Committee on the Rights of the Child

Fortieth session

Summary record of the 10 73rd meeting

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Monday, 26 September 2005, at 3 p.m.

Chairperson :Mr. Doek

Contents

Consideration of reports of States parties (continued)

Third periodic report of Denmark (continued)

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 8 (1) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict

Initial report of Denmark under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict

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

Consideration of reports of States parties (agenda item 4) (continued)

Third periodic report of Denmark (CRC/C/129/Add.3; core document (HRI/CORE/1/Add.58); list of issues (CRC/C/Q/DNK/3); written replies by the Danish Government to the list of issues (CRC/C/RESP/91) and statistical annex to the written replies (CRC/C/RESP/90) (continued )

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 8 (1) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict

Initial report of Denmark under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/DNK/1)

1. At the invitation of the Chairperson, the delegation of Denmark took places at the Committee table.

2.Mr. Parfitt, noting the high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among young people, asked whether the State party had implemented HIV/AIDS prevention programmes in schools. He also wished to know the exact nature of the secure residential establishments and other welfare facilities referred to in the report, as they seemed to resemble prisons and children aged under 15 — and thus not criminally responsible — were placed there.

3.Mr. Siddiqui wished to know what measures the State party meant to take to combat the problem of childhood obesity and the dietary behaviour of some girls who fell victim to fashion and starved themselves to look like the models in women’s magazines.

4.The Chairperson wished to know whether the State party had put in place a programme to combat criminality among girls, which had been rising alarmingly, and if so what the main thrust of that was.

5.He also wished to know whether the high abortion rate among Greenland girls aged under 18 was to be put down to the inadequacy of campaigns to prevent unwanted early pregnancies in the region or to other factors.

6.Ms. Bertelsen (Denmark) said that the delegation had no statistics available on the number of cases of abuse in prisons but that no case of that kind had been brought to her knowledge. The treatment of minors aged 15 to 17 in institutions operated by the Prison and Probation Service was governed by Act No. 432 of 31 May 2000 on sentencing implementation. In addition, there were very precise rules that allowed prisoners, whether of age or not, to complain to the prison governor if they were subjected to abuse.

7.Ms. Johansen (Denmark) said that the only case of ill-treatment of a child in a reception centre that had come to her attention concerned a child who had been subjected to abuse by his biological parents in 2004, and that the competent authorities had accordingly decided to place the child with a Danish foster family.

8.Children benefiting from alternative care could also contest their placement from the age of 12, and children aged 15 and over had a say in any matter concerning them.

9.Ms. Barfoed-Høj (Denmark) said that children had the opportunity to influence decisions likely to have repercussions for their daily lives, such as when their parents divorced. They were also involved in the organization of school life and could participate in school governing bodies.

10.The National Council for Children was the body responsible for considering issues relating to children’s rights and developing policy in that area. It was not able to hear individual complaints from children, who could take any grievance to the Ombudsman responsible for human rights issues in general.

11.Ms. Bertelsen (Denmark) said that the media enjoyed the freedom of expression enshrined in the Danish Constitution on the same basis as Danish citizens but that article 266, letter (b), of the Penal Code penalizing any racist comment likewise applied to them, as it did to any legal entity. Indeed, journalists had already been prosecuted and punished for breaching that article. The Media Liability Act also set out how liability was to be assigned when racist comments were broadcast on television, over the radio or in the press.

12.Ms. Johansen (Denmark) said that in 2003 the Danish Government had passed the Ethnic Equality Act forbidding any direct or indirect discrimination or harassment and any instructions constituting an incitement to discrimination based on race or ethnic origin. The Act also contained provisions regulating the burden of proof and forbidding reprisals. Adults or minors believing they had been the victims of discrimination could also approach the Complaints Committee for Ethnic Equal Treatment, an independent monitoring body.

13.Aware that legislation on the subject was inadequate, in November 2003 the Government had launched an action plan to promote equal treatment and diversity and combat racism. A study conducted within that framework had revealed, among other things, that the school dropout rate among children from ethnic minorities was mainly attributable to their inadequate knowledge of Danish. A two-year journalism course had been created for young people from ethnic minorities so that after graduating they could describe the particular problems encountered by the minorities they came from in the media.

14.Mr. Filali asked what action was taken on complaints brought before the Complaints Committee for Ethnic Equal Treatment.

