Committee on the Rights of t he Child

Forty-fifth session

S ummary Record of the 1236 th M eeting

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Thursday, 24 May 2007, at 3 p.m.

Chairperson: Ms. Lee

C ontents

Consideration of reports of States parties (continued)

Second periodic report of Uruguay(continued)

The meeting was called to order at 3 p.m .

C onsideration of reports of states parties ( item 6 of the agenda) ( continued )

Second periodic report of UruguayCRC/C/URY/2; list of issues to be taken up (CRC/C/URY/Q/2); written replies by the State party concerning the list of issues (CRC/C/URY/Q/2/Add.1); core document(HRI/Corr.1/Add.9/Rev.1)) (continued)

1.At the invitation of the Chairperson, the members of the delegation of Uruguay resumed places at the Committee table.

2.Mr. Kotranewas surprised that 34 per cent of the minors brought before a court were not juvenile offenders but ill-treated or threatened children.They should be regarded as victims and should not, therefore, be heard by the same judges or using the same procedures as offenders, much less be placed in the same institutions as them.Furthermore, prevention mechanisms had to be established for them. In particular, professionals working with children should be required to report cases of ill-treatment. Prevention and social integration policies for juvenile offenders shouldalso be implementedand use of pretrial detention should be less frequent, especially as several sources reported that conditions of detention in the State party were poor. In that regard it would be interesting to know whether detention centres were regularly inspected by an independent panel. The creation ofjuvenile courts was to be welcomed but the number of public prosecutors for children was inadequate.

3.Ms. Herczogasked the delegation to state what preschool education facilities were accessible in Uruguay and whether universal services were provided by central or local authorities, by private companies or by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). She also asked for further details on the social action conducted in hospitals. The number of early pregnancies was high and pregnant adolescents were often stigmatized. It would be good for adolescent girls to have access to advisory and psychological support services. She noted also that maternity leave was only 12 weeks and that it would be useful to extend it.

4.Mr. Parfittrequested statistics on the reasons why such a large number of children were removed from their family environments and asked what became of them: were they placed in care homes, with foster families or with members of the extended family? The question also arose whether the State party did its utmost to avoid removing children from their families, including by offering support services to parents in difficulty.

5.Further information would be welcome on the procedure that a child victim of violence had to undergo and the services made available to him or her. He asked in particular whether there were homes to accommodate children in distress and whether a child was able to lodge a complaint with an independent human rights body on his or her own behalf.

6.Mr. Krappmannwas concerned at the extremely high repetition rate in the State party in primary and secondary education. He feared that it may be due to inadequate teacher training, a mediocre quality of education and the inadequate proportion of the State budget allocated to education and asked whether progress had been made in that regard since the preparation of the second periodic report. School failure appeared to be greater among boys and was, moreover, mostly determined by social origin. Support measures targeting socially disadvantaged groups and children with learning difficulties were required. It was also to be hoped that pregnant adolescents were no longer excluded from school. Additional information on vocational training and the assistance given to unemployed children who did not attend school would be welcome.

7.Mr. Giorgi (Uruguay) indicated that various projects had been implemented to foster participation by children, including the “Casa Miga” project which received assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and covered the capital and two other cities, the Children and Adolescents Participation Programmein which 1,000 children and adolescents had been involved, and Human Rights Week, when minors had been able to meet the President and other high ranking officials which had hitherto resulted in the young people themselves drawing up 50 projects which would be fully funded by the State.

8.Uruguaygave preference to in-country adoption because the failure rate was low, so low that even domestic demand was not being met: on average, 50 children were adopted per year and there were 250 adoption applications. A bill was being scrutinized which should allow adopted children to retain their original family name and prohibit young children from being placed in institutional care, in other words, the principle of care in a small facility for all children under age 6 would be enshrined in law.

9.The National Committee to combat the commercial and non-commercial sexual exploitation of boys and girls was established inNovember 2005.That committee had formulated a national plan to eradicate sexual exploitation, the three major components of which were to raise public awareness, train the relevant staff and formulate intervention protocols both to suppress crimes associated with sexual exploitation and to bring about restitution of victims’ rights. The production of child pornography was already prohibited – the first two trials of people charged with that offence had taken place in 2007, and the possession of such material should be prohibited shortly.

