Committee on the Rights of the Child

Eightieth session

14 January–1 February 2019

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the fifth periodic report of the Syrian Arab Republic

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 12 October 2018. 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 updated information on the status of the children’s rights bill, whether it sets the legal age for marriage for both boys and girls at 18 years and whether, when enacted, the bill’s provisions will supersede the personal status codes of the religious communities in the State party with regard to the minimum age for marriage.

2.Please provide information on the mandate of the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs and Population regarding children’s rights and measures taken to implement the national action plan for the implementation of the Convention in all parts of the State party.

3.Please provide information on measures taken to ensure birth registration and access to nationality for all children born to Syrian mothers and foreign fathers, in particular for children born abroad. Please provide information about the measures taken to ensure birth registration and access to nationality for Syrian child refugees born in neighbouring countries, in particular, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

4.In relation to the ongoing crisis, please provide information on:

(a)Steps taken to investigate, prosecute and punish all perpetrators, both State and non-State actors, of civilian casualties, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment of children, and sexual violence and abuse of detained children;

(b)The access of independent monitors and humanitarian organizations to all places where children are detained;

(c)Plans of action to rebuild infrastructure and ensure the availability of potable water, electricity and sanitation.

5.Please provide information on measures taken to protect children from sexual violence, including in internal displacement camps, to implement screening procedures to identify child survivors of sexual violence, to provide child victims with physical and psychological rehabilitation services and measures taken to address sexual violence against, and enslavement of, children, especially those from ethnic and religious minorities.

6.Please provide information on the measures taken to protect girls from child marriage, sexual slavery, abuse and violence, and other harmful practices such as “honour killings”, including information on whether such practices are criminalized and the applicable penalties.

7.Please provide information on the foster care system, and the mechanisms for the oversight and monitoring of orphanages under the control of the various religious communities, including Muslim and Christian sects and Yazidis. Please also provide information on the measures taken to ensure that children orphaned due to the crisis are primarily placed with relatives or in family-type environments.

8.Please provide information about the measures taken:

(a)To promote the deinstitutionalization of children with disabilities, to provide support to families to care for them and to ensure access to inclusive education in community schools;

(b)To address the short- and long-term post-crisis needs of children with disabilities, including psychosocial and prosthetic rehabilitation programmes.

9.Please provide information about the availability and coverage of health services for children, including access to vaccinations in the State party, and children’s access to mental health services to address post-traumatic stress disorder, instances of self-harm, suicide attempts, substance abuse and addiction.

10.Please provide information on the measures taken and envisaged to rebuild the education infrastructure, ensure an adequate number of trained teachers, provide programmes to address the needs of children in crisis and post-crisis situations, including those returning from abroad, and ensure access to education for all children in the State party.

11.Please provide information on the measures taken to ensure that children, in particular boys, are not engaged in the worst forms of child labour and to provide support to families in situations of poverty. Please provide information on the status of the national plans of action to combat the worst forms of child labour, child begging and child trafficking.

12.Please provide information on measures taken:

(a)To ensure the physical protection of children in areas where the Government has recently established control, and also areas where there are hostilities, including to allow for children to be evacuated from besieged areas;

(b)To trace, reunify and reintegrate children separated from their families;

(c)To re-educate and rehabilitate child victims of terrorist propaganda and brainwashing;

(d)To provide psychosocial support and rehabilitation for child victims of violence resulting from the crisis.

13.Please provide information on measures taken:

(a)To prevent and address the recruitment and deployment of children in combat and support positions by government forces, pro-government militias and non-State armed groups;

(b)To ensure that military operations, in particular air strikes, are not indiscriminate and do not target civilians, especially children, and to ban the use of cluster munitions, chemical and incendiary weapons.

Part II

14.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

15.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.

16.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)Children involved in combat and support positions recruited by both State and non-State actors;

(b)Child marriages;

(c)“Honour killings” involving children, including the number of arrests and prosecutions of the perpetrators of such crimes;

(d)Cases of torture and ill-treatment in juvenile detention centres and prisons;

(e)Cases of child abuse and neglect in families, in foster families and in other types of care and public and private institutions, such as orphanages, children’s homes and schools;

(f)Investigations into cases of sexual slavery, violence and rape, and the outcomes of the trials, including information on the penalties imposed on the perpetrators and on any redress and compensation offered to the child victims;

(g)Children classified as malnourished and iron-deficient, children under 5 years of age classified as underweight and physically underdeveloped and children infected with polio, measles, hepatitis and leishmaniasis;

(h)Children working in the formal and the informal economy;

(i)Children trafficked for purposes of labour and sexual exploitation;

(j)Children detained, charged and convicted and the type of offences.

17.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 and orphaned during the crisis;

(b)Placed in institutions and orphanages;

(c)Placed with foster families and adopted domestically and internationally;

(d)In camps for internally displaced persons and in shelters.

18.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.

19.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have become outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.

20.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.