15.Mr. Vinthen (Denmark) explained that once a complaint was brought before the Committee, it would notify it to the Institute for Human Rights, which it came under. The Institute would examine the case and recommend either taking it to court or initiating an administrative procedure.

16.The position of Denmark on ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was set forth in paragraph 38 of the report under consideration and had not changed since that was submitted, but the observations the Committee had formulated on the subject would be brought to the notice of the Danish Government.

17.In 2001, in cooperation with Save the Children, the Crime Prevention Council had created a website on Internet safety aimed at children, young people and their parents and teachers, who could find information on the site about the precautions to take when chatting online with strangers and download information, brochures and educational material from it. The initiative had been sponsored by the Ministry of Education and accompanied by the distribution of pamphlets and posters in schools and elsewhere.

18.To implement the Dakar Framework for Action, the Government had set itself the goal of increasing the proportion of children completing primary education in the relevant age group to 85 per cent by 2010 and 95 per cent by 2015.

19.Where vocational training was concerned, the number of in-company placements fell short of demand and the Government thus intended to reward firms that accepted trainees, as it was better to train young people and bring them into the job market in that way than to pay them unemployment benefits later. The numbers dropping out in that educational stream were still large and guidelines would have to be adopted in the near future in an effort to solve the problem.

20.To offset the negative effects of the compulsory dispersal of bilingual pupils (Albertslund model), who as things stood could be sent to schools a long way from their homes to avoid overconcentration in certain schools, on 5 June 2005 Parliament had adopted a law aimed at strengthening the teaching of Danish as a second language in primary education.

21.In 2003, the Danish Centre of Educational Environment had launched an initiative in collaboration with non-governmental organizations to create a climate of well-being in primary education establishments, and that had led to a declaration being drafted on the subject. Signed by 24 organizations working in the area and by the Ministry of Education, the declaration dealt with the way pupils’ associations, teachers, school heads, social educators, parents and politicians could put an end to bullying. To give that initiative a concrete application, the Danish Centre of Educational Environment had created an Internet home page where the country’s different schools could post their own “Declaration of well‑being” signed by the school head, pupils, the chairperson of the education council and the chairperson of the student’s council, who thus jointly committed themselves to combating bullying.

22.Schools and municipalities could also consult a website that provided real-time information on all relevant aspects of school bullying and violence, particularly the scale of the phenomenon and the kinds of action school heads or teachers could take to resolve conflicts at their schools.

23.The Act on Guidance in Relation to Choice of Education, Training and Career, passed in April 2003, represented a complete overhaul of the system of student guidance in both the traditional and the vocational education streams. An Internet portal bringing together information about education and training opportunities at all levels, labour market statistics and opportunities for studying abroad had been set up.

24.Ms. Sandbeck (Denmark) said that, according to a 2004 Government report, about 40,000 children were affected by poverty, but for a period averaging between five months and a year. The Government refrained from providing financial assistance to the heads of the families concerned, many of whom were unemployed, in order not to discourage them from seeking a job and accustom children to that form of social assistance. Drug-addicted parents benefited from systematic medical care and members of particularly vulnerable groups could apply for debt rescheduling. Some years previously, the Government had also adopted a strategy and action plan to combat the harmful effects of the social legacy inherited by children; the results were not yet known.

25.In addition, the Government had just taken a number of measures to facilitate access to leisure activities, particularly sport, for children affected by poverty, meaning vulnerable children in general and the children of refugees in particular.

26.Ms. Ortiz asked whether the Government intended to harmonize the scales for the introduction allowance paid to families of Danish, European and other origin, respectively, so that there was no implicit exclusion of particular categories of immigrants.

27.Ms. Johansen (Denmark) explained that the introduction allowance and starting assistance provided for under the Integration Act were two types of public assistance paid to new arrivals in Denmark and that their amount varied by the number of years spent in the country. The conditions of allocation were the same for foreigners as for Danes returning to the country, but only people who had been legally resident in Denmark for at least seven out of the previous eight years qualified for the full amount of monetary assistance.

