Committee on the Rights of the Child

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

1.The State Party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, of 10,700 words maximum, by 15 October 2026. 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 inform the Committee about the following:

(a)Steps envisaged to adopt comprehensive legislation and a comprehensive policy and strategy on children’s rights that are in conformity with the Convention;

(b)Steps envisaged to set up a robust data-collection system on children’s rights;

(c)Measures taken to adopt a child rights-based approach to the budgeting process, including a tracking system of budget lines and allocations to children across the budget;

(d)How the Child Rights Bureau coordinates and monitors the implementation of the Convention with other ministries and steps envisaged to increase its authority;

(e)Steps taken to ensure that the Children’s Ombudsman Institute is fully operational and has the capacity to facilitate children’s access to justice and to effective remedies;

(f)The impact on children’s rights of the reduction of international cooperation and aid.

3.Please inform the Committee about:

(a)The measures taken to eradicate all forms of discrimination against children, primarily Indigenous and Maroon children, children with disabilities, migrant children and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children;

(b)The extent to which the 2025 Early Childhood Development Policy includes measures for ensuring children’s basic needs, particularly those in vulnerable situations;

(c)The reasons for replacing the National Youth Parliament with the Youth Council and the measures taken to ensure the effective functioning of the latter.

4.Please provide updated information on:

(a)The measures taken to ensure universal birth registration and prevent statelessness among children, notably children living in remote areas and migrant children;

(b)The impact on statelessness among children of the Act of 12 September 2014 amending the State Ordinance of 24 November 1975 for the Regulation of the Surinamese Nationality and Residence in Suriname, which was not made retroactive.

5.With reference to the recommendations contained in the Committee’s concluding observations on the combined third and fourth periodic reports of the State Party, please indicate what obstacles prevent the establishment of a national database on abuse, neglect and sexual exploitation and abuse and other forms of violence against children.

6.Please update the Committee on the progress made and challenges remaining towards:

(a)Strengthening the effectiveness of the child protection system;

(b)Protecting children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, including by strengthening existing helplines and the reporting of cases;

(c)Prohibiting by law corporal punishment in all settings explicitly and without exception, including at home and in day-care and after-school care facilities, schools, alternative care settings, residential care and penal institutions;

(d)Ensuring the effective implementation of the 2025 Civil Code regarding the prohibition of child marriage;

(e)Ensuring physical and psychosocial support for and the reintegration of children who are victims of violence.

7.Please provide updated information about:

(a)The status of the legislation on foster care and any other measures envisaged to strengthen the foster-care system;

(b)Progress made to monitor the placement of children and to provide them with adequate conditions, including reasonable accommodation for children with disabilities;

(c)Concrete measures taken to address the illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad;

(d)Specific measures taken to ensure the protection of children of incarcerated parents.

8.Please provide updated information about the progress made and challenges remaining towards extending universal vaccination coverage, preventing maternal and infant mortality, raising awareness about sexual and reproductive health among adolescents, addressing children’s mental health and suicidal behaviour, preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS and promoting breastfeeding practices.

9.Please provide detailed information about:

(a)The quality and coverage of the General Child Allowance and of the school feeding programme;

(b)The measures envisaged to ensure a child rights-based approach to policies on environmental protection and climate change;

(c)Concrete steps taken to ensure the entry into force of the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean.

10.Please provide updated information on the initial achievements and remaining challenges with regard to the reform of the education system, the effective implementation of the National Education Policy 2024–2031 and the work of the Task Force on “Education in the Interior” in improving access to and the quality of education for all children, including children with disabilities and Indigenous and Maroon children.

11.Please provide updated information about:

(a)The status of the national migration policy plan and the concrete measures taken to protect asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children, particularly those who are unaccompanied;

(b)The concrete measures taken to complete the demarcation and titling of land that Indigenous Peoples have traditionally used, occupied and owned;

(c)The magnitude of the issue of children in street situations, the root causes driving children onto the streets and measures envisaged to ensure their protection and reintegration;

(d)The measures taken specifically to protect children from trafficking and the extent to which these measures are coordinated with neighbouring countries;

(e)Progress made under the Act on Labour of Children and Youth of 2018 and the National Action Plan to Combat Child Labour (2019–2024), including specific information on child labour in the mining, agriculture and fishery sectors.

12.With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendations, please provide information about the concrete measures taken for their effective implementation, and about:

(a)Steps envisaged to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility;

(b)Whether the availability of alternative measures to detention is sufficient and, if applicable, what measures are envisaged to increase them;

(c)The improvement of the conditions of detention of children, including measures taken to establish separate facilities for children, in particular girls;

(d)The conditions of detention of children in Opa Doeli and Nickerie pretrial detention facilities and measures taken to improve these conditions.

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 provide updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, geographical location, socioeconomic status and migrant status, including Indigenous origin and African descent, on the numbers of the following:

(a)Child victims of excessive use of force by law enforcement agencies;

(b)Child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, including sexual exploitation of children in prostitution, and the investigations carried out, prosecutions brought and sentences handed down in such cases;

(c)Reported cases of corporal punishment and domestic violence against children;

(d)Shelters for child victims of violence;

(e)Cases of child marriage;

(f)Cases of teenage pregnancy, including the rate;

(g)Adolescents with sexually transmitted infections and living with HIV;

(h)Children with suicidal behaviour receiving support;

(i)Children living in street situation;

(j)Children working in the mining, agricultural and fisheries sectors;

(k)Child victims of trafficking.

16.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic status, ethnic origin and geographical location, on the situation of children deprived of a family environment, in particular on the numbers of the following:

(a)Reported cases of violence against children in alternative care settings, day care and schools;

(b)Children placed in care institutions;

(c)Children placed in foster care;

(d)Children of incarcerated parents.

17.Please 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 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.

18.Please provide updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic and national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, on children alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed criminal law who are or who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)In Opa Doeli and Nickerie pretrial detention facilities;

(d)Serving a sentence in detention, and 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 how those measures promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto.

20.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.

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.