10.Intra-family violence washiddenand difficult to combat, especially as some parents regarded corporal punishment as an educational choice or even their right. The authorities were working very closely with non-governmental organizations on that issue. They had reached comprehensive protection agreements against violence with several ministries, UNICEF and the United NationsPopulation Fund.

11.Two major advances had been made in combating child labour. Firstly, a list of hazardous work had been approved and forwarded to labour inspectors to ensure that the strict prohibition was enforced. Furthermore the decision had been taken to update statistical data on child labour annually with the help of trade union organizations. According to the latest figures, 6.5 per cent of children age 5 to age 11 and about 13 per cent of children age 12 to age 17 were working. Exact data on that subject were, however, difficult to assembleas some activities were perceived by the individuals questioned as survival strategies rather than genuine child labour.

12.Uruguaywas lucky enough to have been little affected by AIDS as only 162 cases of HIVinfection had been registered from 1993 to 2007. Mother-to-child transmission had fallen sharply and had stabilized at about 13 per cent. People who were HIV-positive were definitely stigmatized by the rest of the population, a factor which had led the Ministry of Health to adopt various publicity and awareness-raising initiatives.

13.Mr. Zermattenurged the State Party to ensure that the Secretary-General’s study on violence against children, which included many examples of good practices, was disseminated widely if it had not already done so. He also asked for details of penalties imposed on employers who recruited children.

14.Ms. Ortiznoted that the vast majority of reports made using the freephone service were from Montevideo and asked whether that was because knowledge in the regions about the service was poor or that the response capability was inadequate.

15.Mr. Giorgi (Uruguay) indicated that where child labour was concerned, an employer could be ordered by a court to pay the equivalent of up to $25,000 for each child involved. A bill was also under scrutiny which would, if adopted, allow the Labour Inspectorate to impose fines directly without court proceedings.

16.The freephone helpline could be accessed from any point in Uruguay but it was true that in the interior of the country calls received less follow-up. The decentralization currently under way, which would provide each region with its own operating capability and its own reception facilities for children and adults, should reduce the disparities. The community framework of which the services providing assistance would be a partshould also provide evidence of effectiveness.

17.Mr. Uriarte (Uruguay) said that in Uruguay like other Latin American countries, there was a special criminal responsibility status for adolescents from age 13 to age 18 (“juvenile criminal responsibility); people in that age-group were not recognized to be either criminally incapable or criminally responsible, instead they were treated as individuals capable of a degree of understanding who were on the road to independence.

18.He stated that the distinction between children in conflict with the law and vulnerable childrenwas clearly set forth in the National Code on Childhood and Adolescence. It was even one of the major advances in the new set of standards which introduced a dual system of competence pursuant to which judges hearing cases where the accused was a minor were separate from the judges who heard cases of children who had been abandoned, threatened, or who needed protection for any other reason. The situation was therefore clear on paper.It was in practice that officials sometimes took too severe an approach, a situation which had been encouraged inter alia by the absence of any social policy or family policy from 1990 to 2005. That approach should therefore subside as the new government policies bore fruit.

19.Under theNational Code on Childhood and Adolescence, detention of a juvenile had to be brief and for exceptional reasons, and had to be capable of being supplanted by alternativemeasures. In 2003the report by the World Organization against Torture indicated that 430 young Uruguayans had been detained for committing offences. In 2007 there were no more than 200, due inter alia to non-custodial alternative penalties established by the Uruguayan Institute for Children and Adolescents(INAU)and theNational Institute for the Rehabilitation of Young Offenders. A description of the non-custodial alternative penalties was to be found in the report presented by the Uruguayan Government to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in October 2006, and in the project to reform and restructure the National Institute for the Rehabilitation of Young Offenders.

20.Ms. Oria (Uruguay) indicated that the education budget should double in 2009 compared to 2004 to about 4.5 per cent of GDP. Family allowances to help the poorest children to pursue their secondary education were going to be revised upwards.

21.The health system would be reformed with the help of public and private funds to improve access to primary care and prevention.

22.On 14 May 2007, the Uruguayan Government had announced that additional funds would be allocated to some fields (health, family allowances, social development policies and education). Social expenditure accounted for 40 per cent of the total budget in 2004 compared to 49 per cent today. Following a re-scheduling of debt interest payments, Uruguay intended to release enough resources to be able to increase its social expenditure by 50 per cent, including expenditure on children.