28.Those rules, which the authorities applied without distinction of race, colour or national or ethnic origin, were in line with the practice of many other European countries and with the provisions of the different international instruments to which Denmark was a party, particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

29.The introduction allowance and starting assistance fitted perfectly well into the framework of measures to encourage employment, since their amount was in any event considerably less than the income likely to be earned from a paid activity, it being the belief of the Government that a high employment rate among foreigners newly arrived in the country was the key to optimum integration and autonomy, while creating more opportunities for the next generation.

30.Mr. Thøgersen (Denmark) said that the divorce rate was high in Denmark and that the Ministry for Family and Consumer Affairs, in its concern to limit the effects on children, had very recently launched a pilot project for couples and family counselling to help couples in crisis get over their difficulties and, if it came to it, to facilitate separation and the search for agreements based on consideration of the best interests of the children involved. The current rules operated for married and unmarried couples alike.

31.In the event that parents separated, the parent not living with the child was entitled to have contact with him or her. Nonetheless, it was necessary to ensure that children did not have relations with the absent parent unless that was in their interests, and it was with this in view that in the spring of 2005 the Ministry for Family and Consumer Affairs had set up a committee to ascertain whether the current law on custody and visiting rights was consistent with the provisions of the Convention and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. Its conclusions were expected in the spring of 2006.

32.Ms. Johansen (Denmark) explained that, while their applications were being examined, asylum seekers, including accompanied and unaccompanied children, were usually placed in reception centres that the Danish Immigration Service was required to make available for them. The Danish Red Cross ran most of those centres.

33.The current expenses of asylum seekers were met by the Immigration Service. Child asylum seekers thus had the same rights of access to health services as the children of Danish residents. They were usually cared for at the reception centres by qualified staff, but they also had the opportunity to consult a general practitioner who could refer them to a specialist if necessary.

34.School attendance was compulsory for child asylum seekers, including those subject to an expulsion order. They were given an education similar to the one provided to bilingual resident children (i.e., Danish, English and primary and secondary school teaching material), usually at the reception centres. There was no obligation to provide classes in their mother tongues. Children aged from 7 to 16 were educated at one of the six schools run by the Danish Red Cross.

35.The number of asylum-seeking minors whose applications had been definitively rejected under normal procedures or for special reasons was 47 in 2002, 40 in 2003 and 52 in 2004.

36.Ms. Khattab asked why domestic violence seemed so widespread among ethnic minorities, how many incidents were actually reported and what measures were being taken to assist women who were victims of that kind of violence, encourage them to report it and make the public aware of the issue.

37.The delegation might also provide further details of the measures being taken to prevent segregation of children from ethnic minorities at school and mollify the fears of some Danish parents who showed little enthusiasm for educating their children at schools with a large student population of foreign origin.

38.The Danish authorities had criminalized female genital mutilation committed outside the country, which was certainly a cause for satisfaction, but any additional information on such practices and an assessment of their scale would be welcome.

39.Ms. Johansen (Denmark) said that to protect the right of young people, and particularly those from ethnic minorities, to choose their partners, the Government had adopted a 2003–2005 action plan against forced marriages and arranged marriages, whose main planks were information campaigns, advice and guidance services, measures to facilitate the issuance of new identity papers, the creation of girls’ clubs, the opening of shelters for young women aged 14 to 18 and 18 to 25 and the creation of special emergency services for crisis situations.

40.In its strong concern to assist victims of domestic violence and prevent reoffending, the Government was making a financial contribution to the operating expenses of women’s shelters and a telephone hotline for young people from ethnic minorities, and to associations combating domestic violence and female genital mutilation.

41.Child victims of domestic violence would soon have an opportunity to be heard and receive therapeutic care. The relevant authorities and organizations had made tools available, including a discussion forum and website, to enable them to forge contacts and share their experience with other young people in the same situation and obtain information on the organizations they could take any problems to.

42.An information campaign had recently been held to create greater awareness of the rights of women from ethnic minorities and pamphlets for battered women had been distributed in different languages. Efforts were being made to support voluntary organizations working to set up support networks to look after such women when they left their homes, often with their children.

43.Ms. Sandbeck (Denmark) added that in April 2005 the Ministry of Social Affairs had launched a four-year action plan against domestic violence whose priority was to protect women from ethnic minorities, children and young people. Different information and awareness-raising activities for professionals and for the perpetrators of conjugal and domestic violence were being held or planned. It was now mandatory for civil servants to notify the social services of suspected cases of child abuse.

