Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the combined third to fifth periodic reports of Uganda *

1.The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, of 10,700 words maximum, if possible before 15 June 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 explain the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To implement the Children’s (Amendment) Act of 2016 and address the remaining gaps in the legislation, including with regard to the age of marriage for girls, and to corporal punishment;

(b)To ensure the effective coordination of activities for the implementation of children’s rights without undue overlaps in mandates and clarify the roles of the National Children Authority, the National Council for Children and the National Child Protection Working Group in this regard;

(c)To implement the National Child Policy 2020 and its action plan and to inform the Committee whether it covers all areas under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto, as well as to evaluate the implementation of the National Action Plan for Child Well‑being (2016–2021);

(d)To increase budgetary allocations for the social sectors, in particular education, health and social protection, aimed specifically at children in marginalized and disadvantaged situations;

(e)To ensure the systematic collection and analysis of data – disaggregated by age, sex, geographical location, and ethnic, national, religious and socioeconomic background – on the implementation of children’s rights, and to inform the Committee whether the Child Well-being Management Information System is operational;

(f)To ensure that non-governmental organizations working on children’s rights, including on civil and political rights, can operate freely without undue restrictions and threats to their operations;

(g)To implement the existing Child Rights and Business Framework, especially with regard to the responsibility of businesses to eliminate child labour, as well as to establish and implement national regulations to ensure that the business sector complies with international standards on children’s rights.

3.Please explain the measures taken:

(a)To eradicate discrimination, negative perceptions, and stereotypes on the role of girls and women in the society, particularly in the areas of education and child marriage, as well as to eradicate pervasive discrimination against children with disabilities, children deprived of a family environment, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children, including by repealing the Anti-Homosexuality Act, and children belonging to ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities;

(b)To implement its legislation which provides for the concept of the best interests of the child, including the Children’s (Amendment) Act 2016, and to ensure that the right of children to have their best interests taken as a primary consideration is integrated into and consistently interpreted and applied in all legislative, administrative and judicial proceedings and decisions;

(c)To eradicate the increasing practice of the ritual murder of children, the so‑called “child sacrifice”, targeting children with albinism, to identify and prevent such killings and to bring those responsible to justice;

(d)To evaluate the implementation of the National Child Participation Strategies for 2017–2018 and for 2021–2022, to promote meaningful participation of all children within the family, communities and schools and to include children, including children in street situations, in decision-making in all matters related to them.

4.Please describe the measures taken:

(a)To implement the Registration of Persons Act 2015 and to ensure universal birth registration for all children, by facilitating birth registration for children born outside the hospital environment and facilitating late birth registration without fees;

(b)To guarantee the right of the child to freedom of expression, including the freedom to receive, seek and impart information and not to be subjected to criminal prosecution under the Computer Misuse Act 2011, the Non-Governmental Organizations Act 2015, the Public Order Management Act 2013 and the Penal Code Act (revised in 2007) for exercising the rights of freedom of expression and access to information.

5.Please explain the measures taken:

(a)To address the high levels of violence against children, including sexual violence, and implement its legislation that prohibits such violence, as well as to introduce mandatory reporting of cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation, including those committed online, to investigate all reports and allegations of child sexual abuse and exploitation and to punish perpetrators;

(b)To adopt a strategy to address and prevent all forms of violence against children and to strengthen the child protection infrastructure at the local level to respond to all forms of violence against children;

(c)To amend its legislation to prohibit corporal punishment in the home and in alternative care and day-care settings as well as to eradicate the practice of corporal punishment, including in schools;

(d)To harmonize its legislation with the Constitution of the State party and establish 18 years as the minimum age for all types of marriages, including customary and religious marriages, and to address the high rates of child marriage, especially in the north and the east of the country;

(e)To eradicate the harmful practice of female genital mutilation, especially in some districts in eastern Uganda;

(f)To implement the Committee’s recommendations on the State party’s initial report under the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, especially with regard to the prevention and prohibition of offences under the Optional Protocol and the protection of child victims.

6.Please provide information on the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To implement the Children’s Act 2016 and other policies and guidelines regarding the preservation of families and to ensure that children are not removed from parental care due to financial and material poverty;

(b)To adopt a deinstitutionalization strategy and promote family-type and community-based alternative care for children deprived of parental care, in order to reduce reliance on institutional care;

(c)To establish clear regulations on alternative care for children, which include provisions for adequate care standards, including for kinship care, and for periodic review of placements;

(d)To adopt measures on the adoption of children to allow them to live in a family environment.

7.Please explain the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To eradicate discrimination and negative attitudes towards children with disabilities, and to prevent and prosecute perpetrators of violence against children with disabilities, including sexual violence;

(b)To adopt updated policies and plans regarding the rights of children with disabilities and to ensure that all rights of children with disabilities and their access to all services are guaranteed throughout the State party;

(c)To organize the collection of data on children with disabilities and establish an efficient system for diagnosing disability, early intervention, prevention, and effective access to health services.

