Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the combined fifth to seventh periodic reports of Brazil *

1.The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, of 10,700 words maximum, by 15 February 2025. 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

2.Please provide information on the following:

(a)Steps taken to review article 2 of the Statute on Children and Adolescents to establish the definition of the child as a person who is under 18 years of age;

(b)Steps taken to evaluate the 10-year plan of action for the promotion of children’s rights (2011–2020), and to adopt a new 10-year plan;

(c)Measures taken to establish an interministerial mechanism to monitor the implementation of the Convention;

(d)Measures taken to establish a mechanism to monitor the allocation of resources to specific budgetary lines for children’s rights;

(e)The data collection system and the availability of data disaggregated by geographical location, age, ethnic origin, disability, socioeconomic situation and migration status;

(f)Measures adopted to establish a national mechanism for monitoring human rights and children’s rights, in line with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles);

(g)Whether the hotline Dial 100 and the reporting channels that were expanded through an initiative of the National Ombudsman for Human Rights are equipped to effectively receive, examine and address complaints;

(h)Impact of the Protection Programme for Human Rights Defenders and the system for the collection of information regarding human rights defenders who are threatened;

(i)Steps taken to establish a regulatory framework to deal with the adverse impact of the business sector on children’s rights.

3.Please provide information on initiatives and programmes to prevent and combat homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia and racism against children in school and in society.

4.Please provide information on measures taken to ensure universal birth registration, including specific measures regarding children in vulnerable situations and children in remote areas.

5.Please provide the Committee with detailed information on the following:

(a)Measures taken to strengthen the child protection system with sufficient human, technical and financial resources;

(b)Impact of both the implementation of Law No. 14,344/2022 and the social assistance reference centres with regard to reducing domestic violence;

(c)Steps taken to adopt a law to end child marriage;

(d)Steps taken to develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent children from joining gangs and to provide rehabilitation and reintegration services for children who were involved in gangs;

(e)Measures taken to ensure the recovery and reintegration of child victims of violence, and the impact of these measures, including information on the contribution of the comprehensive centres set up to provide assistance for those children;

(f)Actions taken to end violence against children, including killings and enforced disappearances, committed by military and other security forces during policing operations, and to investigate such acts of violence, prosecute the perpetrators and make the results of the investigations public.

6.Please provide updated and detailed information on the progress achieved in reducing the number of children deprived of a family environment who are placed in institutions.

7.Please provide updated information on the progress made to ensure inclusive education and the deinstitutionalization of children with disabilities.

8.Please provide information on the following:

(a)Steps taken to increase investment in existing programmes aimed at improving the coverage and quality of health services, including vaccinations;

(b)Measures to provide the Secretariat for Indigenous Health with adequate human, technical and financial resources;

(c)Actions taken to allocate sufficient resources to the nutrition monitoring system;

(d)Impact of the National Week for the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy and measures taken to decriminalize abortion in all circumstances and ensure access to safe abortion and post-abortion care services;

(e)Steps taken to improve children’s access to quality, age-appropriate and comprehensive information on sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS;

(f)Impact of the national policy for the prevention of suicide and self-mutilation;

(g)Measures taken in combating drug abuse among children, and the results of those measures, and on the availability of treatment options for substance abuse;

(h)Availability of mental health services for children and adolescents, especially trauma-focused therapy for victims of sexual abuse and exploitation;

(i)Availability of health services for children with autism spectrum disorders and vulnerable children, such as transgender children.

9.Please provide additional information on the following:

(a)Specific actions taken to end child poverty, in particular among children living in remote and rural areas or in marginalized urban areas;

(b)Measures taken to ensure access to water and sanitation services.

10.Please provide information on the measures taken:

(a)To protect children from the negative effects of polluted air, water and soil, and of food contamination, as well as from natural disaster responses, such as in the 2024 floods in Rio Grande do Sul State;

(b)To ensure children’s participation in the implementation of the intended nationally determined contribution and any related updates.

11.Please provide additional information on the measures taken:

(a)To ensure that all schools run by the military are phased out;

(b)To strengthen the effective implementation of the National School Feeding Program;

(c)To protect the exercise of the right to culture, in particular by Afro-Brazilian, Indigenous and Roma children, and to assess the impact of Law No. 10,639/2003, establishing that the teaching of Afro-Brazilian history and culture is compulsory in primary education curricula.

12.Please provide information on the measures taken:

(a)To adopt urgent actions to register unaccompanied or separated migrant children and provide them with legal representation and assistance;

(b)To adopt the statelessness bill or any other legislation to ensure the protection of stateless children;

(c)To protect Indigenous children from forced eviction by completing the demarcation and allocation of Indigenous territories;

(d)To assess the impact of the third national plan for the prevention and eradication of child labour and to adopt a new national plan;

(e)To develop a comprehensive strategy to protect children in street situations;

(f)To promptly and thoroughly investigate all cases of child deaths in custody and develop a strategy to combat gang violence in prisons.

13.Please provide information about the measures taken to implement the Committee’s previous recommendations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

Part II

14.The Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update, of no more than three pages, on the information set out in its report with regard to the following:

(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 the social sectors, 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 geographical allocation of those resources.

16.Please provide, if available, updated statistical data, disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, for the past three years, on the following:

(a)Children who are victims of sexual exploitation and abuse;

(b)Child marriage;

(c)Child and adolescent victims of disappearance;

(d)Child victims of police violence;

(e)Child victims of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the number of such cases reported to the authorities and the number of prosecutions of perpetrators and their punishments;

(f)Children who died by suicide or engaged in self-mutilation;

(g)Child pregnancy;

(h)Children living with AIDS;

(i)Children who abuse substances, with an indication of the type of substance;

(j)School attendance at the elementary level;

(k)Child labour;

(l)Children in street situations;

(m)Children involved in non-State armed groups or criminal groups.

17.Regarding the situation of children deprived of a family environment, please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, disability, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographical location, for the past three years, on the number of children who are or who have been:

(a)Living in alternative care facilities;

(b)Placed with foster families;

(c)Adopted.

18.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographical location, for the past three years, on the number of children with disabilities who are or who have been:

(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;

(h)Enjoying social assistance benefits, including cash transfer programmes.

19.Please provide, if available, updated statistical data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic and national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, for the past three years, on children alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed criminal law who have been:

(a)In the juvenile justice system;

(b)Arrested;

(c)Referred to diversion programmes;

(d)In pretrial detention;

(e)Serving a sentence in detention, indicating the length of the sentence.

20.Please provide information on how a children’s rights-based approach is integrated into the planning, implementation and monitoring of measures for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including with regard to the participation of children and data collection, and on how those measures promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto.

21.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.

22.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.