Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues prior to submission of the combined fifth and sixth reports of Qatar *

1.The State party is invited to submit in writing the information requested below, of 21,200 words maximum, by 15 June 2024. The replies should take into consideration the Committee’s recommendations contained in its concluding observations on the combined third and fourth periodic reports of the State party. The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights set out in the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto during the dialogue with the State party.

I.New developments

2.The Committee requests the State party to provide:

(a)Information on the adoption or reform of laws, policies and programmes and any other measures taken, such as the creation or reform of institutions, that are significant for the implementation of the Convention, the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography;

(b)Information on the impact of the measures taken to mitigate the adverse impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic;

(c)Any other information that the State party considers relevant and that is not covered in the replies to the questions below, including information on obstacles and challenges faced.

3.The Committee also requests the State party to provide information on how a child 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 how such measures promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto.

II.Rights under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto

A.General measures of implementation (arts. 4, 42 and 44 (6))

Reservations and legislation

4.With reference to the recommendations contained in the Committee’s concluding observations on the combined third and fourth periodic reports of the State party, please provide information on any progress on the withdrawal of the reservations to articles 2 (non-discrimination) and 14 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the Convention.

5.Please also provide information on the following:

(a)The finalization and adoption of the bill on rights of the child and its compliance with the provisions of the Convention;

(b)The existence of a child-rights impact assessment procedure for all new legislation adopted at the national and subnational levels.

Comprehensive policy, strategy and coordination

6.Please provide information on the following:

(a)Steps taken to adopt a national strategy for children, covering all areas of the Convention;

(b)Efforts made to involve civil society in the process of developing and finalizing the third national development plan to ensure that children’s rights are adequately reflected, prioritized and resourced;

(c)Steps taken to operationalize the national commission for childhood, with a clear budget, accountability framework and reporting system, to develop a specific child protection system and to strengthen the dedicated social service workforce for children;

(d)Steps taken to establish evaluation mechanisms to regularly assess progress achieved and identify possible obstacles in the implementation of the National Plan of Action;

(e)Any child rights-related update of the Qatar National Vision 2030 or in its implementation since the examination of the previous report of the State party;

(f)Information on policies or measures taken to address the persistence of gender stereotypes and attitudes that impede the full enjoyment of all human rights by girls.

Independent monitoring

7.Please inform the Committee about plans to designate a dedicated children’s rights unit within the National Human Rights Committee or any other independent body to monitor the implementation of the Convention, with a mechanism to investigate and address complaints on child rights violations.

Allocation of resources

8.Please provide information on the following:

(a)The public resources and budget allocated to prevention and child protection services, particularly for children of unmarried parents, children with disabilities, migrant children and children belonging to minority groups;

(b)Any measures taken to establish a system aimed at identifying budget allocations and expenditures on children by specific ministries so as to guarantee an objective assessment of the adequacy and effectiveness of public expenditure on children;

(c)Mechanisms in place to ensure a transparent and participatory budgeting process, particularly those concerning children.

Data collection

9.Please inform the Committee about the efforts made to improve data collection to ensure that it covers all areas of the Convention, in particular data collection on children with disabilities, violence against children, child abuse, children of migrant workers, children under the age of 5 years and children in contact with the justice system, including child victims and witnesses. Please also provide information on measures taken to develop an integrated information system.

Dissemination and awareness-raising

10.Please provide information on any measures taken, including campaigns and education programmes, in particular for children in marginalized or vulnerable situations:

(a)To disseminate and promote the provisions of the Convention, including in child-friendly formats;

(b)To provide systematic training on the provisions of the Convention, the Optional Protocols thereto and the Committee’s concluding observations on the combined third and fourth periodic reports of the State party to all relevant professionals and personnel who are in contact or work with children.

Children’s rights and the business sector

11.Please provide an update to the Committee on any developments in the regulation of the business sector regarding its operational impact on children’s rights.

Cooperation with civil society

12.Please provide information on the progress made in improving the legal and policy framework for specific engagement between the Government and civil society organizations working on children’s rights.

B.Definition of the child (art. 1)

Minimum age for marriage

13.Please provide information on any legislative amendment of the Family Act in respect of raising the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18 years.

