Committee on the Rights of the Child
Fifty-ninth session
16 January–3 February 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 Togo (CRC/C/TGO/3-4)
The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights contained in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party.
The State party is requested to submit in written form additional and updated information, not exceeding 30 pages, if possible before 1 October 2011.
Part I
1.Please indicate what measures have been taken to set up and make fully operational the National Committee on the Rights of the Child (CNE) established pursuant to article 452 of the Children’s Code of 2007, whose task is to coordinate action aimed at safeguarding children’s rights.
2.Please provide up-to-date information on the progress made in work on the national policy on child protection approved in December 2008, as well as on its content. Does this policy, which specifically targets vulnerable children, encompass all provisions of the Convention?
3.Is there a special mechanism that allows children to bring a matter before the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and that is accessible throughout the State party’s territory? If so, please indicate what steps have been taken to bring it to the attention of children. Please explain why the State party has reduced funding to the Commission by 20 per cent and whether it currently provides the technical, material and human resources the Commission needs for its work.
4.Please specify what steps have been taken or are under consideration to centralize the collection of data on children drawn from the various data-collection systems that currently exist in the State party.
5.Please comment on reports that the proportion of the State budget allocated to health care and education is falling, and now stands at only 5.35 per cent in each of those sectors. Please indicate what impact these budgetary constraints have on children. Please also indicate what steps the State party has taken to honour the commitments laid out in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2009–2011), particularly in relation to the health-care budget.
6.Please provide up-to-date information on measures taken by the State party to publicize the Convention and to provide information and training on it to children, parents and all types of professionals working for or with children. Please also specify if information on the Convention is available in all the languages and in all the regions of the State party.
7.Please state what concrete measures have been taken by the State party to eliminate existing sexist female stereotypes.
8.Please provide details of action to put an end to the killing of children born with a disability or defect (paragraph 93 of the report) and indicate what legal action has been taken against persons accused of infanticide.
9.Please provide up-to-date information on the measures taken by the State party, including national campaigns, to ensure free and universal registration of births in Togo, as mentioned in paragraph 104 of the report, and to ensure that unregistered children are not deprived of access to health care and education.
10.Please indicate whether measures have been taken to investigate cases of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of children, as described by the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture following his visit to the country in April 2007. Please clarify whether a mechanism has been put in place to ensure that children can actually lodge a complaint in such cases, particularly in the light of the State party’s acknowledgement in paragraph 149 of its report that neither the Inspectorate-General of Security Services (IGSS) nor the courts have had any complaint referred to them. What concrete measures have been taken to remedy the conditions of detention of children – conditions which are a source of concern to the State party itself?
11.Please indicate what steps have been taken to encourage domestic adoptions and, to this end, reduce the cost of domestic adoption procedures (280,000 CFA francs). Please also explain why civil society associations cannot sit on the National Adoption Committee.
12.Please specify what measures have been taken by the State party to ensure that children with disabilities have access to the State education system. Please also list the measures designed to remedy the lack of any teacher training regarding disability, as mentioned in paragraph 189 of the report.
13. Please provide information on concrete measures taken to discourage communities from continuing the practice of female genital mutilation. What measures have been taken to implement an effective ban on early or forced marriages? What progress has the State party made on adopting the Family Code and the ban on polygamy? Please also indicate what steps have been taken to implement the Committee’s previous recommendations on all other practices harmful to children (CRC/C/15/Add.255, para. 57).
14.Please specify what measures have been taken to remedy the lack of reproductive health services in Togo. Since abortion has been illegal since 2007, what is the State party doing to prevent unwanted pregnancies, particularly teenage pregnancies, and illegal abortions carried out in conditions which put the woman’s life at risk?
15.Please provide updated information on measures to prevent and control the spread of HIV/AIDS and to care for the large number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
16.Please provide updated information on the measures taken by the State party to ensure the effective implementation of legislation designed to curb the sexual exploitation of children. In particular, please provide details of the harmonized national programme on preventing and combating the various forms of sexual exploitation of children. What concrete measures have been taken to put a stop to sexual violence against children in schools?
17.Please provide updated information on the reform of the juvenile justice system mentioned in paragraph 482 of the report. In particular, what progress has been made on establishing juvenile courts in all regions of the country (there currently being only one in Lomé)? What steps have been taken to ensure that these courts have the material and human resources they need to operate effectively? What training do judges, judicial staff and social workers working with children receive which specifically relates to the rights of the child?
Part II
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 III
Data, statistics and other information if available
1.Please indicate the number of children forced into early or arranged marriages and the proportion of polygamous unions within these marriages. Please also say how many people have been prosecuted for marrying a child since the adoption of the Children’s Code in 2007.
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 taken into care, and the average length of their stay in care.
3.Please indicate the number of children with disabilities identified in 2008, 2009 and 2010 (disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographic location) and the percentage of children with disabilities who have access to education.
4.Please provide data for 2008, 2009 and 2010 (disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin and geographic location) on the number of children who are:
(a)Victims of abuse, including sexual abuse, specifying the number of children who had access to rehabilitation and social reintegration services, what legal proceedings were brought against the perpetrators of such offences, and what the outcomes of those proceedings were over the same period;
(b)Victims of economic exploitation, in particular the number of child domestic workers, the number of prosecutions for economic exploitation and the number of convictions;
(c)Living or working in the street in the State party, and the number of street children in social reintegration programmes.
5.Please provide detailed statistics for 2008, 2009 and 2010, disaggregated by age, sex and type of offence, on children who have been tried as adults, detained in adult penitentiaries and given alternative penalties.
6.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.