23.Ms. Ortízasked how Uruguay compensated for regional disparities in the allocation of budgetary resources.

24.Ms. Oria (Uruguay) explained that there was no decentralization of public education or health policies but that decentralization in those areas was one of the objectives of the Government.

25.Mr. Zermattenasked whether Uruguayallocated a proportion of public funds to poverty reduction programmes such as “Infamilia”.

26.Mr. Bango (Uruguay) stated that following the financial crisis of 2002 the poverty rate among children under age 17 had reached 51.8 per cent in 2004. That figure had been reduced to 46 per cent in 2006 thanks to the resources allocated and the formulation of aid programmes for children.

27.The plan for early childhood which aimed to provide all children with the same opportunities regardless of social origin, meant that the number of children under age 3 enrolled in early childhood centres had increased considerably. In 2007 about 70 per cent of poor children under age 3 attended the centres.

28.To combat teenage pregnancies, the Government had set about establishing 41 health units for adolescentsin the country’s 19 departments in 2005(20 of which were already open)providing care and information to mothers from age 13 to age 19. Currently, 3,000 mothers and their children were monitored individually by health-care professionals; the plan was for 8,000 young mothers to be aware of contraceptive methods by 2009 so that their second child would be the result of an informed choice.

29.Ms. L eeasked until what age school attendance was compulsory for Uruguayans and what sanctions there were for people who encouraged children to leave school earlier.

30.Mr. Bango (Uruguay) said that it was rare for children in the primary sector to drop out and that the main problem was the sorry standard of teaching, which was the cause of many a repetition. In some schools attended by disadvantaged children the repetition rate even recently was 25 per cent. In August 2005 the Government had established the community primary teachers programmeand the results for the year 2006 would be published in the near future.The community primary teachers worked to improve the quality of teaching by increasing the number of hours of lessons and providing personalized support to children. Since the first year of the programme’s operationthe percentage of pupils moving onto the next grade had increased from 50 to 72 per cent. Today the rate was 74 per cent. The programme involved 40,000 children living in poverty.

31.Compulsory schooling ended at age 16. In the secondary sector dropping out was more common and was due particularly to the fact that many adolescents worked to meet their families’ needs but was also related to the poor quality of teaching and the inability of schools to retain children’s interest. Among the measures to combat adolescent dropout, the Government had established a “Community Classroom” programme in 2005 to try and get 3,000 young people between age 12 and age 15 who had left school back into education.

32.Ms. Herczognoted that school dropout and school failure were often linked to problems such as poverty or neglect and asked whether measures had been taken to address the root causes.

33.Mr. Citarellaasked how it was possible to reconcile compulsory education until age 16 with the possibility of marriage for girls at age 12.

34.Mr. Krappmannasked whether African-Uruguayans received special school support.

35.Mr. Siddiquiasked how the Government intended to resolve the issue of poverty, whether it intended to follow the advice of the World Bank and whether it planned to undertake profound economic reform to allow the population greater control of resources.

36.Mr. Bango (Uruguay) stated that the Government intended to fight poverty resolutely and had set realistic objectives. He noted that in Latin America, 70 per cent of the population lived below the poverty threshold. The Uruguayan Government was undertaking fiscal reform to introduce an income tax. However, it also had to work on the causes of poverty, which was linked in part to the population’s level of education. It was necessary, therefore, to invest in education.

37.Ms. Ortizasked what the eligibility criteria were for family allowances and what social services were available to families locally outside the capital.

38.Mr. Bango (Uruguay) observed that Montevideo was home to 50 per cent of the population, 60 per cent of the poor population and 70 per cent of the very poorpopulation. Moreover, teaching came within the remit of a central rather than a local authority, meaning that budget allocation in education was determined centrally.

39.The Second National Survey on Children and Young People conducted by INAUwhich would be completed in November 2007, would provide details on the situation of adolescents in general, and on school dropout in particular.

40.Health policyfor adolescents was built around three components, namely monitoring of teenage mothers, health units for adolescents, and training of young people with responsibility for promoting sexual and reproductive health.

41.The percentage of young people leaving education without entering the world of work was falling. Finally, in 2006, the child mortality rate had reached its lowest ever level.

