Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the combined third to fifth periodic reports of Mali *

1.The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 15 February 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 the measures taken to:

(a)Withdraw the reservation to article 16 of the Convention;

(b)Ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure;

(c)Harmonize national laws and regulations with the Convention;

(d)Ensure the implementation of the Child Protection Code;

(e)Adopt and implement a national policy for the promotion and protection of children;

(f)Mitigate the negative impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic;

(g)Mitigate the impact of climate change on children, particularly by implementing the Committee’s general comment No. 26 (2023) on children’s rights and the environment, with a special focus on climate change.

3.Please update the Committee on the impact of the measures taken to:

(a)Strengthen the National Human Rights Commission and make it more accessible to children, in particular by enabling it to investigate complaints lodged by or on behalf of children;

(b)Ensure an environment that enables civil society to act effectively to promote and protect children’s rights;

(c)Strengthen implementation of the Convention throughout the country, particularly through the reforms made to the National Directorate for the Promotion of the Child and the Family in 2009.

4.Please indicate the progress made with regard to:

(a)Measures taken to increase the budget allocated to the implementation of the Convention, including the amount to be funded by foreign aid, and in particular the resources earmarked for the protection of marginalized and disadvantaged children;

(b)Data collection and disaggregation in all areas covered by the Convention and at all levels of governance, including through the nationwide roll-out of the experimental child protection database;

(c)Efforts to improve children’s understanding of the provisions and principles of the Convention, and to enable children to express their views and participate meaningfully in decision-making in all contexts.

5.Please provide information on all measures taken to:

(a)Eliminate all forms of discrimination against children, including children born to unmarried parents, children born into slavery, children with disabilities, children living in poverty and street children;

(b)Ensure that the best interests of the child are explicitly integrated into, and interpreted and applied in, all decisions concerning children;

(c)Prohibit the sentencing of children to death under Act No. 08-025 of 23 July 2008 on the suppression of terrorism;

(d)Amend the Personal and Family Code (Act No. 2011-087 of 30 December 2011) to set the minimum age for marriage for girls and boys at 18;

(e)Guarantee non-discriminatory access to nationality for all children, including children born to a Malian mother and foreign father, and particularly for children born abroad, and report on the efforts of the National Directorate of Civil Status to systematize birth registration in the country and register children who have no birth certificate.

6.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Explicitly prohibit, by law, corporal punishment in all contexts, and promote positive, non-violent forms of discipline;

(b)Prohibit and prevent all forms of violence against children, including physical, sexual and psychological violence, abuse and neglect, in particular the mutilation and murder of children with albinism associated with witchcraft rituals;

(c)Set up a child helpline and ensure that victims receive psychological, social and legal support and have access to justice and remedies;

(d)Prohibit, by law, child marriage, polygamy, female genital mutilation and other harmful practices, and take action at the community level to prevent such practices.

7.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Support families living in poverty, in order to ensure that family members are able to care for children and to prevent involuntary separation;

(b)Develop a formal policy to provide quality alternative care for children without parental care;

(c)Regulate and monitor domestic and intercountry adoptions.

8.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Adopt an inclusive, human rights-based legal framework that addresses the specific needs of children with disabilities;

(b)Facilitate the inclusion of children with disabilities in society, in particular by guaranteeing their access to physical spaces, health services, inclusive education and rehabilitation;

(c)Combat the stigmatization of children with disabilities and promote a positive image of such children;

(d)Implement Act No. 2018-027 of 12 June 2018 on the rights of persons living with a disability.

9.Please provide information on the measures taken to:

(a)Ensure universal access to maternal and child health-care services and facilities, with a focus on rural and remote areas;

(b)Increase vaccination rates and combat malaria among children;

(c)Combat child malnutrition, which has been exacerbated by humanitarian crises;

(d)Strengthen health services for adolescents, including mental health counselling, drug rehabilitation and social reintegration programmes, and services providing sexual and reproductive health education and care;

(e)Implement and evaluate measures to address the high number of children living with HIV and/or affected by HIV or AIDS, such as the national policy on orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS, existing preventive strategies and support for children orphaned by HIV.

10.Please specify the measures taken to:

(a)Implement, monitor, finance and evaluate the second Decennial Education Programme (PRODEC 2), the Education Decentralization Programme and its community‑level equivalent (PRADDE-PC), and the School Meals Programme in order to encourage children to remain in school;

(b)Increase enrolment, retention and completion rates for girls and boys in primary and secondary education in urban, rural and remote areas, as well as for those displaced by conflict;

(c)Ensure continuity of access to education for children affected by the closure of schools for security reasons;

(d)Improve the quality and provision of education and vocational training, in particular by strengthening teacher training and recruitment and reducing class sizes;

(e)Regulate and monitor the curricula and teaching methods in Qur’anic schools;

(f)Provide human rights education;

(g)Guarantee the right to play and leisure.

