Seventy-first session

11-29 January 2016

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the second periodic report of Gabon

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 15 October 2015.

The Committee may take up any aspect of the children ’ s rights set out in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party.

Part I

In this section, the State party is requested to answer the following questions.

1.Please indicate how the new draft children’s code complies with the Convention and its protocols, particularly with regard to eliminating the differences between boys and girls and prohibiting child marriage. Please indicate the expected date of its adoption. Please also explain how civil society was involved in the development of the new code and the measures envisaged to involve it in the adoption and future dissemination of the code.

2.Please elaborate on the measures planned to ratify the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages.

3.Please provide detailed information about the results of work to coordinate the National Observatory for Children’s Rights, particularly with regard to streamlining coordination processes and reducing the duplication of work by other governmental mechanisms. Please also describe the work of, and the results obtained by, the provincial watchdog committees on transborder child trafficking for exploitation and the measures taken to establish the two remaining committees.

4.Please describe the measures taken to bring the National Commission on Human Rights into compliance with the Principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (Paris Principles), and in particular to establish a mechanism to monitor implementation of the Convention that is competent to receive and address complaints. Please also provide detailed information on the allocation of adequate financial, material and human resources for its effective operation.

5.Please indicate the measures taken or planned to develop and implement a comprehensive mechanism for the systematic collection of data in all the areas covered by the Convention, disaggregated by at least sex, age, type of disability, national and ethnic origin, geographical area and socioeconomic situation, with particular attention to the most vulnerable groups of children.

6.Please state what assessment has been made to ensure the fair distribution of the budgets for the education, health and social protection sectors targeting the most disadvantaged and marginalized categories of children, given the budget cuts in these sectors in recent years.

7.Please indicate the measures planned to eliminate de facto discrimination against indigenous children, children infected with HIV/AIDS or deprived of a family environment due to the virus, street children, child victims of trafficking, refugee children and children living with a disability, in particular with regard to their access to education, health and social services.

8.Please describe in detail the nature and outcome of measures taken to ensure the civil registration of children living in suburban or rural areas.

9.Please provide detailed quantitative information on cases of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of children in prison. Please also provide information about the number of investigations and criminal prosecutions carried out, the judgements rendered and punishments applied, and any compensation and rehabilitation received by such children.

10.Please indicate the legislative measures taken or planned to prohibit corporal punishment, in particular in the home and in outreach centres. Please also describe the institutional measures taken by the police and social services to identify and report cases of child abuse and neglect in the family, the community or schools, and the measures taken to establish halfway houses in the provinces.

11.Please provide specific information on reported and documented cases of exploitation and sexual abuse, particularly in the family environment and in schools, and on the measures taken or planned to protect victims and prosecute perpetrators.

12.Please provide detailed information on cases of ritual crimes against children and the measures taken to stop them.

13.Please provide detailed information on the results of studies into the social services available to children in situations of vulnerability.

14.Please provide information about the measures taken or planned to ensure the right of all children living with a disability to free, quality, inclusive education in all provinces.

15.Please provide information about the measures taken to decentralize basic health services, particularly in rural areas. Please also indicate the measures taken or planned to develop a national policy on access to reproductive health services.

16.Please provide information about the measures taken or planned by the Ministry of Labour to apply the Labour Code provisions on the minimum age for employment — including training labour inspectors and carrying out effective unannounced checks — and the punishments applicable to those who violate the law.

Part II

In this section the Committee invites the State party to briefly (three pages maximum) update 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

1.Please provide consolidated budget information for the last three years for budget lines affecting children and the social sectors, indicating, for each budget line, the percentage in terms of the total national budget and GNP and its geographical distribution.

2.Please provide data for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographical situation, 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)Not enrolled in school;

(g)Abandoned by their families.

3.Please provide data for the past three years, disaggregated by at least age, sex, socioeconomic background, geographical situation and ethnic origin, on:

(a)The enrolment and completion rates (percentages), of the relevant age groups in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools;

(b)The number and percentage of dropouts and repetitions;

(c)The student/teacher ratio.

4.Please provide information on the number of investigations, prosecutions and judgements in the cases of trafficking in children arising from the return of 750 child victims to Benin, Togo and Nigeria.

5.Please provide specific information on the implementation of the new Code of Juvenile Criminal Procedure of 2010, in particular:

(a)The number of cases in which legal assistance has been provided;

(b)The number of places of detention where children are separated from adults, as a proportion of the total number of places of detention;

(c)The number of alternative non-custodial measures applied to children in conflict with the law, as a proportion of the total number of convictions of children.

6.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report which may have been superseded by more recent data collected or affected by new developments.

7.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.