Committee on the Rights of the Child

Sixtieth session

29 May–15 June 2012

Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

List of issues concerning additional and updated information related to the consideration of the combined third and fourth periodic reports of Algeria (CRC/C/DZA/3-4)

The State party is requested to submit additional, updated information in writing, if possible before 1 March 2012.

The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights contained in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party.

Part One

In this section, the State party is requested to submit its responses to the following questions (30 pages maximum).

1.Please indicate what progress has been made by the State party in moving towards the withdrawal of the interpretative declarations filed with respect to article 14, paragraphs 1 and 2, and articles 13, 16 and 17 of the Convention.

2.Please indicate the progress made since 2005 towards adoption of a child protection code.

3.Please set out the measures taken or planned to set up a high-level mechanism invested with the authority and the human, technical and financial resources required to coordinate activities for the application of the Convention at all administrative levels including through multisectoral, vertical and interregional coordination.

4.Please provide updated information on the implementation activities of the National Plan of Action for Children (2008–2015) and on the results achieved so far. Please also specify the practical arrangements that permit children and adolescents on the Steering Committee mentioned in paragraph 48 of the State party’s report, to effectively follow up on the implementation of the National Plan of Action.

5.Please specify the measures taken to bring the work of the National Advisory Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights into line with the Paris Principles. Please also provide information on the provisions adopted to establish a mechanism to receive children’s complaints, accessible throughout the territory of the State party, in accordance with the recommendation made to that effect by the Committee in 2005 (CRC/C/15/Add.269, para. 17).

6.Please indicate whether the State party has undertaken to amend laws that discriminate directly or indirectly against girls. Please specify moreover whether a proactive and comprehensive strategy has been adopted to eliminate de facto discrimination faced by girls, children with disabilities, children living in poverty, children in conflict with the law, street children, children living in rural areas and Western Saharan refugee children, in accordance with the recommendation issued to this effect by the Committee in 2005 (CRC/C/15/Add.269, para. 27).

7.Please state whether any specific measures have been taken to protect children born out of wedlock and their mothers. In particular, please specify whether teenage mothers are able to keep their children born out of wedlock. Please state what measures exist to ensure that when children are given family names there is no indication of whether they are born out of wedlock. Please also provide details on specific measures taken to ensure that unmarried pregnant girls or their children do not end up on the street and to provide them with priority access to subsidized housing.

8.Please provide more details on the measures and arrangements that place a focus on foster care, as mentioned in paragraph 87 of the report. Please also list the legal provisions applicable to kafalah. Please specify whether these provisions ensure that the decision to place a child in kafalah is always taken in the best interests of the child and in no way limits the child’s rights, in particular the right to be protected against discrimination in respect of the naming of the child or the division of parental responsibilities and in the event of the death of the guardian.

9.Please indicate the measures taken to implement a policy of zero tolerance of all forms of violence against women and girls, as recommended by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences during her visit to the country in 2007 (A/HRC/7/6/Add.2, para. 104 (a)). Please comment on reports that the vast majority of children are exposed to domestic violence. Please also state whether the State party has adopted legislation for the prevention and specific criminalization of domestic violence and whether it has taken specific steps to halt such violence.

10.Please provide information on measures taken to end the stigmatization to which disabled children are subjected. Please indicate the measures adopted by the State party to ensure that the public education system is accessible to disabled children. Please also comment on reports that disabled children are often turned away by school principals, and that when they are accepted no appropriate arrangements are made for their proper integration in the school.

11.Please list the measures taken to ensure an equitable distribution of health services throughout the country. Please also indicate the emergency measures adopted or planned in order to reduce the high rates of maternal mortality, malnutrition and drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse, particularly in the south.

12.Please indicate the measures that allow families of disappeared persons to receive social security benefits without restrictions, in particular for child benefits, as recommended in 2010 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (E/C.12/DZA/CO/4, para. 13).

13.Please indicate whether the Education Act adopted on 23 January 2008 has been accompanied by the allocation of the human, technical and financial resources required to eliminate geographical disparities in access to education, to improve the quality of education and to reduce overcrowding of classes, and also to address the precarious status of teachers and their poor remuneration levels and to provide them with continuous training.

14.Please provide information on the situation of refugee and asylum-seeking children in the State party and indicate the specific measures taken to provide such children with access to education and prevent their arrest, detention or deportation. Please also specify the protection measures and services provided for unaccompanied children.

15.Please give information on the measures taken by the State party to ensure the effective implementation of legislation on sexual exploitation of children, in particular for the adoption of a national programme to prevent and combat the various forms of sexual exploitation of children.

Part Two

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

(a)New bills or laws and their respective regulations;

(b)New institutions (and their mandates) or institutional reforms, and their financing;

(c)Recently introduced policies, programmes and action plans and their scope;

(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part Three

Data, statistics and other information if available

1.Please provide data for 2008, 2009 and 2010 on the budgets allocated for children at the national, provincial and municipal levels (in absolute terms and as a percentage of the national budget and of gross domestic product) in the fields of education, health, social services and child protection.

2.With reference to children in care, please provide disaggregated data (by sex, age, reason for placement and type of care) for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 on the number of children deprived of a family environment and placed in institutions, in kafalah placement and in paid foster care, and specify the average length of placement.

3.Please provide, for 2008, 2009 and 2010, disaggregated data (by age, sex, socio-economic status and geographic location) on:

(a)The number of reported cases of child victims of abuse, including sexual abuse, and of incest;

(b)The number of reported cases of child victims of sexual exploitation, in particular prostitution, pornography and sex tourism;

(c)The number of reported cases of child victims of economic exploitation, in particular the number of child domestic workers;

(d)The number of reported cases of child victims of trafficking;

(e)The number of child victims who have had access to social rehabilitation and reintegration services, specifying the type of service;

(f)Legal proceedings instituted against the perpetrators of such offences and the outcomes of such proceedings during the reporting period;

(g)The number of children living or working on the street, and among these, the number in social rehabilitation programmes.

4.Please provide data for 2008, 2009 and 2010 disaggregated (by age, sex, socio-economic situation and geographic location) on children deprived of their liberty, including those in pretrial detention, specifying the offences for which such children have been convicted, their sentences and place of detention and the number of children who have benefited from alternatives to deprivation of liberty.

5.In addition, the State party may draw up a list of the issues affecting the situation of children which it considers to be of primary importance to the implementation of the Convention.