44.Ms. Bertelsen (Denmark) said that, as part of efforts to combat domestic violence, a law had been enacted in 2004 at the initiative of the Ministry of Justice authorizing the police to expel anyone from their family home — it usually being the man — if they had behaved violently or sexually abused their children.

45.Under the new legislation on female genital mutilation, anyone working with children was now required to notify the police or courts of any suspected or confirmed cases of mutilation.

46.The Chairperson asked for further information on disappearances of child asylum seekers and wished to know whether the fact that representatives of unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors were not paid did not lead to problems of recruitment and interfere with the quality of their work.

47.Ms. Johansen (Denmark) said that the Danish authorities were aware of those disappearances but lacked information on the subject. The Immigration Service assumed that Denmark was not the final destination for some asylum seekers, particularly the large number of unaccompanied Chinese children who had disappeared in 2004, some two weeks after they had entered Denmark and their applications had been filed.

48.Mr. Thøgersen (Denmark) explained that the practice for some years had been for asylum-seeking minors arriving in Denmark unaccompanied to be assigned a representative with the same functions and responsibilities as a legal guardian, usually for a fairly short period. Appointed on the recommendation of the Danish Red Cross, those representatives received no salary and were not reimbursed for travel to the reception centre where the child they were responsible for resided. Nonetheless, the Danish Red Cross had no difficulty finding competent candidates.

49.When unaccompanied child asylum seekers were granted a residence permit, they were temporarily assigned a new guardian responsible for safeguarding their interests and taking decisions on their behalf. During that time, the Immigration Service conducted its investigations to trace any biological parents, and if those were unsuccessful the new guardian would remain responsible for the child concerned until the latter reached the age of majority.

50.Mr. Parfitt asked what body was responsible for training the representatives of unaccompanied child asylum seekers and whether those representatives were familiarized with the principles and provisions of the Convention as part of their training.

51.Mr. Thøgersen (Denmark) replied that the representatives of unaccompanied child asylum seekers were recruited and trained by the Danish Red Cross, which was familiar with the contents of the Convention.

52.Ms. Bertelsen (Denmark) explained that strict and highly detailed rules had applied since 2000 to pretrial detention and solitary confinement. In very rare cases (three per year in 2001, 2002 and 2003) and under exceptional circumstances, young people aged 15 to 17 could indeed be held in solitary confinement for very short periods, generally ranging from two weeks to about forty days.

53.The Government was opposed to the abolition of that coercive measure but had asked the Standing Committee on Criminal Matters to review the rules on solitary confinement for minors. The conclusions and proposals of the Committee, including a new maximum time limit for solitary confinement, should be available soon. The current maximum time limit for solitary confinement, which had to be ordered by a court, was theoretically eight months.

54.Juvenile delinquents over 15 years of age being held in pretrial detention or serving out their sentences were the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Affairs and the social services. In exceptional cases, however, and particularly when those young people were very violent or posed a threat to their peers, the social institutions, lacking the necessary facilities, could no longer look after them and sent them to adult correctional establishments. A decree and a set of guidance notes had been prepared for correctional staff on the treatment of young people aged 15 to 17 placed in institutions operated by the Prisons and Probation Service.

55.Rising violence among girls was another deeply disturbing issue. A committee had been asked to study that new phenomenon in society in order to identify the causes of those changes in behaviour, prevent the trend from developing further and adapt the working methods of the police and social services accordingly.

56.Mr. Filali wished to know whether solitary confinement was used as a disciplinary measure.

57.Ms. Bertelsen (Denmark) replied that solitary confinement was neither a punishment nor a disciplinary measure, and was governed by the Administration of Justice Act. It was always a court that ordered it, usually during the pretrial investigation, after satisfying itself that the measure was necessary to prevent the accused from obstructing the investigation by influencing other people or destroying evidence, and that that objective could not be achieved by other means.

58.The Chairperson asked why solitary confinement did not exist in the social institutions, since it was sometimes necessary to separate a very aggressive child from other children, while providing that child with psychological assistance.

59.Ms. Sandbeck (Denmark) explained that there were two types of establishments, namely secure institutions and enhanced security institutions. In the latter, which were reserved for the most violent young people or those suffering from mental disorders, children could be placed in isolation for a maximum of four hours, under surveillance. If they suffered from mental disorders, the authorization of a psychiatrist or specialist was required.