42.The Government was in the process of restructuring the systems of collecting information, and data disaggregated by sex on the situation of minors in each of the 19 departments were now available.

The meeting was suspended at 4. 35 p.m. and resumed at 4 .4 5 p.m .

43.Mr. Giorgi (Uruguay) stated that the Government attached great importance to the training of social workers specializing in children. It had doubled the budget allocated to the Training Centre for Social Workers(part of INAU), which ran an ongoing training programme for social instructors. The objective was twofold: to train a larger number of social instructors whose job was to promote the social inclusion of children, and to raise the awareness of all INAU officials (3,500 in total) of children’s policies. The Government was also making moves to train instructors in the Early Childhood Education centres. The instructors in question received a minimum of 400 hours training.

44.Members of the armed forces, in particular those involved in international peacekeeping missions, received human rights training. Moreover there was a growing tendency to include the rights of the child in vocational training curricula at university and in the field of health thanks to UNICEF involvement.

45.The Chairpersonrequested details of the training in children’s rights given to members of the armed forces and priests.

46.Ms. Oria (Uruguay) replied that for almost two years the members of the armed forces had been receiving training in international humanitarian law organized by the

International Committee of the Red Cross. They were made particularly aware of issues concerning sex equality and the rights of the child.

47.With regard to the training of priests, the Church was very active in the social field and in providing assistance to children. It had a considerable number of teacher training centres where the topics of human rights and the rights of the child were addressed. The Church had opened colleges and universities and the Roman Catholic Church had a university which had developed a trainingprogramme on the rights of the child.

48.Mr. Giorgi (Uruguay) explained that measures had been taken in recent years to the benefit of persons with disabilities. A disability department had been set up within the Ministry of Social Development which meant that disability as an issue could be consideredin its entirety rather than merely from a medical point of view. Furthermore, regulations had been reviewed: for examplethe import of vehicles for the disabled was now exempt from tax.

49.Although the country was somewhat lagging behind in terms of access to education for persons with disabilities, certain encouraging facts were worthy of note: a programme to include children with disabilities into the mainstream system had been set up. Since 2007 all lectures in the first year at university were interpreted into sign language.

50.An increasing number of television broadcasts were also accompanied by sign-language interpretation. Ramps had been fitted in some areas of the capital and in all the buildings where ramps were compulsory. Finally, a law which required public transport to provide devices facilitating access by the disabled had been approved but had not yet entered into force as companies had requested a period of grace prior to implementation.

51.Mr. Zermattenasked whether the State intended to ratify the new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and whether it intended to encourage the inclusion of children with disabilities in the mainstream school system.

52.Ms. Ortizasked whether officials working with and for children with disabilities received special training so that they would be better able both to protect the children physically and psychologically and to encourage them to participate to the best of their abilities. Noting that children with disabilities who were put into care were especially vulnerable to ill-treatment, she enquiredwhether there was a modified system for lodging complaints. She asked whether there was a body responsible for supervising placements involving such children to establish whether they had to remain in an institution, were able to be placed with a foster family or returned to their families.

53.Mr. Giorgi (Uruguay) replied that a commission was currently working to bring national law into conformity with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Moreover, the Government was in favour of incorporating children with disabilities into the mainstream education system but was encountering difficulties such as lack of job security for teachers or the high number of children per class in state schools which made it impossible to provide children with disabilities with all the attention they might need.

54.Most children placed in institutional care remained in contact with their families and this reduced their vulnerability. Following the change in Government many complaints had been dealt with and decisions made on them. Generally, children were placed in institutional care or foster families for their own protection. The number was falling: in December 2006 there were 4,628 such children as opposed to 6,000 the previous year. Of those 4,628 children, 3,204 were in institutions and 1,424 with foster families, which were managed by INAU.

55.The principal reason for placing children in institutional care used to be poverty. Today, placement forboys over age 12 was more closely linked with parents’ inability to tackle rebelliousness or unacceptable behaviour, which in turn was often linked to drug use.

56.On that matter, the action taken by the National Drugs Council was structured around two main pillars, namely reduction in demand and reduction in supply. However, there was a lack of establishments in the south of the country where child addicts could be cared for on a temporary basis. The policy was not to detain children but to place them in institutional care temporarily and then to accompany them upon their return to their families with the emphasis always on prevention.

