available to the victims, including compensation, rehabilitation, reintegration and resocialization;

(c)Plans to carry out in a sustained and comparable manner a quantitative and qualitative study of the institutionalization of children and adolescents and of the issue of their family environment, as a follow-up to the study carried out by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2005.

10.Please inform the Committee of the content of the new juvenile justice bill, the nature of the legislative procedure and the measures taken to expedite its adoption.

11.Please indicate the issues affecting children that the State party considers to be priorities requiring the most urgent attention with regard to the implementation of the Convention.

Part II

Under this section the State party is invited to briefly (three pages maximum) update the information provided in its report with regard to :

1.New bills or enacted legislation at the national and provincial levels.

2.New institutions, with their main functions, and new plans, at the national and provincial levels.

3.Newly adopted and implemented policies and programmes, and their national and provincial scope.

4.Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part III

Data and statistics, if available.

1.Please provide disaggregated data on budget allocations (in absolute figures and as percentages of the national budget) at the national and provincial levels for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 regarding the implementation of Act No. 26061 and the Convention.

2.Please provide statistics disaggregated by age, sex and province on the number of children and adolescents in institutions and the reason for the deprivation of liberty and/or the family environment (i.e. children institutionalized as a form of assistance or on criminal grounds). The numbers of children (disaggregated by age) detained in local police stations, and the duration of their detention, should also be indicated.

3.As regards education, please provide data (disaggregated by sex, age, minority and indigenous group, and province) for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 regarding the following aspects:

(a)Services for infants and preschool children;

(b)Percentages of enrolment and completion at the primary, secondary and professional training levels;

(c)The percentage of children who repeat their grade; and

(d)The number of children and adolescents who are neither working nor studying.

4.Please provide accurate, detailed data (disaggregated by sex, age and province) for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 concerning:

(a)The number of complaints received regarding deaths, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment inflicted on children;

(b)The number of complaints investigated, prosecutions brought and punishments imposed on those responsible;

(c)The number of children who work and the sector of the economy in which they work.