Committee on the Rights of the Child

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

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 information on:

(a)The process of harmonizing national legislation with international standards on the human rights of children and adolescents and the actions undertaken to amend and update the Code on Children and Adolescents and the Criminal Code;

(b)The status of the Framework Act on the Social Protection System and the Social Protection Policy and the Act on Comprehensive Education for the Prevention of Pregnancy in Girls and Adolescents;

(c)The national, sectoral and local policies for children and adolescents, as well as the mechanisms to ensure intersectoral coordination.

3.Please provide information on:

(a)The actions taken to strengthen the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and the Family and the Comprehensive System for the Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents in Honduras, particularly in terms of regulations, technical capacity, geographical coverage, budget allocation and inter-institutional, intersectoral and multilevel coordination;

(b)Measures taken to strengthen the institutional and human resources of the courts and Public Prosecution Service;

(c)The status of the establishment of an independent mechanism to monitor the rights of children and adolescents;

(d)Steps taken to strengthen the capacity of the Office of the National Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate violations of children’s rights, and the current status of the Municipal Children’s Advocates;

(e)The measures taken for the continuous measurement of expenditure and investment, the progressive increase in the budget for children and adolescents and the matter of whether an accountability and monitoring system has been set up to assess the impact and progress of policies and programmes for children and adolescents;

(f)The measures taken to ensure the sustainability of the information system, administrative records and national surveys on children, including the availability and publication of disaggregated data on children and adolescents;

(g)The feedback and coordination mechanisms that have been established to maintain an open dialogue between the Government and civil society, and the measures to ensure that the efforts of civil society are progressively taken over by the State.

4.Please provide updated information on the implementation of the Public Policy against Racism and Racial Discrimination for the Comprehensive Development of Indigenous and Afro-Honduran Peoples 2016–2026 and on the measures taken to protect girls from gender discrimination in domestic work and to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, Indigenous, Afro-Honduran and migrant children and children forcibly recruited by gangs and criminal groups from discrimination and violence.

5.Please provide information on the measures taken to ensure the professionalization and basic and in-service training of personnel working with children and adolescents and to ensure that the administrative, legislative and judicial authorities apply the principle of the best interests of the child.

6.Please specify what strategies and measures the State party has taken to: (a) increase vaccination coverage; (b) eradicate child malnutrition; (c) identify children and adolescents with acute malnutrition, particularly Indigenous children and adolescents; (d) promote breastfeeding; (e) prevent homicide, suicide and femicide among children and adolescents; and (f) guarantee access to health services.

7.Please describe the efforts made to establish spaces and mechanisms for children’s participation and the measures taken to ensure that their opinions are taken into account in decision-making, especially with regard to the climate crisis.

8.Please inform the Committee about the measures taken to ensure that: (a) children and adolescents who are forced to participate in organized crime are not accused of terrorist association; (b) the rights of children and adolescents are not violated during curfews; and (c) extrajudicial killings and executions of children and adolescents are investigated and those responsible are brought to justice.

9.Please provide information on the measures taken to eradicate all forms of violence against children and adolescents, in particular domestic violence, violent deaths of girls and teenage girls, femicides, child abuse and corporal punishment. Please update the Committee on the implementation of the National Response Plan for the Prevention of Violence against Children and Adolescents 2021–2026, on the strengthening of investigations into cases of violence against children and adolescents, in particular sexual violence, and on the measures taken to prevent child marriage in practice.

10.Please indicate what strategies have been adopted to prevent the separation of children from their families and to regulate alternative care.

11.Please provide information on the policies and measures adopted to protect and ensure the realization of the rights of children and adolescents with disabilities, including through early identification, a fair and inclusive national education system for children with disabilities and teacher training.

12.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Prevent and address unwanted pregnancy among girls and teenage girls, particularly survivors of sexual violence;

(b)Decriminalize abortion and provide abortion care services without discrimination;

(c)Ensure that all children and adolescents have access to comprehensive sexual education and modern contraceptive methods;

(d)Provide mental health services to children and adolescents in cases of violence, depression and sexual abuse.

13.Please provide the Committee with updated information on measures taken to ensure universal, free access to good quality education, in particular measures to: (a) increase the enrolment rate in primary education; (b) ensure that all Indigenous and Afro-Honduran children and adolescents, as well as pregnant girls, attend school; and (c) promote digital access.

14.Please provide information on the status of the revision of the Migration and Aliens Act to guarantee the rights of asylum-seeking children and adolescents (refugee status determination procedure) and on the measures taken to prohibit the detention of migrant and asylum-seeking children.

15.Please provide information on: (a) the measures taken to ensure that juvenile justice and all matters relating to children and adolescents in conflict with the law fall within the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts, and that child and adolescent offenders are rehabilitated and reintegrated into their families and society; (b) the independence of the National Institute for Juvenile Offenders from the National Police and the armed forces; (c) the status of the investigation into arbitrary detentions, ill-treatment and torture of children and adolescents in conflict with the law; and (d) the transfer of children and adolescents from maximum security prisons, such as Nuevo Jalteva, to educational centres.

16.Please provide information on the measures taken to implement the recommendations contained in the Committee’s concluding observations on the report submitted by Honduras under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and on the strategies and measures in place to prevent and address trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation and smuggling of children and adolescents and to punish perpetrators.

17.Please provide information on:

(a)Measures taken to implement the recommendations contained in the Committee’s concluding observations on the report submitted by Honduras under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict;

(b)Measures taken to prevent and protect children from forced recruitment and gender-based violence committed by criminal actors (and from resulting displacement) and the use of children and adolescents by armed groups, including gangs;

(c)Strategies to demobilize criminal actors, and the legislative and coercive measures to ensure that children and adolescents recruited by criminal groups are treated as victims;

(d)Plans to amend national legislation to prohibit and criminalize the recruitment of children and adolescents for military service under all circumstances.

Part II

18.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

19.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.

20.Please provide up-to-date information on:

(a)The number of municipal child protection offices that have been established and are operating;

(b)The number of municipal and departmental councils that have been established and are operating under the Comprehensive System for the Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents in Honduras;

(c)The number and geographical distribution of courts, prosecutors and public defenders specialized in children’s issues;

(d)The status of the specialized integrated support units.

21.If available, please provide statistical data for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on the following:

(a)Children and adolescents exposed to risks requiring protection and who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing violence;

(b)Refugee children and adolescents (especially in transit) and those internally displaced;

(c)Children and adolescents forcibly recruited by criminals, including gangs.

22.Please provide data for the last three years, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographic location, on the number of children and adolescents:

(a)Arbitrarily detained, ill-treated or tortured;

(b)Transferred from maximum security prisons, such as Nuevo Jalteva, to educational centres.

23.Please provide data for the last 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.

24.If available, please provide data for the last three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic or national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on the number of children and adolescents in conflict with the law who are or who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)Admitted to referral programmes;

(c)Held in pretrial detention;

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

25.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.

26.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have been superseded by more recent data collected or other new developments.

27.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.