Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the combined sixth and seventh periodic reports of Nepal *

1.The State Party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, of 10,700 words maximum, by 15 October 2026. 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 updated information on:

(a)The steps taken to effectively implement the Act Relating to Children, 2018, and the national children’s policy and approve the national action plan;

(b)The resources allocated to the various child-related laws, policies and action plans;

(c)The strengthening of the capacities, staffing, coverage and cross-level coordination of the National Child Rights Council.

3.Please explain:

(a)The steps taken to address the decline in international funding for the social sector, low budget utilization by provincial and local governments and corruption (including mismanagement of funds), and the measures taken to increase budget allocations for the implementation of children’s rights;

(b)The efforts made to strengthen connectivity among the various administrative systems and the information management system that collect data on children;

(c)The human, technical and financial resources allocated to the Child Rights Desk/Unit of the National Human Rights Commission.

4.Please explain the measures envisaged or taken:

(a)To eliminate discrimination against children in law and practice, particularly on the basis of sex, caste, ethnicity, disability and economic status, and towards intersex children;

(b)To ensure universal birth registration, to enable mothers to independently register births without the mandatory data on fathers and confer citizenship to their children, and to prevent statelessness, including for Tibetan and Bhutanese refugee children, whose birth registration has stopped due to the new online system that requires a national identity number, and to resolve that issue;

(c)To ensure the protection of children and uphold their rights during protests and ensure the accountability of those who violate children’s rights to peaceful assembly.

5.Please provide updated information on the measures taken:

(a)To revise the definition of rape in the National Penal Code so that it extends to boys;

(b)To address, prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children, including corporal punishment, domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, online abuse, violence against children with disabilities, and torture and ill-treatment in detention facilities;

(c)To strengthen detection, reporting, investigation, protection and judicial intervention in cases of violence against children, including measures to avoid secondary victimization of child victims by repetitive interviews at different levels, including by the judiciary;

(d)To enforce the prohibition of child marriage, end the practice of chhaupadi, address cultural acceptance contributing to such practices and ban all forms of intersex genital mutilation.

6.Please explain the measures taken:

(a)To regulate residential care, prevent institutional exploitation of children through so-called “orphanages” and “street shelters” and close unregistered facilities;

(b)To strengthen family and community-based alternative care, including kinship and foster care;

(c)To regulate and closely monitor orphanage volunteerism, particularly with regard to background checks of volunteers;

(d)To ensure that domestic and intercountry adoptions comply with international standards.

7.Please provide information on the measures taken to implement the Act relating to Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2017, address violence, abandonment and discrimination against children with disabilities, establish the disability registry, improve early identification and response and ensure inclusive education and community‑based rehabilitation for children with disabilities, especially those in rural areas and coming from marginalized ethnic minority groups.

8.Please update the Committee on the measures taken:

(a)To address disparities in access to health services for children across the provinces;

(b)To reduce the neonatal mortality rate, improve the quality of newborn care services, particularly in underserved regions, and promote exclusive breastfeeding;

(c)To address high suicide rates among adolescents and expand mental health services;

(d)To prevent teenage pregnancies,raise awareness about the legalization of abortion and improve access to sexual and reproductive health services and education, including access to abortion services and counselling for adolescents.

9.Please provide updated information on the measures taken:

(a)To strengthen social protection for children, eliminate documentation‑based exclusion from social support and address structural drivers of child poverty;

(b)Address the adverse effects of climate change and environmental degradation, particularly air pollution, on the enjoyment of children’s rights.

10.Please update the Committee on the measures taken:

(a)To adopt the Federal Education Act;

(b)To ensure equitable access to quality education, particularly for children with disabilities and those from marginalized communities;

(c)To address barriers to school enrolment and retention, in particular at the secondary level;

(d)To improve the quality of education, including teacher training, the availability of learning materials and inclusive education for children with disabilities and to adopt measures to ensure safety from violence and harassment in schools;

(e)To expand access to and regulate early childhood education;

(f)To strengthen vocational and skills training, particularly for girls.

11.Please provide updated information on:

(a)The development of a national refugee legal framework and any steps towards ensuring that refugee, asylum‑seeking, stateless and undocumented children, particularly Tibetan and Bhutanese children, are protected from arrest, immigration penalties and the risk of refoulement, are issued with full documentation and are entitled to social protection schemes, national health insurance programmes and education;

(b)Measures taken to prevent the exploitation of children in labour, particularly bonded labour (haruwa ‑ charuwa, kamaiya and haliya), domestic service and work in brick kilns, manufacturing, mining and quarrying, agriculture and entertainment.

12.Please provide updated information on:

(a)The number of specialized juvenile courts established, the development of child-friendly procedures, the frequency and coverage of training of personnel on child justice and the length of legal proceedings;

(b)The measures taken to raise the minimal age of criminal responsibility;

(c)Conditions in pretrial detention and in child detention facilities (child reform homes), including cases of torture and ill-treatment, overcrowding, coercion in order to extort evidence, poor hygiene, lack of basic services and facilities, separation from adults and access to psychosocial support;

(d)Measures to ensure due process guarantees for children, including free legal aid, child‑sensitive interview procedures, privacy protections and safeguards against coerced confessions;

(e)Steps to increase the use of non-custodial measures, diversion and rehabilitation.

13.Please provide updated information about the measures taken to implement the Committee’s previous recommendations on the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, in particular on the development and implementation of mechanisms aimed at the prevention and response to online child exploitation, including investigation and prosecution of cases of online abuse, and at the protection of victims of all offences described in the Optional Protocol.

14.Please provide information about the measures taken to implement the Committee’s previous recommendations on the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, in particular with regard to criminalization of recruitment and use of children in armed conflict, strengthening age verification, the rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers, including psychological support, and the integration of peace education and training across the security sector.

Part II

15.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:

(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

16.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and 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.

17.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:

(a)Cases of abuse and violence perpetrated against children, including all forms of corporal punishment, domestic violence, sexual and gender-based violence and abuse, sexual harassment, including online, and investigations carried out, prosecutions brought and sentences handed down in such cases;

(b)Cases of child marriage and the prosecutions brought and sentences handed down in such cases;

(c)Children living in poverty;

(d)Adolescent pregnancies;

(e)Substance abuse among children;

(f)Asylum-seeking, refugee, migrant children and unaccompanied children;

(g)Children in street situations;

(h)Children who are victims of trafficking and investigations and prosecutions conducted for cases of the trafficking of children, including information on the sentences handed down to perpetrators and the reparations afforded to victims.

18.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographical location, regarding the situation of children deprived of a family environment, on the number of children:

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

(b)Placed in institutions and foster care, the specific institution in each case and the overall number of institutions;

(c)Placed in informal kinship care.

19.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographic location, on the number of children with disabilities:

(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.

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

(a)Have been arrested;

(b)Have been referred to diversion programmes;

(c)Are in pretrial detention;

(d)Are serving a sentence in detention and the length of the sentence.

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 how those measures promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto.

22.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.

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.