COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Forty-ninth session

15 September-3 October 2008

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVENTION

ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

List of issues to be taken up in connection with the considerationof the third and fourth periodic reports of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (CRC/C/GBR/4)

Under this section the State party is requested to submit in written form additional and updated information, if possible by 8 August 2008 .

Part I

Please indicate whether the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been invoked or referred to directly in domestic courts, and if so, please provide examples of such cases.

Please provide brief information on the ten-year Children Plan which was adopted in 2007 after the submission of the State party’s report.

Please indicate the processes and mechanisms that exist to ensure an efficient coordination of policy and strategy development with regard to programmes, services and laws for the implementation of the Convention in each devolved Administration as well as in the Overseas Territories.

Please indicate whether there is any development with respect to the State party’s reservations and declarations to the Convention, in particular regarding articles 22 and 37(c). Furthermore, please inform the Committee on whether article 32 is now fully applicable in all the State party’s dependent territories.

GE.08-42785Please update the Committee on any developments concerning the State party’s ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Please inform the Committee on the measures taken to prevent and combat violence, including domestic violence, throughout the country and notably in the Overseas Territories.

Please provide further information on the measures taken to implement the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

Please inform the Committee on whether there has been any assessment on the specialist guidance on prejudice-driven bullying, “Bullying around race, religion and culture”, produced in 2006. Please also indicate briefly any other new programme or activity to prevent bullying in schools. Is there a systematic approach towards teaching in schools issues such as a culture of tolerance, acceptance of those who are different and civic education?

Please explain how the right of the child to rest, leisure and to engage in play and age-appropriate recreational activities is enshrined in legislation and ensured in practice.

Please inform the Committee on the measures taken to protect the rights of children affected by migration in the Overseas Territories (both nationals left behind by their parents migrating abroad and foreign children of migrant workers in the British Overseas Territories).

Please indicate the issues affecting children that the State party considers to be priorities, requiring the most urgent attention with regard to the implementation of the Convention.

Part II

Under this section, the State party is invited to briefly (3 pages maximum) update the information provided in its report with regard to:

- new bills or enacted legislation;

- new institutions;

- newly implemented policies; and

- newly implemented programmes and projects, and their scope.

PART III

Data and statistics, if available

In the light of article 4 of the Convention, please provide updated data for 2006, 2007 and 2008 on budget allocations (including trends analysis) regarding the implementation of the Convention throughout the country in the areas of education and health.

Please provide information on the number of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) issued to children since the entry into force of this legislation, disaggregated by year, age, sex and nature of the anti-social behaviour. Please also indicate the percentage of these children who were subsequently treated under the criminal justice system.

Please provide data covering the last three years on the number of persons below 18 who have been tried as adults. Please also inform the Committee on the number of reported cases of abuse or ill-treatment of children occurred during their arrest and/or detention as well as on the follow-up given to these cases.

Please provide data covering the last three years on the number of children involved in sexual exploitation, including prostitution, pornography and trafficking, and the number of those children who were provided access to recovery and social reintegration services.

Part IV

The following is a preliminary list of major issues (which does not contain issues already covered in Part I) that the Committee may take up during the dialogue with the State party. They do not require written answers . This list is not exhaustive as other issues might be raised in the course of the dialogue:

The status of the Convention in the State party’s legal system.

Protection from discrimination, in particular with respect to children belonging to ethnic minorities, asylum-seeking children, children living in poverty, children with disabilities, children in alternative care, children in conflict with the law.

The State party’s strategy to significantly strengthen the Convention’s overall implementation, with particular attention to the general principles of the Convention (non‑discrimination, art. 2; the best interests of the child, art. 3; survival and development, art. 6; and the right of the child to express his/her views and be heard, art. 12).

Children in alternative care.

Domestic violence, including corporal punishment, and sexual abuse.

Children with disabilities, in particular their access to education and social and health services as well as cultural and recreational activities.

Children at risk of experiencing poverty, including the progress to achieve the State party’s long term target to eradicate child poverty by 2020.

Basic health and welfare, access to health services, adolescent health (e.g. suicide, teenage pregnancies), mental health.

Children and education, including measures to address bullying in schools, special needs of children, the possibilities to be heard available to children, and human rights education.

Leisure and play.

Alcohol and substance abuse.

Trafficking and sexual exploitation of children.

Administration of juvenile justice, in particular with regard to the age of criminal responsibility, conditions of places of detention for children, trials in adult courts and placement with adults.

The rationale behind and the application of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs); the use of physical restraint, plastic bullets, Taser guns and “mosquito” devices.

Children belonging to a minority or an indigenous group, in particular children of the Traveller community and the Roma.

-----