Committee on the Rights of the Child

Sixty-seventh session

1–19 September 2014

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the combined third to fifth periodic reports of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

The State party is requested to submit additional and updated information in writing, if possible before 15 June 2014.

The Committee will take up all aspects of children ’ s rights contained in the Convention and its optional protocols during the dialogue with the State party.

Part I

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

1.Please provide more information on the organization, roles, responsibilities and activities of the National System for the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents as the entity responsible for coordination to ensure the implementation of the Convention in the State party. Please explain how the various bodies working for the rights of the child are structured.

2.Please provide detailed information about the status of the adoption of the National Plan of Action for Children and Adolescents. Please also tell whether the Plan provides for a comprehensive review of policies, plans and systems for the advancement and protection of the rights of children and adolescents, whether it provides for a system of consultations and how the various actors working to promote and protect the rights of the child are to be involved.

3.Please tell what the function and responsibilities of the Autonomous Institute of the National Council for the Protection of Children’s and Adolescents’ Rights are and how the activities described in paragraph 25 of the periodic report, such as the annual public consultation on the formulation of comprehensive protection policies and plans and the preparation of the draft budget, are carried out.

4.Please provide additional updated information on budget appropriations for activities relating to children and adolescents and tell how they are allocated among the various programmes developed by the State party.

5.In the light of paragraph 72 of the State party report, please provide information describing how the Neighbourhood Children Mission and other social missions are structured within the framework of public policy relating to the rights of children and adolescents. Please also provide information on systems for evaluating the work of social missions in implementing children’s rights and indicate what percentage of the budget is earmarked for this.

6.In the light of paragraph 93 of the State party report, please explain how the Convention is incorporated in training programmes on the comprehensive prevention, care and protection of children and adolescents. Similarly, please provide information on other measures taken by the State party to carry out training plans and programmes on the Convention among professionals working with and for children, and on measures taken to disseminate and increase awareness of the Convention and the rights of children and adolescents. Please also indicate whether the Convention has been translated into and disseminated in indigenous languages.

7.Please provide specific, detailed information on the process for the appointment of the Ombudsman as well as on the legislative and administrative measures taken to guarantee his or her independence and on the allocation of the human, technical and financial resources required for the full discharge of his or her mandate.

8.Please tell how the National Development Plan, the “Plan for the Nation 2013–2019”, incorporates the principle of the best interests of the child, and indicate the public policies into which the rights of children and adolescents have been incorporated.

9.Please tell the Committee whether the State party has considered raising the legal age for marriage. Likewise, please provide information on the current status of the remedy relating to this question which the Ombudsman’s Office submitted to the Supreme Court of Justice in June 2010.

10.Please tell the Committee whether the national identity plans “Yo Soy” and the “Misión Identidad” have been evaluated and what results these plans have had. In addition, please provide information about the progress made by the National Electoral Commission in the computerization of birth records with a view to the digitalization of birth certificates.

11.Please provide additional information on the implementation of the programme entitled “More protection and less violence, more inclusion and less disparity”, mentioned in paragraph 131 of the State party’s report. Also, please provide more information on measures taken by the State party to prevent violence in all areas, including in schools and in the home, and on the results achieved.

12.Please provide information on the measures taken by the State party to prevent killings of children between the ages of 12 and 17, which have increased in recent years. Please provide information on the investigations carried out in cases in which members of the public security forces have been involved in such incidents.

13.Please provide updated information about measures taken to prevent teenage pregnancy in the State party and on progress made in implementing the Comprehensive Health Protocol for Adolescents. Please also provide additional information on the results of the “Gran Misión Hijos de Venezuela” project and on the kind of support and services provided to pregnant adolescents.

14.Please provide information on the measures taken to ensure the quality of education for all children, including children belonging to indigenous peoples. Please also describe any programmes for assessing the quality of the education provided.

15.Please provide information on the measures taken to improve the living conditions of adolescents deprived of their liberty in detention centres and to prevent violence in such centres. Please also provide information about measures taken to ensure that adolescents are not detained with adults.

16.Please tell the Committee of the measures taken by the State party to guarantee the rights of child asylum seekers and refugees. In particular, please provide information relating to the right to an appropriate identity document and the right to education. Please provide information on the new policy for the integration of refugees in the State party.

17.Please provide additional information on the projects and activities carried out by the Programme for Dignifying the Work of Adolescent Workers and on the evaluation and outcome of such projects.

18.Please tell the Committee whether a reform is under way with regard to the Organic Law for the Protection of Children and Adolescents in the area of juvenile criminal justice, and whether any evaluation has been undertaken to this end. Where appropriate, please provide information about this reform.

19.In the context of the resolution governing police activities, please provide information on the concrete measures taken to address the problem of police violence against children in contact and/or in conflict with the law. Similarly, please tell whether any programmes exist to combat violence among adolescents and police violence directed at adolescents.

Part II

In this section, the State party is invited to update briefly (three pages maximum) the information provided in its report, at federal as well as at community and regional levels, with regard to:

(a)Bills and new acts and the regulations pertaining thereto;

(b)New institutions, their functions and financing;

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

(d)Newly ratified human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statistics and other information, if available

1.Please provide information on the consolidated budget for the past three years in terms of resources allocated for children and adolescents and social programmes. In addition, please indicate what percentage of the total national budget and the State party GDP each budget item represents.

2.Please provide data (disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin and geographical location) covering the past three years on:

(a)Cases of child abuse and violence directed against children, including all forms of corporal punishment, with additional information on the type of assistance provided to child victims and on follow-up, including the prosecution of perpetrators and the convictions handed down by the State party;

(b)Investigations of cases of sexual violence and rape, as well as on the outcomes of prosecutions, including information on the penalties imposed on the perpetrators, reparation and compensation awarded to victims;

(c)Street children;

(d)Children infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

3.Please provide data (disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographical location) with regard to the situation of children deprived of a family environment and separated from their parents and covering the last three years, citing the number of children:

(a)Separated from their parents;

(b)Living in institutions;

(c)Living in foster homes;

(d)Adopted within the country or through international adoptions.

4.Please provide information on the number of children with disabilities (disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographical location) for the past three years, citing the number of children:

(a)Living with their families;

(b)In institutions;

(c)Attending ordinary primary schools;

(d)Attending ordinary secondary schools;

(e)Attending special schools;

(f)Not attending school;

(g)Children with disabilities who have been abandoned.

5.Please provide data disaggregated by age sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and place of residence (urban or rural) covering the past three years and concerning:

(a) Enrolment and school completion rates as a percentage of each corresponding age group, for preschool centres and primary and secondary schools;

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

(c)The ratio of teachers to pupils.

6.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and place of residence (urban or rural) on social protection measures during the past three years, with emphasis on:

(a)The number of children involved in child labour;

(b)The number of children working in domestic service, fuel extraction and agriculture;

(c)The number of children involved in dangerous work.

7.Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin and type of offence covering the last three years on the number of:

(a)Children alleged to have committed an offence reported to the police;

(b)Children who have been sentenced and the type of penalty or punishment corresponding to the offence, including the duration of deprivation of liberty;

(c)Detention centres for juveniles in conflict with the law and the capacity of such centres;

(d)Children detained in such centres and juveniles detained in centres for adults;

(e)Children in pretrial detention and the average length of such detention;

(f)Cases of abuse and ill-treatment of children while in detention or imprisonment.

8.Please provide the Committee with updated information on any data contained in the report that might be out of date in the light of the most recent figures obtained or for other reasons.

9.In addition, the State party may wish to indicate areas having an impact on children that it views as having priority for the implementation of the Convention.