Committee on the Rights of the Child

Seventy-eighth session

14 May-1 June 2018

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the fifth to seventh combined periodic reports of Angola

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 16 February 2018. 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

1.Please clarify the status of the National Council for Social Action, which has reportedly taken over the mandates and functions of, among others, the National Council for Children. Please explain how the State party ensures that the coordinating body or bodies have adequate human and financial resources at national, provincial and municipal levels, to ensure the effective monitoring of the implementation of the Children’s Act and the coordination of child policies, strategies and action plans.

2.With reference to paragraphs 28 and 29 of the State party’s report (CRC/C/AGO/5-7), please provide further information on how the State party ensures that the Office of the Ombudsperson is provided with a clear mandate allowing it to receive and investigate complaints from, or on behalf of, children on violations of their rights, inter alia by means of an independent budget. Please indicate if the Office of the Ombudsperson has a presence outside the capital and in all provinces.

3.In view of the decrease in oil prices and falling oil sales as a result of pre-financing arrangements requiring payments with oil, please provide information on the measures taken to ensure that oil-backed debt repayments do not undermine the sustainability of social investments for children. Please also provide information on the measures taken by the State party to combat corruption as an impediment to the implementation of the Convention.

4.With reference to paragraph 27 of the previous concluding observations (CRC/C/AGO/CO/2-4), please indicate the exact instances under the law in which the age of majority could be attained earlier than 18 and what steps the State party has taken to ensure that the minimum age for marriage is set at 18 for both girls and boys. Please provide information on the measures taken by the State party to combat polygamy involving children and de facto child marriages of children as young as 12 years of age, and whether legal exceptions for marriage are obtainable at an even younger age than 15 for girls and 16 for boys.

5.With reference to paragraph 35 of the previous concluding observations, please provide information on the current percentage of children who are registered at birth or later and on measures taken (a) to increase the percentage of children registered at birth or retroactively registered and the issuing of identity cards to them; (b) to register all children born to foreigners in the State party, including refugees and asylum seekers, whose registration has reportedly been discontinued since 2011; and (c) to address the reported main barriers to birth registration.

6.Please provide information on the legislative steps taken to explicitly prohibit all forms of violence against children, including corporal punishment, in all settings, especially on the occasion of the ongoing revision of the Family Code, in light of the State party’s acceptance of recommendations to that effect during the second cycle of the universal periodic review (see A/HRC/28/11, paras. 134.87 and 134.95).

7.With reference to paragraphs 109 and 110 of the State party’s report, please provide information as to whether it is envisaged that the new Penal Code currently before the National Assembly includes provisions that specifically criminalize female genital mutilation and female genital cutting and whether it is intended to consider this specifically as a harmful practice in the Children’s Act.

8.Please provide information on the steps taken by the State party to introduce regulations, or to reform existing regulations, on non-institutional forms of alternative care, such as fostering and adoption, including with respect to the current revision of the Family Code. Please also provide information on any steps taken towards the ratification of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

9.Please update the Committee on the impact the implementation of Law No. 21/12 of 2012 on persons with disabilities and presidential decree No. 207/14 of 2014 on the intervention strategy for the social inclusion of the disabled child has had on the well-being of children with disabilities.

10.In view of the decrease in the health budget in the State party, please provide information on the impact of such measures on access for children to primary health-care services across all provinces; on efforts to further reduce the partially still significantly high maternal, infant and child-to-juvenile mortality and morbidity rates; on the eradication of the high child undernutrition and malnutrition rates; and on other measures related to children’s health, including the National Health Development Plan 2012-2025.

11.Please provide the Committee with information on the impact of awareness-raising efforts and services, in particular in rural areas, to prevent early pregnancies, and of the programme on adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health, Juventude Informada, Responsável e Organizada, which was relaunched by the State party in 2014, with assistance from the United Nations Population Fund. Please also provide information on the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

12.Please provide information on (a) whether the projections for the goal of the net school enrolment ratio for 2015-2017 have been achieved and (b) the impact of measures taken by the State party to protect and promote the right of the child to education, in particular in view of the decrease in the education budget, including in respect of children belonging to minority or indigenous groups, as well as asylum-seeking and refugee children.

Part II

13.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:

(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, if available

14.In the absence of information on the allocation of budgetary resources specifically allocated to the implementation of child policies, strategies and action plans in order to implement the State party’s obligations undertaken under the Convention for the years 2016 and beyond, and the scarcity of information for previous budgetary periods in the State party’s report, please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and social sectors by indicating the percentage of each budget line in terms of the total national budget and gross national product. Please also provide information on the geographic allocation of those resources.

15.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)Children living with and/or affected by HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases;

(b)Early pregnancies and abortions;

(c)Drug and alcohol abuse by children.

16.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic 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)Abandoned by their families;

(b)Living with extended family members;

(c)Living in institutions;

(d)Placed in foster care;

(e)Living in adoptive families.

17.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographic 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.

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

(a)Arrested;

(b)In pretrial detention;

(c)Serving criminal sentences;

(d)Placed in diversion programmes.

19.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have become outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments, including the annexes to the State party report.

20.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.