BOLIVIA PRESENTS REPORT TO COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD

MORNING
HR/CRC/98/46
25 September 1998





The Committee on the Rights of the Child this morning started its consideration of the second periodic report of Bolivia on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Bolivia is the first country to present a second periodic report since the Committee was established in 1991. The 10-member Committee has so far considered 89 initial reports submitted to it by States parties to the Convention.

Edgar Montana Pardo, Vice Minister for Human Rights of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Bolivia, introduced the report, saying that major progress had been achieved in the field of human rights last year when his post was established for the first time. The Vice Minister coordinated activities of the various departments dealing with children.

As they considered the report, Committee experts asked questions on issues such as corporal punishment; methods of preparing the report; the dissemination of the Convention; domestic violence; the municipal defence system of children and adolescence; and data collection.

Several experts said that Bolivia had not made much effort to implement minimum age requirements for work and marriage.

The Bolivian delegation also included Silvia Avila Seifert, Permanent Representative of Bolivia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, and Javier Loayza Barea, Minister at the Permanent Mission of Bolivia to UNOG. As one of the 191 States parties to the Convention, Bolivia is required to submit periodic reports to the Committee on how it implements the provisions of the treaty.

The Committee will reconvene at 3 p.m. to conclude its consideration of the Bolivian report.

Report of Bolivia

The second periodic report of Bolivia (document CRC/C/65/Add.1) reviews efforts to apply the provisions of the Convention on an article-by-article basis. It says that the country has made progress in defining more precise policies with the emphasis on integration. It also has succeeded in significantly reducing indicators of poverty. However, the country is still having serious difficulty in reducing the hard indicators of poverty. Those which relate to structural phenomenon such as employment, income and the distribution of wealth still remain unsolved. Efforts to narrow regional, social and ethnic differences are also encountering problems.

The report says that the country has made substantial qualitative progress in giving effect to the rights of children and adolescents. However, not everything necessary and sufficient has been done to ensure that the entire child and adolescent population achieves integral development under conditions of equality, fairness, respect, freedom and integrity.

Introduction of Bolivian Report

EDGAR MONTANA PARDO, Vice Minister for Human Rights of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Bolivia, said that in 1997, his country had achieved economic progress and had introduced policies to reform the educational system of the nation. Economic growth was 4.2 per cent while inflation was limited to 6.7 per cent. Bolivia’s foreign debt amounted to $ 207 million this year, and he noted that the interest payment alone absorbed 20 per cent of the country's national income.

A major achievement in the field of human rights last year was the establishment of a Vice Minister's post under the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, a position that had never existed before. The Vice Minister coordinated activities of the various departments dealing with children.

With regard to educational reform, the Government had introduced a system with popular participation through municipalities and parents' associations, Mr. Pardo went on to state.

Furthermore, the Government of Bolivia had introduced a series of legislative acts with regard to children, Mr. Pardo said. New criminal procedures would also be introduced soon. In addition, a law was passed to improve the status of young people in which the 17 to 21 age group could be exempted from penalties for minor offenses.

Discussion

Committee experts asked questions on such issues as corporal punishment; methods of preparing the report; the dissemination of the Convention; domestic violence; the municipal defence system of children and adolescence; and data collection.

In response to questions raised by Committee members, the delegation said that the Convention, regrettably, was not as widely disseminated as the Government desired it to be. It was only circulated among officials. Although the Convention was translated into Spanish, which was the national language of Bolivia, it could not be translated into the three regional languages due to the absence of a written alphabet.

The delegation said that Bolivia had not made any reservations on the provisions of the Convention. Instead, the Government had made legislative and policy changes to conform domestic laws with the treaty.

With regard to the municipal defence system for children, the local Ombudsman, the delegation stated that following the introduction of a decentralized democratic system, members of the town councils in each municipality became responsible for the defence of the rights of children. The town councils had to deal with education, health and other activities related to children and the rest of the population. In addition, these town councils had direct and closer relations with parents, teachers and local authorities.

Bolivia had not developed a data collecting system for all sectors of societal activities, the delegation said, adding that statistics were only collected in some areas where the population was economically active, while rural areas were neglected.

Changing the attitudes of the police and of those who dealt with children was not an easy process, the delegation said. Nevertheless, the Government had emphasized the need to improve the attitudes of all public authorities and those involved in the promotion and protection of children's rights. Seminars and other forms of teaching had been launched to improve the situation.

Moreover, some parents still considered their children as their objects, the delegation said. It was particularly difficult to change the attitudes of parents in rural areas. In that connection, the Government had undertaken a series of measures to raise awareness among the population to alter such concepts so that children were seen as subjects and not as objects.

The delegation said that children cooperated in economic production from a very early age in order to help support their families. Traditionally, there was a need for children to work in order to raise the family income.

An expert expressed concern that following decentralization, each municipality might consider the rights of the child differently and that the principle might not be equally applied. The expert said that the implementation of the provisions of the Convention could not be uniformly understood by the municipalities. The expert asked if the Government possessed a mechanism to monitor the equal application of the rights.

Another expert said that breast-feeding was another form of reducing infant mortality and ensuring healthy growth for children. The expert asked if the Government was encouraging breast-feeding and if measures were undertaken to increase awareness among mothers.

The delegation was asked if the Government was aware of the need to protect children from media violence, including from the Internet.

Several experts expressed concern that Bolivia had not complied to the recommendations of the Committee provided while considering Bolivia's initial report in January 1993. They said that minimum age for work and marriage had not been fixed and that the principle of non-discrimination was not observed with respect to certain categories of children. The adoption of a Code of Minors was highly recommended by the Committee.

The delegation assured the Committee that the Code of Minors would be enacted very soon.