Committee on the Rights of the Child

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

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 measures taken:

(a)To introduce or update policies, comprehensive legislation and strategies on children and to amend legislation across the State party, such as the provisions on the minimum ages of criminal responsibility, marriage and sexual consent;

(b)To ensure coordination between the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs and the relevant federal, regional and local entities on child protection;

(c)To increase budgetary allocations for critical areas of children’s rights, such as education, health and social services;

(d)To strengthen the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the Ombudsman with adequate human, technical and financial resources for their independent functioning to protect children’s rights;

(e)To collect data on children disaggregated by location, age, sex, ethnic group, nationality, disability, socioeconomic situation and migration status;

(f)To ensure that business activities reflect respect for children’s rights and environmental and other standards and to investigate the negative impacts of any violations, including the impact of the Lega Dembi gold mine on Indigenous Guji children;

(g)To undertake capacity-building and awareness-raising activities on the Convention;

(h)To ensure the free and independent functioning of civil society organizations working on child rights.

3.Please explain measures taken:

(a)To address discrimination against children and adolescents on the basis of, inter alia, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity, migration and displacement;

(b)To ensure that administrative, legislative and judicial authorities understand and apply the principle of the best interests of the child;

(c)To develop policies and ensure provisions to systematically and inclusively consult with children on all matters affecting them.

4.Please inform the Committee about:

(a)Support provided for universal and free birth registration, considering the extremely low rates of registration, and for preventing statelessness among children;

(b)Provisions and standards in relation to identity documents for children, preserving their biological origins, and an identification and referral mechanism for children who are undocumented and at risk of statelessness;

(c)The situation regarding equal access to information, the rights and privacy of children in the digital environment, including protection against misinformation and hate speech, and increasing digital literacy.

5.Please explain the measures taken:

(a)To combat violence against children, including domestic violence, sexual violence, female genital mutilation, child marriage, sexual harassment, bullying and online sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly in rural areas;

(b)To prohibit the corporal punishment of children in all settings and to repeal such provisions as the right to administer “reasonable” chastisement under articles 68 (b) and 659 (2) of the Criminal Code;

(c)To address the physical maltreatment of children and prevent injury-related deaths of children;

(d)To investigate allegations of the use of force, including in peaceful protests, resulting in the deaths of children, and their arbitrary arrest, torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance by the security forces and armed groups;

(e)To strengthen access to justice in cases of violence against children and ensure support services to victims, including rehabilitative and reparation measures, such as medical assessment and therapies.

6.Please provide information about:

(a)Support provided for families to prevent child abandonment and for children who have been left without parental care or affected by involuntary separation;

(b)Monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of the policy and measures taken on adoption and on the status of alternative or institutional care of children, including with reference to the specific impact of the Directive on Alternative Childcare and Support, which was adopted in 2023;

(c)Protection of children living with incarcerated parents from violence, trauma and poor living standards and ensuring their birth registration.

7.Please inform the Committee about measures to ensure the comprehensive protection of children with disabilities and provisions envisaged specifically to implement their right to accessibility of inclusive educational, healthcare and sanitary facilities.

8.Please explain:

(a)The reasons for the low coverage of basic vaccinations, the high proportion of preventable child deaths and the disparities in healthcare facilities across regions;

(b)The decline in efforts to combat epidemics of, among others, malaria and tuberculosis, and high levels of HIV/AIDS;

(c)Plans to bridge the funding gaps to combat child hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.

9.Please provide information on measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To address homelessness, improve the standard of living and provide access to drinking water, sanitation and housing facilities for children in marginalized situations;

(b)To develop environmental or climate change policies incorporating children’s rights and addressing climate-related adverse effects on children.

10.Please explain measures envisaged:

(a)To strengthen the education system, in particular at pre-primary levels;

(b)To eliminate gender disparities in education and provide support to out‑of‑school children.

11.Please update the Committee about:

(a)Specific provisions to address the vulnerabilities of and ensure adequate support for children in street situations, Indigenous children, pastoralists, children belonging to minorities and migrant, refugee, asylum-seeking and internally displaced children;

(b)Efforts to address high rates of child labour and exposure to hazardous work through adequate detection, monitoring and protection measures;

(c)Measures to combat child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation, including in both domestic and transnational dimensions;

(d)The situation of children deprived of liberty and children alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed criminal law, and the provisions envisaged for adequate juvenile rehabilitation centres.

12.Please inform the Committee about measures taken to ensure respect for the rights of children under the Convention and the rules of international humanitarian law, investigate violations and provide reintegration and reparation for the victims in relation to incidences of:

(a)The killing and injury of children;

(b)Attacks against schools, educational and healthcare facilities;

(c)The worst forms of child labour, including forced military training, forced recruitment and the use of children in armed conflict;

(d)Arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, torture, sexual violence, abduction and sexual slavery of children;

(e)Hunger, starvation and malnutrition among children.

Part II

13.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

14.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.

15.Please provide 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)Cases of abuse and violence perpetrated against children, including all forms of corporal punishment, domestic violence, sexual violence and abuse and sexual harassment, and the investigations carried out, prosecutions brought and sentences handed down in such cases;

(b)Cases of female genital mutilation and 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 and migrant children and unaccompanied children, indicating whether they are in detention;

(g)Children in street situations;

(h)Children who are victims of trafficking and investigations and prosecutions conducted in cases of trafficking in children, sentences handed down to perpetrators and the reparations awarded to victims.

16.With regard to the situation of children deprived of a family environment, please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographical location, on 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 and community-based group homes, indicating the specific institution in each case and the overall number of institutions;

(c)Adopted.

17.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographical location, 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.

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

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)Placed in pretrial detention;

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

19.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.

20.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.

21.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.