11.Please provide information on:

(a)The evaluation of measures taken – especially those taken within the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategic Framework – to combat child poverty and the high number of children living and/or working or begging on the streets or in situations of child labour, particularly children forced to beg by Qur’anic teachers and who are at risk of physical violence, including the evaluation of the quality of support provided to families and the safeguards in place for children;

(b)The support, protection and rehabilitation services in place for child victims of sexual exploitation, including prostitution and trafficking, and how these children’s access to justice is ensured;

(c)The legal, policy and strategic framework and corresponding resources in place to prevent acts of sexual exploitation and trafficking, identify child victims and punish perpetrators;

(d)Measures taken to protect and support internally displaced children.

12.Please provide information on:

(a)The impact of legal reforms to ensure a child-centred approach in the administration of children’s justice, including customary justice, and, in particular, the results of implementing Act No. 2011-037 of 15 July 2011 on the organization of the judiciary and the Strategic Plan for Children’s Justice;

(b)The human, technical and financial resources in place to implement this legal framework, including systematic capacity-building activities for stakeholders in the justice system who are in contact with children;

(c)The establishment of juvenile courts and specialized services to address the situation of children in conflict with the law in all regions, including specialized centres for children;

(d)The legal protections afforded to child victims and/or witnesses of crimes;

(e)The treatment of children incarcerated with their parents.

13.Please provide information on the measures in place to protect children affected by armed conflict, including those designed to:

(a)Guarantee access to humanitarian aid;

(b)Protect children from recruitment and mobilization by the Malian security forces or non-State armed groups;

(c)Ensure that schools and hospitals are protected from attacks, and prohibit their use for military purposes;

(d)Identify child victims of armed conflict, including victims of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence and children born of rape, and support their rehabilitation and reintegration;

(e)Investigate documented cases of violations of children’s rights in armed conflicts in the State party;

(f)Revise the child protection bill to criminalize the recruitment and mobilization of children and other grave violations committed against children in the context of armed conflict;

(g)Prevent and combat sexual exploitation and abuse committed by State party personnel assigned to United Nations peacekeeping operations, and resolve outstanding paternity issues.

Part II

14.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 international human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statistics and other information, if available

15.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines for children and the social sectors, indicating the percentage that each budget line represents in terms of the total national budget and gross national product. Please also provide information on the geographic allocation of those resources.

16.Please provide updated statistical data for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin, national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, on:

(a)Children who are victims of harmful practices, including child marriage and female genital mutilation, and those who are forced to beg;

(b)Investigations into cases of child abuse, neglect and ill-treatment, whatever form they took or the context in which they took place, and the outcome of any court proceedings, including information on the sentences handed down to perpetrators and redress and compensation offered to the child victims;

(c)Infant and child mortality rates;

(d)Malnourished children, children infected with malaria and child immunization rates;

(e)Children born to mothers under the age of 18;

(f)Girls who have had abortions, including unsafe abortions;

(g)Children who use drugs or illicit substances;

(h)Children living in multidimensional poverty;

(i)Children without access to safe drinking water and sanitation;

(j)Children working in the formal and informal economies;

(k)Child victims of trafficking for the purposes of exploitation;

(l)Refugee and internally displaced children, including unaccompanied and separated children, as well as refugees and children who have been turned back and repatriated;

(m)Street children;

(n)Children mobilized by State and non-State groups in armed conflict;

(o)Children incarcerated with a parent.

17.Please provide data for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographic location, regarding the situation of children deprived of a family environment, on the number of children who are or have been:

(a)Separated from their parents;

(b)Orphaned;

(c)Placed in institutions;

(d)Adopted, domestically or through intercountry adoption.

18.Please provide data for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability (including albinism), ethnic origin and geographic location, on the number of children with disabilities who are:

(a)Living with their families;

(b)Living in an institution;

(c)Attending preschool;

(d)Attending a primary school;

(e)Attending a secondary school;

(f)Attending a special school;

(g)Out of school.

19.Please provide updated statistical data for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic origin, national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, on children in conflict with the law who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)Held in pretrial detention;

(d)Detained with adults;

(e)Convicted, and who are serving a custodial sentence in detention; please also include information on the length of the sentence in each case;

(f)Convicted under Act No. 08-025 of 23 July 2008 on the suppression of terrorism; please also specify whether any child has been sentenced to death under the Act.

20.Please provide information on how a child rights-based approach is integrated into the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of measures aimed at 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.

21.Please update any data in the report that has been superseded by more recent data or affected by new developments.

22.In addition, the State party may wish to list the areas related to children that it considers should be prioritized in the implementation of the Convention.