Committee on the Rights of the Child
Sixty-eighth session
12–30 January 2015
Item 4 of the provisional agenda
Consideration of reports of States parties
List of issues in relation to the report submitted by Uruguay under article 8, paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict
The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (15 pages maximum), if possible before 15 October 2014.
The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights set out in the Optional Protocol during the dialogue with the State party.
1.Please provide information about the measures geared towards making a government body responsible for the implementation of the Optional Protocol, as well as about the role that the Uruguayan Institute for Children and Adolescents (INAU) is currently playing in its implementation. Please inform the Committee about how the work of the different organizations connected with the implementation of the Optional Protocol is coordinated, in particular as regards the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Education and Culture.
2.Please provide the Committee with disaggregated data (by sex, age, ethnicity and urban or rural origin) on students attending military training schools and military high schools. Please provide information on the role of the Ministry of Education and Culture in the oversight of the curricula of military training schools and military high schools and on the adoption of National Education System guidelines for use in police and military training, which is currently under way, as noted in paragraph 109 in the report of the State party. In the light of paragraph 29 of the report of the State party, please provide additional information on the specific steps taken to ensure that the training given to minors in military schools does not involve handling any kind of weapon.
3.Please provide information on the disciplinary methods used in these schools and indicate whether a confidential complaints mechanism is available to their students.
4.Please provide information on the activities to heighten awareness of the Optional Protocol among society at large, and in particular among children and their parents, and to promote a culture of peace. Please also provide specific information on the activities carried out to disseminate and provide training on the Optional Protocol and on human rights training programmes for all groups of professionals responsible for implementing the Optional Protocol, in particular members of the Armed Forces, members of international forces taking part in peacekeeping missions, law-enforcement officials and immigration personnel.
5.Please inform the Committee whether there is a provision of criminal law explicitly prohibiting the voluntary recruitment or use of children under the age of 18 by the Armed Forces, non-State armed groups or private security and defence contractors; and if there is, please provide information on the steps envisaged by the State party to ensure compliance with the Optional Protocol as regards the explicit criminalization of those acts.
6.Please indicate to the Committee whether extraterritorial jurisdiction can be established for offences covered by the Optional Protocol.
7.Please provide information on the procedures adopted by the State party to identify the refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant children who have been or are at risk of being recruited or used in hostilities. Please also identify the rehabilitation services available to these children.
8.Please explain how access to firearms is regulated in the State party. Please also provide information on the rules for the manufacture, sale and distribution of small arms and other types of weapons and on whether there is a domestic system of control over the sale of firearms that depends on the country of final destination.