57.Mr. Zermattenwas of the view that the placing of children with disabilitiesin foster care rather than in institutions should be encouraged. He wondered whether there was a policy of taking street children into care and monitoring them.

58.The Chairpersonasked for details on the use of new drugs in Uruguay.

59.Ms. Ortizwondered why so many children were placed in institutions given that child abandonment was rare. Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child,placing children in an institution on grounds of bad behaviour was not appropriate; it would be more useful to support parents with difficulties. She was surprised that 50 per cent of children in care were under age 12 and asked whether measures were taken to remove the children from institutional settings.

60.Mr. Giorgi (Uruguay) explained that the figures supplied were the result of a process of transition in arrangementsused for taking children separated from their families into care. The low adoption rate was due to the fact that children in care were still in touch with their families and were often over age 3, which was usually the upper age of adoptions.

61.Several measures had been conducted with regard to adoption. The “Derecho a la familia” (Right to a family)campaign had been launched which encouraged the adoption of children over age 3 and children with disabilities.

62.Furthermore, efforts were being made to replace traditional children’s homes with family units comprising couples who would take care of seven or eight children; accommodation and technical supportfor the children would be supplied by the unit, particularly with regard to assistance in tackling issues involving sexuality and rebellion in adolescents and in encouraging children to maintain relationships with their biological families.

63.Studies had shown that that formula produced better results in terms of the children’s education and social integration. Foster families had to fulfil certain conditions, however, including a higher level of education than had previously been required.

64.Base paste was an intermediate state of the cocaine preparation process which had entered Uruguay during the economic crisis of 2002. It was a cheap drug which did not require significant investment by traffickers and had met great success among the poorest people. It was very addictive with very strong but brief highs, hence the need to use it almost continually and the violent behaviour of users, who were prepared to do anything to get hold of it. Institutions specializing in the treatment of drug addiction had been ill-prepared for the arrival ofthis kind of substance and it had brought about a crisis in the care system in this field.

65.The Government was also concerned by alcohol consumption among minors. It intended to promulgate a law to increase public awareness of the risks of alcohol,promote

responsible drinking and prohibit the sale of alcohol to minors – althougha prohibition in law in that regard already existed itwas not enforced in practice.

66.The figure of 7,000 street children was from 2004. There were no up-to-date data but the number varied depending on the time of year and the neighbourhood. Although there were street children all over the country the problem was worst in the capital and some of the cities visited by tourists. The authorities were implementing various programmes to help the children concerned. About 12 per cent of the children had been successfully reintegrated into the school system, and over 50 per cent spent less time on the street and had resumed albeit as yet fragile links with family and school.

67.Mr. Bango (Uruguay) added that in October 2007, the Ministry of Social Development in cooperation with INAU, would take a census of street children in Montevideo and urban areas. Volunteers would be trained, the census would be taken during the day and the night, and it would be used as an opportunity to raise public awareness of children’s rights.

68.Mr. Giorgi (Uruguay) said that with regard to adolescents in institutions, INAU was making great efforts to work with the judicial authorities to findalternative solutions. It was difficult to return the adolescents in question to their families which were often helpless and poverty-stricken, and with whom all ties had been broken.

69.Ms. Herczogasked whether there were any treatment projects and short-term special projects to enable these children to return to their families, whether work was done with the families and whether the children were able to pursue their education.

70.Mr. Giorgi (Uruguay) said that the children’s education was a matter of priority. Those who were placed in an institution had to attend an educational establishment. Material support could be given to families through, for example, food baskets. Social workers also tried to resolve situations where there was domestic violence.

71.Uruguayhad been working for a long time to put projects in place in the field of sex education but some subjects were still taboo in Uruguayan society. A Sex Education Commission was set up in 2005 by theCentral Governing Council for Education (CODICEN). The Commission had drawn up a plan to integrate sex education into the school curriculum and it would be implemented gradually beginning in grades five and six (the first years of secondary education).

72.Relations between the child protection authorities and the media were not easy. The media preferred sensational items such as stories involving violenceand had little time for issues such as health, education, child labour, poverty and social exclusion. UNICEF had played a very important role in trying to reverse that trend and some media, admittedly the less mainstream ones, were beginning to tackle issues affecting the rights of the child. The authorities responsible for protecting the rights of the child sometimesclashed with the pressbecause information likely to damage the image of the child was sometimes published. Recently the press had become more sensitive to these matters but the tendency to place commercial interests over the interests of society still prevailed.