C.General principles (arts. 2, 3, 6 and 12)

Non-discrimination

14.Please provide information on the measures taken to prohibit discrimination against children on all grounds and in all aspects of life, including multiple discrimination, and against non-nationals. Please also provide information on the measures taken:

(a)To address the persistence of gender-based discrimination due to ongoing harmful and traditional attitudes and norms and to combat and change discriminatory attitudes and practices, particularly among religious leaders, opinion-makers and the mass media;

(b)To eliminate de jure and de facto discrimination on any grounds and against all children, paying particular attention to girls, children with disabilities, children of unmarried parents and children of migrant workers.

Best interests of the child

15.Pleaseprovide information on the following:

(a)Any guidance adopted for professionals to determine the criteria and procedure for the assessment and determination of the child’s best interests in all decisions affecting them, in line with paragraph 17 of the concluding observations on the combined third and fourth periodic reports of the State party;

(b)The training of professionals working with and for children on the assessment and determination of the best interests of the child;

(c)Measures to prioritize the application of the best interests of the child in custody decisions.

Respect for the views of the child

16.Please provide information on the following:

(a)The rules and procedures adopted by the judicial and administrative authorities to guarantee the right of children to be heard in any decision-making process affecting them, including in civil and criminal courts and migration and asylum-seeking processes and regarding the placement of children;

(b)The measures in place to guarantee the right to be heard, particularly with regard to children in institutions and foster care;

(c)The training provided to relevant professionals, particularly teachers and child rights representatives, on the right of the child to be heard and the measures taken to promote and enhance the participation of children at school.

D.Civil rights and freedoms (arts. 7, 8 and 13–17)

Nationality

17.Please provide information on measures taken to implement the Committee’s previous recommendation to review its legislation regarding nationality to ensure that nationality can be transmitted to children through both the maternal and paternal lines, without distinction, in particular for children who would otherwise be stateless.

Right to identity

18.Please inform the Committee about the measures taken to grant the children of unmarried parents the full right to information about their origin in cases of anonymous births to ensure their access to information about their parents. Please also provide information on the steps taken to identify the root causes of child abandonment at birth and to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to address such root causes, including the expansion of family planning services, counselling and social support.

E.Violence against children (arts. 19, 24 (3), 28 (2), 34, 37 (a) and 39)

Corporal punishment

19.Please provide information on the efforts taken:

(a)To prohibit by law and end the practice of corporal punishment in all settings, including at home and in schools, youth centres, alternative care facilities and detention centres;

(b)To promote positive, non-violent and participatory forms of child-rearing and discipline, including awareness-raising and education programmes for parents, teachers and care professionals;

(c)To develop a monitoring system and a complaint mechanism for corporal punishment.

Violence, abuse and neglect

20.Please provide information on the measures taken to implement the Committee’s previous recommendations, in particular:

(a)To establisha comprehensivedomestic violence prevention and protection system and related legislation;

(b)To provide systematic training for police officers, judges and other professionals working with and for children;

(c)To focus and prioritize child protection as a multisectoral issue.

Sexual exploitation and abuse

21.Please provide information on the following:

(a)The investigation, prosecution and sanction of cases of sexual abuse, including information on the rights of victims to redress, compensation and rehabilitation, and the steps taken to protect children from sexual abuse;

(b)The steps taken to ensure that persons convicted of the sexual abuse of children are excluded from having contact with children in their professional capacity;

(c)The measures taken to establish child-friendly mechanisms for reporting instances of sexual exploitation or abuse, including community-based programmes aimed at preventing and tackling domestic violence, child abuse and neglect;

(d)The measures taken to protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse;

(e)Existing support services for children who are victims of sexual exploitation and abuse, including access to mental health and therapeutic services.

Harmful practices

22.Please provide information on measures taken:

(a)To eliminate child marriage and to raise awareness of its harmful effects, in collaboration with the media, traditional and religious leaders and the family;

(b)To eliminate the practice of female genital mutilation in the State party;

(c)To remove the provision in the Penal Code that allows a reduction in the penalty for perpetrators of so-called honour crimes.

