Committee on the Rights of the Child

Seventy-ninth session

17 September–5 October 2018

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the report submitted by Benin under article 12 (1) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 15 June 2018. 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 on the progress made towards setting up a centralized national data-collection system that covers all the offences referred to in the Optional Protocol. Please provide statistical data, disaggregated by ethnicity, sex, age, urban or rural residence and socioeconomic background, for the past three years on:

(a)The number of reported cases of sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, as well as other forms of exploitation, including child sex tourism, with additional information on the type of action taken as a result, including the prosecution and punishment of perpetrators;

(b)The number of children trafficked from, to or within the State party for the purposes of sale, prostitution, forced labour, illegal adoption, organ transfer or pornography as defined in article 3 (1) of the Optional Protocol;

(c)The number of children offered, delivered or accepted, by whatever means, for the purposes of prostitution, forced labour, illegal adoption, organ transfer, pornography or child marriage;

(d)The number of child victims of offences referred to in the Optional Protocol who have received assistance with reintegration or compensation.

2.Please indicate whether the Optional Protocol has been published in the Official Gazette. Bearing in mind paragraph 71 of the State party’s report (CRC/C/OPSC/BEN/1), please provide information on the progress made towards publishing and disseminating the Optional Protocol.

3.Please provide detailed information on any awareness-raising or training programmes on the Optional Protocol for law enforcement personnel and professionals working with and for children, as well as for the general public, including children themselves and their families, and on any assessments conducted of such programmes.

4.Please provide information on the budgetary resources allocated to the various activities relating to implementation of the Optional Protocol. Please describe the measures taken by the State party to improve coordination among the various bodies responsible for implementing the Optional Protocol.

5.Please inform the Committee about the steps taken by the State party towards adopting a strategy to prevent and combat the sexual exploitation of children, trafficking in children, the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, sale and transfer of children’s organs, the abduction of children for the purpose of organ transplantation and any other form of exploitation of children.

6.Please describe the measures taken to improve the procedure for identifying at-risk children, such as those living in poverty, vidomegons, children of single-parent families and child workers, children in street situations, including talibes and other child beggars, migrant children, abandoned children and orphans, children living in institutions, children who are victims of sexual abuse within the family, children who have been forced to marry or to continue unwanted pregnancies and children without a birth certificate or other identity documents.

7.Please inform the Committee about the measures taken to raise awareness among persons working in tourism, travel and the information and communications technology sector of the prohibition on and the measures in place to prevent the offences referred to in the Optional Protocol, and to involve them in such efforts.

8.With regard to paragraphs 140 to 143 of the State party’s report, please indicate whether Act No. 2015-08 on the Children’s Code, which criminalizes the sale of children in article 390, covers all the acts and activities defined in article 3 of the Optional Protocol. Please also indicate whether the Act criminalizes all the deeds and acts related to child pornography defined in the Optional Protocol.

9.With regard to paragraph 168 of the State party’s report, please describe the steps taken by the State party to establish extraterritorial jurisdiction in the cases covered by article 4 (2) of the Optional Protocol, including when the alleged offender is a national of the State party or has his or her habitual residence in its territory or when the victim is a national of the State party.

10.Please inform the Committee about the specific measures taken to combat impunity, encourage the reporting of the offences referred to in the Optional Protocol, establish a national sex offenders register and ensure that child victims are treated as victims.

11.Please provide more information on the measures taken to improve the social reintegration and physical and psychological rehabilitation of child victims in appropriate centres.

12.Please inform the Committee about the measures taken to give effect to the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (A/HRC/25/48/Add.3).