73.Ms. Aidooasked whether measures in relation to sex education, raising public awareness of the rights of the child, or training of people working with children, were conducted from a perspective of gender equality.

74.Mr. Giorgi (Uruguay) replied that many women worked in the health and education fields and that it would be useful to incorporate more men into those fields to emphasize the

role in families played by fathers, especially as the care institutions accommodated many boys. INAU was making great efforts to combat certain stereotypes to prevent them being passed downthrough the generations.

75.Mr. Zermattenrequested further information on the practice of holding young people who committed offences in pretrial detention. He also asked where the juveniles were held and whether there were anypanels who visited juvenile detainees before or after trial.

76.Ms. Ortizaskedwhether theNational Advisory Council had a role in reviewing the accounts and formulating the annual budget allocated to protection of the rights of the child. It would also be interesting to know whether in the framework of international cooperation Uruguay was free to implement its own programmes or whether programmes were imposed on it. The delegation might also outline the role played by NGOs and the relations the State had with them. Finally, the Committee asked why the Human Rights Commissioner did not visit adolescents held in detention.

77.Mr. Uriarte (Uruguay) said that a bill very shortly to be approved by the Senate provided for pretrial detention to apply only to perpetrators of very serious crimes which would incur a custodial sentence. Currently a child who was arrested was in most cases returned to the people responsible for his or her care a soon as possible. In any event a juvenile could not be detained for more than 12 hours. At the end of the 12 hour period he or she was transferred to a special INAU unit. He or she had to appear in court within 24 hours. The judge had to decide within 48 hours whether to place the juvenile in a rehabilitation centre. The child would then have to be examined by a doctor. The family was very quickly informed that the juvenile had been placed in pretrial detention and visits were authorized. There were no exact figures on the number of children placed inpretrial detention. It was estimated that 50 per cent of children entering the judicial process left without being given custodial sentences. Judges currently had little scope to apply non-custodial sentences. A strict monitoring mechanism in conformity with the Beijing Rules had therefore been proposed to limit pretrial detention of minors to 24 hours and prevent deprivation of liberty.

78.Ms. Oria (Uruguay) said that the recently established Advisory Council had not had much opportunity to participate in formulating the budget and reviewing the accounts. It might envisage doing so in future.

79.Mr. Bango (Uruguay) said that thePlanning and Budget Office, which was part of the Office of the President of the Republic would work with UNICEF each year to reach a decision about a programme on cooperation by Uruguay with the programmes of the United Nations and the various bodies conducting activities affecting children, and would set the priorities for the years to come. There was also a plan to establish an international cooperation agency.

80.NGOs and associations provided on-going scrutiny of the management role played bythe State. Social policy for children currently as formulated by the Government aimed to safeguardchild protection and was largely dependent on cooperation with civil society. The State and NGOs were jointly responsible for programmes conducted in that field but the State was the body with responsibility for safeguarding the rights of the child.

81.Mr. Zermattensaid that Uruguayhad to harmonize its various legal texts to enable the system to be better understood. It would also be useful to draw up a plan of action. It was necessary to ensure that bills currently under scrutiny were adopted promptly and then monitored to ensure they were duly enforced. The Committee was awaiting reports on the implementation of the two Optional Protocols signed and ratified by Uruguay. Finally, the Committee fervently hoped that the strategy to combat poverty would result in a significant fall in the poverty rate, which was still too high.

82.Ms. Mart í nez (Uruguay) said that Uruguaywould in future strive to submit its reports within the established time-limits. She noted that the Commissioner for Human Rights was not authorized to enter detention centres for juveniles as they were not prisons. A specialized inspection mechanismfor detention centres for juveniles and adolescents was in the process of being established. In the matter of children’s rights Uruguay worked in cooperation with the countries of Mercosur. Thanks to an initiative by Ms. Ortiz,a regional programme, “Niñ@Sur” (Southern girls and boys) had been in place since 2005 which focused among other things on matters relating to harmonization of laws. Uruguaywould take account of the recommendations made by the Committee and would like one of its members to assist in disseminating them.

The meeting rose at 6 p.m .

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