F.Family environment and alternative care (arts. 5, 9–11, 18 (1) and (2), 20, 21, 25 and 27 (4))

Family environment

23.Please provide information on measures aimed at:

(a)Ensuring that both parents share equal legal responsibility for the upbringing and development of their children;

(b)Ensuring that all decisions concerning children in cases of divorce are based on the situation of the individual child;

(c)Repealing family law provisions that have a negative impact on children, including those that authorize divorce, particularly in cases of repudiation, without guarantees of adequate protection for the mother and the children and those that assign custody to a mother or a father on the basis of the age of boys and girls, without an assessment of the individual child’s best interests;

(d)Ensuring that the opportunity for children to express their opinion with regard to custody after divorce is considered to be a right and not an obligation.

Children deprived of a family environment

24.Please provide information on the following:

(a)The national criteria, based on both the needs and the best interests of the child, for determining whether a child should be placed in alternative care;

(b)The existing support and family-based care for all children in the State party, with no distinction on the basis of ethnic or national origin, wherever possible, particularly for children in single-parent families;

(c)The number of children in institutional care under the auspices of the Qatar Orphans Foundation (Dhreima) and measures to reduce institutionalization;

(d)Measures to ensure the periodic review of the placement of children in foster care and institutions and to monitor the quality of care therein, including by providing accessible channels for reporting, monitoring and remedying the ill-treatment of children.

Children in prison with their mothers

25.Please provide information on the following:

(a)Existing alternatives to the detention of mothers and, only if such alternatives are not found, provide information on the human and financial resources available to support children living in detention with their mothers;

(b)Existing psychological and other necessary support to children whose parents have been sentenced to death.

G.Children with disabilities (art. 23)

26.Please provide information on the measures taken:

(a)To assess the effectiveness of laws and policies on the rights of children with disabilities, including the Strategy for the Family, the National Strategy for the Integration of Children with Disabilities in Schools and the National Health Strategy 2011–2016, referred to in the previous report of the State party;

(b)To reform the system of social assistance for children with disabilities and their families to improve coherence and coordination and to avoid institutionalization;

(c)To ensure access to specialized health care, particularly mental health care, and rehabilitation services for children with disabilities, including early detection and intervention programmes;

(d)To develop and implement inclusive education, including by training and assigning an adequate number of specialized teachers and professionals to teach children with disabilities in inclusive classes;

(e)To ensure that mainstream schools have the necessary support resources throughout all stages of education, including for children aged 0 to 3 years and in pre-primary and post-compulsory education;

(f)To facilitate the full inclusion of all children with disabilities in all areas of public life, including leisure, play and cultural activities, and in community-based care.

H.Basic health and welfare (arts. 6, 18 (3), 24, 26, 27 (1)–(3) and 33)

Health and health-care services

27.Please provide information on measures taken:

(a)To increase efforts to combat overweight and obesity, including through awareness-raising programmes and regulation of the marketing of unhealthy food, especially when such marketing targets children, and to regulate the availability of such food in schools and other places;

(b)To address depression, anxiety disorders and attempted suicide among children and to ensure that the necessary psychological and psychiatric services are available to them;

(c)To provide schools with health professionals who can diagnose the early signs of mental health concerns and cooperate with external mental health professionals and to include education on mental health in school curricula and training for teachers.

Adolescent health

28.Please provide information on measures taken:

(a)To decriminalize abortion and ensure access to safe abortion and post-abortion care services for adolescent girls, making sure that their views are always heard and given due consideration as a part of the decision-making process;

(b)To adopt a comprehensive policy on sexual and reproductive health for adolescents and ensure that sexual and reproductive health education is part of the mandatory school curriculum, targets adolescent girls and boys and is focused, in particular, on the prevention of early pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections;

(c)To provide children and adolescents with accurate and objective information and life-skills education on preventing substance abuse, including tobacco and alcohol abuse, and develop accessible and child-friendly drug-dependence treatment and harm-reduction services.

Environmental health and impact of climate change on children’s rights

29.Please provide information about the measures taken to set out a clear legal commitment, with appropriate resources, to assess the effects of polluted air on children’s health and the implementation of plans to reduce air-pollution levels, including the environmental component of the national development strategies for 2011–2016 and for 2018–2022, especially in areas near schools and residential areas. Please also provide information regarding policies implemented by the State party to ensure that private and publicly owned financial institutions take into consideration the implications of their investments for climate change and the resulting harmful impact on children.

