COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILDFifty-second session14 September-2 October 2009
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVENTION ONTHE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
List of issues to be taken up in connection with the consideration of the fourth periodic report of the PLURINATIONAL STATE OF BOLIVIA (CRC/C/BOL/4)
I. Additional information
1.In this section the State party is requested to submit additional, updated information in writing, if possible before 3 August 2009.
2.Please indicate whether or not steps have been taken since the adoption of the new Constitution in January 2009 to align domestic legislation, particularly the Code for Children and Adolescents, with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Please also explain how the new text of the Constitution will affect the mechanism established in the Code.
3.Please provide the Committee with a brief account of the mandate, make-up, operation and impact of the National Council for Children and Young Persons and the Commissions for Children and Young Persons.
4.Kindly furnish updated information on the status of the National Plan of Action for Children, the relationship it bears to the National Development Plan and the budgetary resources allocated for its implementation.
5.Please indicate whether or not steps have been taken to set up an ombudsman for children or a section or division of the Office of the Ombudsman focusing on children’s rights.
6.Please describe what impact the work of the Municipal Ombudsmen for Children and Adolescents has at the local level.
7.Please explain what steps have been taken to eliminate disparities in the distribution of budgetary allocations and public social expenditure between the provinces and urban and rural areas, with special emphasis on the rights and needs of campesino and indigenous communities, families and children.
8.Kindly indicate whether or not the minimum marriageable age continues to be 14 for girls and 16 for boys and whether or not steps have been taken to raise these minimum ages.
9.Please indicate whether measures have been adopted to promote early childhood development.
10.Please provide a detailed account of how respect for the views of children is put into practice in the home, in the community, in the schools, and in relevant judicial and administrative institutions and procedures.
11.Please furnish information on the results of the effort to improve the coverage of the programme for free, mandatory birth registration to include all undocumented children, including statistics on children who have not yet been registered, their areas of residence, the reasons why they have not been registered and any other steps taken to resolve this problem.
12.Information is requested on legislation relating to the prohibition of corporal punishment in different settings, such as the home, the community, schools, penal institutions and the workplace.
13.Please describe the outcome of the Government’s efforts to improve the situation of children with disabilities in such areas as access to education, social services, health care, and cultural and recreational activities.
14.Please indicate what impact the “Zero Malnutrition” Programme has had on child malnutrition.
15.Kindly supply information on the educational system’s objectives and on whether the principles set forth in article 29 of the Convention have been fully incorporated into the system’s curricula.
16.Article 61.II of the Constitution prohibits forced labour by children and the exploitation of children, but no reference is made to a minimum working age. Please discuss the legal and policy implications of this decision in the light of article 32 of the Convention and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment (No. 138) of 1973.
17.Please provide information on the coexistence of the justice system and the administration of justice by community leaders and on this situation’s compatibility with the Convention.
18.Kindly indicate which child-related issues the State party regards as being of a high priority and warranting its utmost attention with regard to the Convention’s implementation.
II. New measures
19.In this section the Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update (no more than three pages in length) on the information presented in its report regarding:
(a)New bills or laws;
(b)New institutions;
(c)Recently introduced policies;
(d)Recent action plans, programmes and projects and their scope.
III. Statistical and other information, if available
20.In the light of article 4 of the Convention, please furnish up-to-date information on 2007, 2008 and 2009 budgetary allocations (including an analysis of fluctuations in those allocations) for implementation of the Convention in the education, health and social services sectors.
21.Please provide up-to-date information for 2006, 2007 and 2008 on the number of persons below 18 years of age who have been deprived of their liberty. Also please inform the Committee how many cases there have been of abuse or ill-treatment of children in the course of their arrest and/or detention and what follow-up action has been taken in such cases.
22.Kindly furnish up-to-date information for 2006, 2007 and 2008 on the number of children who have been sexually exploited (including cases of prostitution, pornography and human trafficking) and the number of those children who have been given access to social rehabilitation and recovery services .
23.Please supply up-to-date information for 2006, 2007 and 2008 on the number of children who have been economically exploited (including children employed to perform domestic work or to work in mines, sugar cane plantations or under other high-risk conditions).
24.Please provide up-to-date information for 2006, 2007 and 2008 on the number of children who have been deprived of their family environment and on the type of care they receive (foster homes, institutions or other).
IV.Issues to be addressed in the dialogue with the State party
25.The following is a preliminary list of major issues not already covered in part I that the Committee may take up during its dialogue with the State party. They do not require written answers. This list is not exhaustive, as other issues may be raised in the course of the dialogue.
(a)Protection from discrimination, particularly in the case of indigenous children, children who live in poverty, children with disabilities, children who have been deprived of their family environment and children in conflict with the law;
(b)The strategy for strengthening implementation of the Convention, with special emphasis on the overarching principles set forth in the Convention: non-discrimination (art. 2), primacy of the best interests of the child (art. 3), survival and development (art. 6) and the child’s right to express his or her views freely and to be heard (art. 12);
(c)Ill-treatment and domestic violence;
(d)Children deprived of their family environment;
(e)Health and well-being, including access to health services, adolescent health, early pregnancy, children with disabilities and mental health;
(f)Children and education;
(g)Leisure and recreation;
(h)Alcohol and drug abuse;
(i)Trafficking in and sexual exploitation of children;
(j)Juvenile justice administration, including conditions in detention centres where children are held, the preventive detention of children and their separation from adults, and the efforts made to set up juvenile courts and to staff them with juvenile criminal court judges throughout the country;
(k)Children who live in jail with their parents.
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