60.Mr. Parfitt asked whether minors aged under 15 could be placed in a secure institution if they had committed a criminal offence and, if so, what became of their right to due process.

61.Ms. Sandbeck (Denmark) said that social support measures were taken before minors were placed, at the request of the local authorities, in a secure institution. When children engaged in criminal behaviour, the police would alert the social services, and those would implement a personalized action plan to assist them. Juvenile delinquency was a problem for society but also for the individuals concerned, as their future could be jeopardized if they had a criminal record.

62.Five factors could provide grounds for placement in a secure institution: the danger posed by minors, the risk or danger run by them, placement under observation to determine whether they needed treatment, pretrial detention or a penalty handed down by a court. In the last two cases, the decision was always taken by a court, although the social services were able to make recommendations.

63.Secure institutions, which existed to deal with minors in a stable environment, took in children aged 12 to 16, as very violent behaviour was on the rise among the young. The use of force was strictly controlled and periods of confinement could not exceed two months, renewable once, for children aged 12 to 14, and six months, renewable once, for children aged 15 to 17.

64.The Chairperson asked whether there were secure institutions that took in children for whom pretrial detention had been ordered and others reserved for children for whom prevention measures had been ordered, or whether those children were all placed together in the same institutions.

65.Ms. Sandbeck (Denmark) said that all placement measures were implemented in the same institutions. In 2004, the average length of committal in secure institutions for children aged under 15 had not exceeded 52 days.

66.Ms. Bertelsen (Denmark) said that the Government had decided in the spring that young people could serve out their sentences at home under electronic surveillance, which would enable them to continue with their education or work. It had also put in place a rehabilitation programme for young people aged 15 to 17 convicted in drug or alcohol cases, as well as a system of suspended sentencing.

67.Mr. Parfitt asked whether minors aged 12 to 15 could be placed in an institution where they were deprived of liberty merely by an administrative decision of the local or regional authorities.

68.Ms. Sandbeck (Denmark) replied that when parents were opposed to their child being placed in an institution by administrative order, they could appeal to the youth and minors committee, a local authority whose membership included a judge and a specialist.

69.Mr. Vinthen (Denmark) said that the minimum age for being served alcohol was set at 18 and the minimum age for buying alcohol at 16 in Denmark and 18 in Greenland. The Government ran an alcoholism prevention campaign every year and the National Board of Health published directives on alcohol consumption. Alcohol taxes had been raised in 2004, which had had the effect of bringing down consumption slightly. Alcohol advertising was governed by a voluntary agreement between producers, the Government and consumers, and there was a committee responsible for reviewing how those voluntary agreements were applied in practice.

70.A television campaign on chlamydia trachomatis, a sexually transmitted infection, was being run to inform young people about the risks it presented.

71.Obesity had become a problem in Denmark and measures had been taken to reverse the trend, particularly among children. An action plan had been adopted in 2003, but it was too soon to evaluate its effects. The National Board of Health had published directives on obesity prevention and recommended that minors should do at least an hour of physical exercise every day.

72.A working group was charged with suicide prevention, for which a large budget was assigned. The most vulnerable groups were girls, older men and the mentally ill. The general trend of the suicide rate was downward.

73.Mr. Parfitt asked whether there were national programmes for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and sex education classes in schools.

74.Mr. Thuesen (Denmark) replied that there was no national programme because the municipalities chose their own programmes. Sex education was included in the school curriculum but each school organized its classes as it saw fit.

75.Ms. Bertelsen (Denmark) said that new measures to prevent sexual abuse had been taken in recent years. Public- and private-sector employers, including associations employing volunteers, were now informed if their employees had been convicted of sexually abusing a child, to prevent their having contact with children in the course of their work. People in direct contact with children under 15 had to provide their employer with a certificate issued by the police, who kept a systematic register of the DNA profiles of convicted sex offenders. The action plan on human trafficking had been amended to include children in measures designed for women and provide them with special protection. A working group had been charged with gathering data, as those available were very inadequate.

76.Parliament had examined the issue of sex tourism, but Danish law required dual criminality, and many countries had no law against sexual relations with a minor. The matter had accordingly been referred to a committee of experts.