Standard of living

30.Please provide information on the measures taken to ensure that all children have access to adequate housing, particularly migrant children, and end all evictions of families with dependent children until alternative housing is found.

I.Education, leisure and cultural activities (arts. 28–31)

Education, including vocational training and guidance and rest, leisure, recreation, and cultural and artistic activities

31.Please provide information on measures taken:

(a)To guarantee the right to education for all children, particularly for migrant and undocumented children, as highlighted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education during her visit to Qatar;

(b)To expand non-stereotyped educational curricula to address the structural causes of gender-based discrimination and diversify the educational and vocational choices of girls and boys;

(c)To develop a national plan of action for human rights education, as recommended in the framework of the World Programme for Human Rights Education;

(d)To ensure that all children have access to recreation and to the cultural and artistic activities included in the Supreme Education Council plan for extracurricular activities.

J.Special protection measures (arts. 22, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37 (b)–(d) and 38–40)

Asylum-seeking and refugee children, including unaccompanied children

32.Please inform the Committee on measures taken:

(a)To ensure that all asylum-seeking children and their guardians are systematically provided with information on their rights and obligations, asylum procedures and available services;

(b)To ensure the quick identification of asylum-seeking children, particularly unaccompanied children from Afghanistan who arrived in 2021;

(c)To expedite asylum requests, improve communication during processing and improve reception conditions, particularly for children;

(d)To facilitate family reunification for asylum-seekers and refugees by ensuring that the definition of eligible family members is kept broad, that the procedure is undertaken without undue delay and that the time frame for submitting an application is extended, as required;

(e)To ensure that asylum-seeking and refugee children have access to services, are not discriminated against and are integrated into the school system;

(f)To ensure that the institutions run by the State party and non-governmental organizations that house unaccompanied children are provided with the human, technical and financial resources necessary to offer special protection and assistance.

Children in situations of migration

33.Please provide information on measures taken:

(a)To apply the principle of non-refoulement in all cases of migrant children, including those without a regular residence status, and to ensure their access to free legal aid, appropriate guardians and other forms of assistance at all stages of the process;

(b)To stop the practice of the detention or imprisonment of migrant women with children in immigration detention facilities pending deportation;

(c)To implement the 2019 legislation in respect of the kafalah system to ensure that female domestic workers have their right to freedom of movement in order to maintain contact with their children in their home countries.

Child labour, trafficking in children and abduction and sale of children

34.Please provide information on the work of the Qatar Foundation to Combat Human Trafficking on trafficking in children and child labour, particularly regarding the economic and sexual exploitation of girls employed as domestic workers. Please also provide information on the measures taken to ensure the effective implementation of legislation prohibiting the recruitment of children as domestic workers and to ensure that those responsible for such recruitment are held accountable.

Administration of child justice

35.Please provide updated information on the following:

(a)The adoption of the bill on the rights of the child raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility in accordance with internationally accepted standards;

(b)Measures to repeal all domestic legal provisions providing for life imprisonment, hard labour and flogging for offences committed by persons under the age of 18 years;

(c)Measures to establish a children’s court, as outlined in the State party’s National Development Strategy 2011–2016;

(d)The promotion of non-judicial measures in the case of children accused of criminal offences, such as diversion, probation, mediation, counselling and community service, and, wherever possible, the use of alternative measures at sentencing, ensuring that detention is used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest possible period of time and that it is reviewed on a regular basis with a view to its withdrawal;

(e)Measures to ensure, in cases in which detention is unavoidable, that children are held separately from adults and that detention conditions are in line with international standards, including with regard to access to education and health services.

K.Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography

36.Please inform the Committee about the measures taken to implement its previous recommendations, including measures taken:

(a)To collect data on all areas covered by the Optional Protocol and harmonize its legislation with the Optional Protocol in order to remove the requirement of double criminality to ensure extraterritorial jurisdiction;

(b)To adopt measures to prevent the sexual exploitation of children, including in travel and tourism, particularly in conjunction with the 2022 International Federation of Association Football World Cup.

L.Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict

37.Please provide information on measures taken to implement the recommendations of the Committee contained in its concluding observations on the report of the State party submitted under article 8 (1) of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, including on progress made:

(a)To criminalize the recruitment and involvement of children in hostilities by armed forces or armed groups;

(b)To establish a mechanism for the early identification of children, including asylum-seeking and refugee children, who may have been involved in armed conflict abroad and to provide services for their physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration.

