United Nations Child Rights Committee will consider fifth and sixth periodic reports of Sri Lanka on 15 and 16 of this month in Geneva.
The list of issues the committee has requested the government of Sri Lanka to respond in relation to its fifth and sixth periodic reports to the committee follows:
List of issues in relation to the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Sri Lanka.
The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 15 October 2017. 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
1. With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendations (CRC/C/LKA/CO/3-4, para. 57) and to paragraph 148 of the State party report (CRC/C/LKA/3-4), please provide information on the efforts undertaken to amend national legislation, in particular Muslim and Kandyan law, regarding the minimum age of marriage and the right to non-discrimination between girls and boys, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention. Please provide information on the application of the law on statutory rape to girls under 16 years of age who are married under Muslim law.
2. Please inform the Committee of the outcome of the National Plan of Action for Children 2010-2015, including with regard to addressing geographical disparities and providing for the needs of children in conflict-affected areas. Please provide detailed information on the new National Plan of Action for Children 2016-2020, the action plan on early childhood and the status of the draft national child protection policy for 2013, including their budgets and monitoring mechanisms.
3. Please provide information on the National Monitoring Committee on Child Rights, created under the national Charter on the Rights of the Child, in particular its mandate, structure, functions and activities.
4. Please provide information on social and environmental policies and regulations applicable to businesses and industries, in particular those relating to tea plantations and the textile, construction and tourism industries, in order to ensure the safety, well-being and development of children.
5. Please provide information on efforts to ensure the participation of children in the reconciliation process.
6. With reference to the draft national plan of action to address sexual and gender-based violence in Sri Lanka and the National Policy on Disability, please provide information on the specific and targeted actions planned to combat discrimination against girls and against children with disabilities. Please provide information on the adoption status of the Plan and the resources allocated for its implementation.
7. Please provide detailed information on the State party’s reasons for not prohibiting by law the corporal punishment of children in all settings and information on the status of the recommendation to prohibit corporal punishment in schools contained in the draft National Child Protection Policy (2013).
8. With reference to paragraphs 84 and 85 of the State party report, please provide information on the impact of social protection services on reducing child poverty, in particular in rural areas and on plantations, in accordance with the evaluation carried out by the Ministry of Social Services.
9. With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendation (CRC/C/LKA/CO/3-4, para. 47), please provide information on the measures taken to deinstitutionalize children and to decrease the number of children committed to institutions by court orders and due to economic difficulties. Please provide detailed information on existing mechanisms to regularly assess the situation of institutionalized children, including how individual care plans address a child’s well-being and aim at his or her deinstitutionalization.
10. Please provide information on the measures taken to increase the availability of confidential and youth-friendly services and the availability of contraceptives, as well as on measures to promote sexual and reproductive health education in schools, in order to prevent early pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Please inform the Committee of the steps taken to review legislation on abortion in order to guarantee respect for the best interests of pregnant teenagers. Please also provide information on efforts to address suicide among children.
11. With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendation (CRC/C/LKA/CO/3-4, para. 68), please provide detailed information on the measures taken to assess and evaluate the living conditions of children in street situations, to develop and implement actions to address the root causes of and prevent this phenomenon and to provide affected children with protection and support.
12. Please provide information on the measures taken, and the impact thereof, to decrease pretrial detention periods and to provide legal assistance to children during judicial procedures. Please provide specific examples of cases involving children where judges have taken into consideration the best interests of the child in their sentencing.
13. In the light of the information contained in paragraphs 214-226 of the State party report, please provide updated information on the measures taken to implement the Committee’s recommendations on the implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/LKA/CO/1), in particular regarding the killing of children (para. 13), missing children (para. 15), dissemination and training (paras. 9 and 11), landmines (para. 21), the effective investigation and prosecution of perpetrators who engage or recruit children for use in armed conflict (para. 23) and small arms (para. 45).
Part II
14. The Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update (no more than three pages) on the information presented in its report with regard to:
(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, if available
15. Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and social sectors, in particular education, health and child protection, by 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 geographic allocation of those resources. Please further provide information on the resources allocated over the past three years to:
(a) Building capacity and training staff on child welfare;
(b) Improving the supervision and infrastructure of children’s homes;
(c) Developing the vocational skills of adolescents;
(d) Implementing scholarship programmes for indigent children and children with disabilities;
(e) Establishing village-level committees on the prevention of child abuse.
16. Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, disability, ethnic and national origin and geographic location regarding the situation of children deprived of a family environment, for the past three years, on the number of children:
(a) Living in institutions;
(b) Living in alternative care settings;
(c) Adopted domestically or through intercountry adoption.
17. Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic and national origin and geographic location, for the past three years, 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 provide, if available, updated statistical data disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic and national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, for the past three years, on children in conflict with the law who have been:
(a) Arrested;
(b) In pretrial detention;
(c) In detention;
(d) In diversion programmes.
19. Please provide detailed and disaggregated information, for the past three years, on the number of individual communications on children’s cases received by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and their outcomes. Please specify which cases were reported to the Commission in writing, by phone and as a result of visits to children’s homes and detention facilities.
20. Please provide updated and detailed information, for the past three years, on the calls received by the 1929 child helpline operated by the National Child Protection Authority, disaggregated by type of complaint, whether an investigation was launched, the authority to which a referral was made, the sanctions issued and the protection afforded to child victims.
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.
Sri Lanka government responses are here:A_HRC_WG.6_28_L.14_Sri Lanka