Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the sixth periodic report of Slovakia *

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 provide an update on the measures taken or envisaged:

(a)To establish a tracking system for the allocation, use and monitoring of resources for children and to ensure transparent and participatory budgeting processes in which children can participate and the accountability of local authorities with regard to budgeting;

(b)To strengthen the collection and analysis of disaggregated data to facilitate the analysis of the situation of all children, particularly those in situations of vulnerability;

(c)To ensure pathways for children for access to justice and remedies, including administrative complaint mechanisms and child-friendly judicial procedures;

(d)To involve civil society, including non-governmental organizations and children’s organizations, in the development, implementation and monitoring of policies and programmes relating to children’s rights;

(e)To ensure the legal accountability of the business sector in relation to international and national human rights, health, environmental and other standards.

3.Please provide information on the measures taken:

(a)To eliminate, in law and practice, discrimination against and the social exclusion of Roma children, children living in poverty, children with disabilities and children in care;

(b)To prevent intolerance and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children;

(c)To address norms, harmful beliefs and attitudes that discourage children’s active participation in society, the family, school and social and judicial settings.

4.Please inform the Committee about any mechanisms in place to determine the statelessness of children and to facilitate the acquisition of nationality for children who would otherwise be stateless. Please update the Committee on the measures taken to prohibit the use of baby boxes and to ensure that all children, including abandoned children, adopted children and, in instances where it has taken place, children born through surrogacy, have access to information about their origins.

5.Please provide information on:

(a)The resources allocated for the National Concept of Child Protection in the Digital Space 2020–2025;

(b)Any regulations or safeguarding policies in place to protect the rights and privacy of children in the digital environment.

6.Please provide information on the measures taken:

(a)To promote positive and non-violent forms of child-rearing and discipline and to enforce the prohibition against corporal punishment, particularly in the home, in view of the provision in the Family Act allowing for parents to exercise “appropriate educational means”;

(b)To support and prevent the revictimization of children who are victims of violence, including the sexual exploitation and abuse of children, in all settings, including the digital environment;

(c)To prohibit all marriage under the age of 18 years, without exception, and to prevent child marriage, particularly among Roma girls.

7.Please update the Committee on the measures taken:

(a)To prevent family separation and prioritize family-based and community‑based care options for children who cannot stay with their families;

(b)To provide support to enable children leaving care to move towards independent living.

8.Please provide information on the measures taken to adopt a human rights-based approach to disability and to ensure that children with disabilities can grow up in their family environment, receive support for their social integration and individual development and are protected from discrimination.

9.Please describe the measures taken:

(a)To reduce infant and under-5 mortality rates;

(b)To ensure access to age-appropriate reproductive health services and education, including free and safe abortion and post-abortion services and free access to contraceptives, including in Roma communities;

(c)To ensure comprehensive education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, including by providing, as part of the mandatory school curricula and in teacher training, information on family planning and education on gender equality, sexual diversity and sexual and reproductive health and rights;

(d)To address substance abuse and the use of tobacco products by adolescents and to reduce the risks associated with the use of e-cigarettes by children;

(e)To address the mental health needs of children, including through community‑based and therapeutic mental health services.

10.Please provide information on:

(a)The status of the climate bill submitted by the Ministry of the Environment in 2023;

(b)The measures taken to ensure that national policies and programmes addressing environmental protection and climate change take into account children’s needs and views and to promote children’s awareness of and preparedness for climate change.

11.Please update the Committee on the measures taken:

(a)To effectively monitor and eradicate racial and ethnic segregation in education, such as through a targeted policy or programme, and provide educators with guidance on how to include Roma children in mainstream education;

(b)To address teacher shortages and inequalities in educational outcomes, including among socioeconomically disadvantaged children, Roma children and children with disabilities;

(c)To ensure the access of asylum-seeking and refugee children, including those with disabilities, children from Ukraine and children who are beneficiaries of temporary protection, to compulsory education in national schools;

(d)To ensure the right of children with disabilities to inclusive education in mainstream schools, with reasonable accommodation and individual support;

(e)To improve children’s access to early childhood education, particularly for socioeconomically disadvantaged and Roma children;

(f)To ensure the right of children to leisure, play, recreational activities, cultural life and the arts, including for children in rural areas and children with disabilities.

12.Please provide information on the measures taken:

(a)To prevent the detention of children on the basis of their or their parents’ immigration status and significantly strengthen the provision of alternatives to detention, as provided for under law;

(b)To implement a child-sensitive and multidisciplinary age assessment procedure for unaccompanied children, rather than a medical examination, that respects the legal principle of the benefit of the doubt;

(c)To provide for family reunification for children who have been granted asylum on humanitarian grounds.

13.Please provide information on the measures taken to implement the Committee’s previous recommendations to re-establish specialized juvenile court procedures and designate specialized judges for cases involving children.

14.Please provide information on the measures taken to implement the Committee’s previous recommendations on the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, including with regard to bringing its penal code into line with articles 2 and 3 of the Optional Protocol. Please also provide information on the measures taken to identify and support child victims of trafficking in persons, particularly among Roma communities.

15.Regarding the Committee’s previous recommendations on the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, please inform the Committee on the measures taken:

(a)To explicitly criminalize the recruitment of children in hostilities by non-State armed groups;

(b)To establish a mechanism for the early identification of children who may have been recruited or used in armed conflicts abroad upon their entering the State party.

Part II

16.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

17.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.

18.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)Child marriage;

(b)Cases of violence against children, including abuse, neglect, domestic violence and sexual exploitation and abuse, that have been reported to the authorities, investigated and prosecuted and the sanctions imposed on the perpetrators;

(c)Children deprived of a family environment, including information on the number of children staying in alternative care settings;

(d)Children with disabilities, further disaggregated by type of disability, who are attending mainstream schools or are out of school and who have reported having experienced violence;

(e)Adolescent pregnancies;

(f)Substance abuse among children;

(g)Children from families receiving the living wage benefit who use the services of leisure centres;

(h)Unaccompanied children in detention;

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

19.Please provide updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic origin, national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on children who have been in contact with the criminal justice system, including those who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)In pretrial detention;

(c)Convicted and serving a sentence in detention, including information on the length of the sentence;

(d)Referred to diversion programmes.

20.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.

21.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.

22.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.