III.Statistical information and data

38.The statistical information and disaggregated data provided by the State party should cover the period since the consideration of its previous reports on the implementation of the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto. The data should be disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, type of disability, geographical location and socioeconomic status, as well as by year or other relevant time frame.

39.The provision of tables setting out trends over the reporting period is recommended and explanations of, or comments on, significant changes that have taken place over the reporting period should also be provided.

A.General measures of implementation (arts. 4, 42 and 44 (6))

40.Please provide information on the budget lines regarding children and social sectors by indicating the amount and the proportion of each budget line relevant to the total national budget.

B.Definition of the child (art. 1)

41.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the number and proportion of children under 18 years of age living in the State party.

C.General principles (arts. 2, 3, 6 and 12)

42.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the following:

(a)The number of girls who were married when they were under 18 years of age;

(b)The number of children who have attempted or died by suicide.

D.Civil rights and freedoms (arts. 7, 8 and 13–17)

43.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the number of stateless children.

E.Violence against children (arts. 19, 24 (3), 28 (2), 34, 37 (a) and 39)

44.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the following:

(a)The number of cases of violence against children, including corporal punishment, reported to the authorities, investigated and prosecuted and the sanctions issued to perpetrators, disaggregated by type of offence;

(b)The number and type of protective measures provided to child victims of violence.

F.Family environment and alternative care (arts. 5, 9–11, 18 (1) and (2), 20, 21, 25 and 27 (4)

45.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the number and proportion of families and children receiving economic or other types of support services.

46.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the number of children in institutional care and the average number of days of stay.

G.Children with disabilities (art. 23)

47.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the following:

(a)The number of children with disabilities;

(b)The number of children with disabilities living with their families or living in family- and community-based care;

(c)The number of children with disabilities in inclusive education or in separate schools;

(d)The number of reported cases of violence against children with disabilities who have been placed in institutions, the number of investigations and prosecutions carried out and the sentences issued.

H.Basic health and welfare (arts. 6, 18 (3), 24, 26, 27 (1)–(3) and 33)

48.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the following:

(a)The number and rate of children with health insurance;

(b)The number of paediatric and mental health services and professionals specialized in young children and adolescents, disaggregated by region.

49.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the following:

(a)The number of adolescent mothers;

(b)The number of children experiencing drug and alcohol abuse;

(c)The number of sexual and reproductive health services available to adolescents, disaggregated by region.

I.Education, leisure and cultural activities (arts. 28–31)

50.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the following:

(a)The number and proportion of children dropping out of school;

(b)The number and proportion of children attending early childhood education and the average number of years of attendance;

(c)The number of children in public and private schools, including religious schools.

J.Special protection measures (arts. 22, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37 (b)–(d) and 38–40)

51.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above and by country of origin and accompanied or unaccompanied status, on the following:

(a)The number of asylum-seeking and refugee children;

(b)The number of children in situations of migration;

(c)The number of asylum-seeking and refugee children and children in situations of migration detained in immigration detention facilities pending deportation;

(d)The number of asylum-seeking and refugee children and children in situations of migration attending school and with access to health care.

52.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above and by types of violation reported, on the following:

(a)The number of reported cases and the number of children subjected to trafficking;

(b)The number of such children who have been provided with access to rehabilitation programmes;

(c)The number and percentage of such cases that have resulted in sanctions, with information on the country of origin of the perpetrator and the nature of the penalties imposed.

53.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above and by type of crime, on the following:

(a)The number of children in detention facilities and the average length of stay, further disaggregated by pretrial detention, such as in police cells, and in prison;

(b)The number of children referred to diversion and non-custodial sentencing options.

K.Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography

54.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the following:

(a)The number of reported cases of the sale of children, child prostitution and the use of children in pornographic performances and materials;

(b)The number of such cases that have been investigated, prosecuted and sanctioned;

(c)The number of child victims of such crimes who have been provided with recovery assistance or compensation.

L.Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict

55.Please provide data, disaggregated as described in paragraph 38 above, on the following:

(a)The number of asylum-seeking and refugee children entering the State party from areas in which children may have been recruited or used in hostilities;

(b)The number of children who have benefited from physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration measures.