Committee on the Rights of the Child

Eighty-fifth session

11–29 May 2020

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the combined fourth to sixth reports of Cambodia

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 14 February 2020. 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 provide information on the progress made to adopt the comprehensive Child Protection Law and system led by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation. Please also provide specific information on measures taken or planned to establish and implement a comprehensive child protection information management system, including the lead agency, budget allocation, mechanism for sharing child protection data from all line ministries and a long-term strategy for the system.

2.Please provide information on measures taken to eliminate discrimination against girls and boys, including children in rural areas and children in vulnerable situations, such as (a) children with disabilities, (b) lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children, (c) children without parents, (d) children living in poverty, (e) children living in street situations, (f) children belonging to ethnic minorities and (g) children with HIV/AIDS.

3.Please provide information on birth registration rates disaggregated by provinces, direct and indirect costs for birth registration or birth certificates, a plan to use information technology-based civil registration systems in all provinces and the measures taken to ensure that children of foreign and undocumented parents are registered at birth. Please provide information on the status of the draft law on surrogacy prepared by the Ministry of Justice and on planned measures to protect the rights of children born of surrogacy.

4.Please provide information on the progress made by the Interministerial Steering Committee for the implementation of the Action Plan to prevent and respond to violence against children 2017–2021, and on measures to extend the Action Plan to cover the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism and children exploited in prostitution. Please also provide information on measures taken to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment in law and to eliminate it in practice in all settings.

5.Please provide information on the issue of online child sexual exploitation and abuse, including statistics of the number and types of cases; the prosecution and punishment of perpetrators; measures taken or planned to address the issue; and the existing reporting mechanisms available and accessible to children. Please also inform the Committee about measures taken to address cyberbullying.

6.Please inform the Committee about concrete steps taken to prevent neglect, abuse and other violations of the rights of children without parental supervision, particularly children whose parents have migrated. Please also indicate the measures taken to prevent children being removed from their families, to speed up the deinstitutionalization of children and to facilitate alternative care by foster parents. Please indicate the measures that have been adopted to improve monitoring of residential care facilities.

7.Please inform the Committee about measures to ensure that living conditions for children in prison with their mothers, including access to health-care and early childhood development services, are sufficiently adequate for their physical, mental, moral and social development. Please also report on alternative measures to institutional confinement for pregnant women and mothers with small children and indicate how the principle of the best interests of the child is carefully and independently considered.

8.Please provide information on measures taken to:

(a)Ensure that children with disabilities have access to health care, including early detection and intervention programmes, and are cared for by families, as far as possible;

(b)Ensure access to education in mainstream schools for children with disabilities;

(c)Train school administrators and teachers on quality, inclusive education.

9.Please inform the Committee about measures taken to:

(a)Introduce sexual and reproductive health education in the mandatory school curriculum for adolescent girls and boys;

(b)Address the incidence of drug use by children;

(c)Prevent and legally prohibit child and forced marriage;

(d)Ensure adequate access to health-care services, including regular check-ups, to all children, particularly children in rural areas and children of migrants and from ethnic minorities.

10.Please inform the Committee about the concrete measures taken and the resources available to (a) improve accessibility of education, including early childhood education, for children in vulnerable groups, such as children in situations of poverty or children from ethnic minorities; (b) address the high number of dropouts, particularly among girls; and (c) ensure the quality of education. Please also provide information on vocational education and training for adolescents and early school-leavers.

11.Please inform the Committee about laws and policies that provide comprehensive protection and support to children in street situations and about the measures taken to monitor child labour and eradicate the worst forms of it. Please provide (a) data on the nature and scope of the trafficking of children; (b) information on measures taken to harmonize the Law on the Suppression of Trafficking with article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime; and (c) the assessment of the two national plans of action related to trafficking (both covering the period 2014–2018) and the measures planned on the basis of its outcome.

12.Please provide information on steps taken to:

(a)Guarantee the implementation of the Juvenile Justice Law, including the budget allocated to it;

(b)Reintegrate and support children in conflict with the law, child victims and child witnesses;

(c)Eradicate the preventive detention of children;

(d)Eradicate detention of children together with adults;

(e)Establish a complaints procedure available to children in detention, in prisons or police custody, in relation to abuse, violence, and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

13.Please provide information about measures taken to implement the recommendations contained in the Committee’s previous concluding observations relating to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC/C/OPSC/KHM/CO/1).

14.Please provide information about measures taken to implement the recommendations contained in the Committee’s previous concluding observations relating to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/KHM/CO/1). Please also provide information on measures to educate the population about the dangers of landmines and explosive remnants of war and to support children affected by them.

Part II

15.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

16.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 the gross national product. Please also provide information on the geographic allocation of those resources.

17.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)The number of married children;

(b)Cases of child abuse and neglect in families, foster families and other types of care in public and private institutions, such as residential care, group homes or pagodas, and the number of investigations and prosecutions carried out and sentences issued;

(c)Cases of torture and ill-treatment in juvenile detention centres and prisons.

18.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)Separated from their parents;

(b)Living with relatives;

(c)Placed in institutions;

(d)Placed with foster families.

19.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.

20.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)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)In pretrial detention;

(d)Serving a sentence in detention, including the length of the sentence.

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

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.