Committee on the Rights of the Child

Seventy-sixth session

11-29 September 2017

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

C onsideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the report submitted by Tajikistan under article 8 (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 (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 16 June 2017. 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 clarify which governmental entity has the primary responsibility for implementing the Optional Protocol and which mechanisms are used to ensure coordination with the relevant regional and local authorities, as well as civil society. Please provide information on the mechanisms and procedures used to collect data on the implementation of all aspects of the Optional Protocol.

2.Please provide information on any legal provision enabling 16-year-old children who are on the conscription list to be called up for military duty in exceptional circumstances, such as in a state of emergency.

3.Please provide information on schools (lyceums) operated by the Ministry of Defence and, in particular, the minimum age of entry; the number of such schools and the curricula followed, including training in the use of weapons; the rules governing school discipline; the existence of any independent complaints mechanisms; disaggregated data on children attending such schools; and the right of enrolled children to leave such schools at any time.

4.Please inform the Committee of whether the military institute mentioned in the State party report (see CRC/C/OPAC/TJK/1, para. 16) provides weapons training for students below the age of 18 years and whether such students are subjected to a similar military discipline as those above the age of 18 years. Please also provide data disaggregated by age, sex, region and ethnicity on the number of 17-year-old children enrolled in the military institute.

5.Please provide information on measures taken to provide regular training to military personnel on the Optional Protocol and on international humanitarian law and human rights in general.

6.Please clarify whether the State party explicitly criminalizes the recruitment of children by armed forces or non-State armed groups.

7.Please inform the Committee of whether there are any refugee, asylum-seeking or unaccompanied foreign children in the jurisdiction of the State party who have or may have been involved in armed conflict abroad and whether there are mechanisms established to identify such children.

8.Please provide information on existing remedies and reparations that may be sought by child victims of offences under the Optional Protocol and on measures that have been taken to provide training to those who work with child victims.

9.Please provide information on the measures taken by the State party to prevent children or families with children from joining military groups abroad, including Afghanistan, Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic.

10.Please provide information on whether there is extraterritorial jurisdiction, and the possibility for extradition, for crimes covered under the Optional Protocol in the State party and, if so, under which specific piece of legislation.