Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Eritrea *

1.The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, of 10,700 words maximum, by 15 June 2024. 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 explain the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To evaluate the implementation of the 2016 Comprehensive National Policy for Children to date and to draft a new national child policy;

(b)To strengthen children’s rights analysis and increase budgetary allocations for health, education and child protection, with particular attention paid to children in marginalized or disadvantaged situations.

3.Please provide information on the following:

(a)The measures taken to improve data collection with a view to establishing a child protection information management system that ensures the systematic collection and analysis of quality and complete data – disaggregated by age, sex, geographical location and ethnic and socioeconomic background – on the implementation of children’s rights and to make it available and accessible to the public;

(b)The discussions, studies or consultations concerning the establishment of a national human rights institution for the independent monitoring of the Convention that is able to effectively receive, investigate and address complaints by all children in a child‑sensitive manner.

4.Please explain:

(a)How discrimination on the basis of “other improper factors” in the Constitution has been interpreted in policies and case law and whether it includes national origin or birth;

(b)The measures taken to eliminate stereotypes and practices that discriminate against girls and children from minority groups and discrimination against children with regard to access to services, in particular children with disabilities and children in remote and nomadic communities;

(c)The measures taken to systematically consult children and allow them to express their views freely on all matters affecting them.

5.Please inform the Committee about:

(a)The measures taken to ensure that children receive birth certificates at the time of birth registration;

(b)Any regulations or safeguarding policies in place to protect the rights, privacy and safety of children in the digital environment and any programmes to enhance the digital literacy and skills of children, parents and teachers.

6.Please explain the measures taken:

(a)To explicitly prohibit the corporal punishment of children in all settings and to repeal provisions allowing its use, such as article 32 of the Penal Code;

(b)To adopt comprehensive legislation to prohibit all forms of violence against children, including domestic violence, rape, sexual violence, sexual harassment and online sexual exploitation and abuse.

7.Please update the Committee on any steps taken:

(a)To address and prevent all forms of violence against children, to strengthen child protection infrastructure at the local level and to respond to all forms of violence against children, including abuse, neglect, domestic violence and sexual and gender-based violence;

(b)To strengthen detection, reporting, investigation, protection and judicial intervention in respect of cases of violence against children;

(c)To further strengthen the enforcement of measures to combat female genital mutilation and child marriage.

8.Please also update the Committee on the measures taken:

(a)To reduce the rates of neonatal mortality, respiratory infections, septicaemia, malnutrition and diarrhoea in children under the age of 5 years;

(b)To provide access to sexual and reproductive health services, including access to abortion services and counselling, for adolescents;

(c)To address tobacco, alcohol and drug use by children, including through rehabilitation services and awareness-raising activities;

(d)To improve mental health services and increase the number of well-trained and qualified mental health professionals working with children.

9.Please explain the measures taken:

(a)To further improve the standard of living, access to drinking water and sanitation;

(b)To address the adverse effects of environmental degradation and climate change, such as floods and droughts, on the enjoyment of children’s rights and to explain how climate change mitigation and adaptation measures relating to droughts and floods incorporate children’s rights.

10.Please provide an update on the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To further expand and strengthen access to inclusive education for children with disabilities, girls and children in rural, remote and nomadic communities and to improve education infrastructure and training of teachers;

(b)To address the low rate of enrolment in primary and secondary schools and the issues of repetition and dropout;

(c)To increase the number of early childhood education facilities and trained educators.

11.Please also provide information on measures taken:

(a)To prohibit the detention of asylum-seeking and migrant children;

(b)To eliminate child labour, in particular in agriculture;

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

(d)To protect children, in particular children in street situations, from the risks of trafficking, child prostitution and child pornography.

12.Please further provide information on the measures taken or envisaged to develop a child-friendly child justice system, to increase the use of non-custodial alternatives to the detention of children, to ensure that children are not detained with adults and to investigate all allegations of violence against children in detention facilities.

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 further 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 in alternative care;

(d)Children living in poverty;

(e)Adolescent pregnancies;

(f)Substance abuse among children;

(g)Asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children and unaccompanied children, indicating whether they are in detention;

(h)Children in street situations;

(i)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 also 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:

(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 further provide 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 in conflict with the law who:

(a)Have been arrested;

(b)Have been referred to diversion programmes;

(c)Have been placed in pretrial detention;

(d)Are 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 also 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.