77.Ms. Sandbeck (Denmark) said that since 2001 an information centre had been gathering data on child victims of sexual violence and disseminating them among the relevant professionals. It was helping local authorities to develop prevention and suppression policies in that area. In 2005, a major campaign to raise awareness of sexual abuse and violence against children had been launched to encourage the public to alert the social services and inform teachers, social workers, etc., of the administrative procedures that existed.

78.Mr. Thuesen (Denmark) said that the Ministry of Education sent out instructions on dealing with cases of sexual violence against children to school heads and teachers.

79.Mr. Thøgersen (Denmark) said that children’s legal guardians decided on their religious education, and it was not up to children to choose their religion. Nonetheless, if children decided not to follow the religion chosen by their parents or guardians, the latter had no legal means of forcing them to.

80.Ms. Olesen (Denmark) said that the high rate of infant mortality recorded in Greenland was largely explained by the vast size of the territory which, combined with the lack of roads, could make it very difficult to obtain medical assistance quickly. Various measures had been taken to remedy the situation, including enhanced training for local medical personnel. To prevent home births, which could be risky because it might take several hours to reach a hospital if complications arose, it had recently been decided that expectant mothers should go into hospital four weeks before the pregnancy was due to come to term. Women presenting risk factors for childbirth were to go to the central hospital, others to local hospitals. The measure had been badly received by families because women were cut off from their relatives when they gave birth. The period of four weeks had been insisted on by the sea and air transport companies, which refused to transport women about to give birth.

81.A number of campaigns to raise awareness of sexually transmitted diseases had been run, as had campaigns aimed at reducing the abortion rate. Alcoholism had long been a very serious problem, but alcohol consumption in Greenland was currently on a par with that in the rest of Denmark. Severe measures had been taken to achieve that outcome. Thus, only people aged over 18 could buy alcohol, taxes were very high, which made prices prohibitive, and alcohol could only be purchased between midday and 6 p.m. on weekdays and between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

82.The Chairperson asked for further details about the minimum age for working, since table 21 of the State party’s periodic report indicated that 15 per cent of children aged 13 and 14 had a job.

83.Ms. Muller (Denmark) said that the law had recently been amended where Greenland was concerned to align the age at which it was permissible to hold employment with the prescriptions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Minimum Age Convention (No. 138). The figures cited referred to children acting in films or plays or singing in choirs, for example. Participation in activities of that kind had to be authorized by the police. The statistics given in table 22 on occupational accidents showed accidents involving children aged 10 to 12, most of whom sustained them while carrying out agricultural work with their parents, even though that was prohibited.

84.Ms. Ortiz asked whether parents who adopted were entitled to leave and whether a single person adopting benefited from financial assistance. She also wished to obtain details on the adoption of foreign children aged over 6.

85.Ms. Barfoed-Høj (Denmark) said that adopting parents, like other parents, were entitled to 52 weeks’ leave, including four weeks before the child’s arrival. That leave could be split between the two parents, although the mother was obliged to take at least 18 weeks’ leave.

86.Ms. Sandbeck (Denmark) said that, under the Aliens Act, children over 6 adopted by a family were entitled to a residence permit.

Initial report of Denmark under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict

87.The Chairperson asked whether Denmark paid particular attention to child victims of armed conflicts, whether abroad or on its own territory, and wondered about the possibility of the Committee on the Rights of the Child collaborating with the Security Council Working Group, Denmark being currently a member of the Security Council.

88.Mr. Filali asked whether there were cadet schools in Denmark.

89.Mr. Vinthen (Denmark) said that as far as he knew there were no such schools. The issue of children and armed conflict was one of the priorities of the development aid programmes implemented by Denmark, and on that subject mention should be made of the European Union Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict, which would be evaluated at the end of the year. Denmark had played an active role in the adoption of the Security Council resolution on children and armed conflict and was pleased with the decision to set up a working group charged with examining the situation of children in armed conflicts.

90.Ms. Johansen (Denmark) said that Denmark welcomed child asylum seekers who had been victims of armed conflict and that the authorities took account of such children’s special situation and any traumas they might be suffering from when considering their applications.

91.The Chairperson expressed satisfaction with the frank and constructive dialogue the Committee had had with the Danish delegation and hoped that he could rapidly obtain further information on application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Faroe Islands. The State party should pay increased attention to coordination between the central and local authorities, giving more responsibilities to the latter.

The meeting rose at 5.55 p.m.