8.Please inform the Committee of the measures taken:

(a)To increase the human, technical and financial resources for the health sector to strengthen primary healthcare services and to address neonatal mortality;

(b)To address vertical transmission of HIV and to eliminate paediatric HIV/AIDS;

(c)To address malnutrition and stunting, by increasing funding for the State party’s nutrition programmes and policies, and to improve access to water and sanitation services for all children;

(d)To address the high rates of teenage pregnancy, and to provide access to sexual and reproductive education and health services for all adolescent girls and boys as well as access to contraception and safe abortion services and counselling for adolescents.

9.Please describe the measures taken:

(a)To address the high levels of poverty among children, and to guarantee an adequate and sustainable standard of living for all children within the territory of the State party, with a particular focus on targeted social protection schemes for children in marginalized and disadvantaged situations, such as children with disabilities and child‑headed households;

(b)To implement the Climate Change Act 2021 and to address the adverse effects of environmental degradation and climate change on the enjoyment of children’s rights.

10.Please describe the measures taken:

(a)To address the high numbers of out-of-school children in the country, and to increase the enrolment and retention of children, especially girls, including pregnant girls, by reducing barriers to education, such as costs for uniforms, food and school materials and long distances to schools and by addressing access to sanitary pads;

(b)To ensure that children with disabilities have access to inclusive education, by improving facilities and the accessibility of schools;

(c)To address teacher absenteeism and improve the quality of education by providing adequate training and incentives for teachers, and to monitor the quality of education provided at all levels;

(d)To ensure that children can exercise their right to leisure and sports in all schools;

(e)To provide access to preschool education for all children, including children in rural areas and children with disabilities, and to supervise the quality of services provided in such institutions.

11.Please inform the Committee of the measures taken:

(a)To ensure that asylum-seeking and refugee children have access to services, including health and education services;

(b)To grant citizenship to children, particularly to those who would otherwise be stateless, and to provide such children with all services available to Ugandan children.

12.Please inform the Committee about the efforts made:

(a)To combat discrimination against children belonging to minority groups, including the Batwa, the Benet, the Ik and the Tepeth, and to guarantee their economic, social and cultural rights, especially their right to education;

(b)To combat the high prevalence of child labour across the country, especially the engagement of children in hazardous work, including by revising the Employment of Children Regulations and by means of effective labour inspections and other enforcement mechanisms;

(c)To implement the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Policy and carry out a new assessment of children in street situations to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy, which should address the root causes of the problem, in order to prevent children from being in the streets.

13.Please explain the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To assess the implementation of the Justice, Law and Order Sector Strategic Development Plan 2017–2021 and the Children (Amendment) Act 2016 which provide for a strengthened specialized child justice system;

(b)To increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years of age, in line with Committee’s general comment No. 24 (2019);

(c)To implement non-custodial measures rather than deprivation of liberty, such as diversion, probation, counselling, mediation, community service or suspended sentences, wherever possible;

(d)To ensure that conditions in places of detention are in line with international standards and that children are not detained with adults;

(e)To prevent the recruitment of children as child soldiers into armed groups operating in the neighbouring countries;

(f)To implement the Committee’s recommendations on the State party’s initial report under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, especially with regard to the prevention and prohibition of offences under the Optional Protocol and the protection of child victims.

Part II

14.The Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update, of no more than three pages, on the information presented 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

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, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on the following:

(a)Child victims of ritual killings – the so-called “child sacrifice” – and the investigations, prosecutions and sentences handed down in the State party in such cases;

(b)Cases of abuse and violence perpetrated against children, including all forms of corporal punishment, domestic violence, sexual violence and abuse, and sexual harassment, as well as on the investigations, prosecutions and sentences handed down in the State party in such cases;

(c)Cases of child marriage, as well as on the prosecutions and sentences handed down in the State party in such cases;

(d)Cases of female genital mutilation of children, as well as on the prosecutions and sentences handed down in such cases;

(e)Children living in poverty;

(f)Children suffering from stunting and malnutrition;

(g)Children living with HIV infection;

(h)Asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children;

(i)Children in street situations;

(j)Cases of child labour.

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

(a)Separated from their families, including data on the duration of the separation;

(b)Placed in institutions, as well as on the number of institutions, and data on children by institution;

(c)Placed with foster families;

(d)Living with relatives;

(e)Adopted.

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

(a)Living with their families;

(b)Living in institutions;

(c)Attending day care;

(d)Attending preschool;

(e)Attending primary schools;

(f)Attending secondary schools;

(g)Receiving individualized support;

(h)Attending special schools;

(i)Out of school;

(j)Abandoned by their families.

19.Please provide, if available, updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic origin, national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on children in conflict with the law who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)Held in pretrial detention;

(d)Detained with adults;

(e)Convicted and serving a sentence in detention, with data further disaggregated by the length of the sentence.

20.Please provide, if available, updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic origin, national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children, including on children entering the State party from areas where children may have been recruited or used in hostilities.

21.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.

22.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the combined third to fifth periodic reports that may have become outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.

23.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.