COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD CONCLUDES DISCUSSION WITH DELEGATION FROM THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

CRC
27th session
28 May 2001
Afternoon





Expert Offers Preliminary Remarks Saying Government Should
Improve Health and Education Sectors


The Committee on the Rights of the Child this afternoon concluded its discussion with a delegation from the Democratic Republic of the Congo concerning that country’s initial report on how it was implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Speaking in preliminary remarks, a Committee Expert said that the country should increase efforts in the fields of education and health. The Expert said the rebels should stop recruiting children to be used as soldiers; and the Government was also urged to implement the programme and plan of action of the Stockholm conference on sexual exploitation of children.

Formal, written concluding observations and recommendations on the report of the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be issued by the Committee towards the end of its three-week session which concludes on 8 June.

A 7-member Congolese delegation led by the Minster of Social Affairs of the country was on hand throughout the day to answer questions raised by members of the Committee. As one of the 191 States parties to the Convention, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is obligated to present periodic reports on how it is implementing the provisions of the treaty.

Earlier in the afternoon, the delegation responded to a question concerning street children by saying that police detained juvenile delinquents for acts they committed and not for the fact that they lived in the streets. Street children were not beaten up as alluded to by some Experts. They were victims of social problems.

When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 29 May, it will take up the second periodic report of Guatemala.


Discussion

In response to a series of questions raised during the morning meeting by the Committee's Experts, the members of the delegation said that with regard to the process of demobilization, the Government, with the collaboration of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), was carrying out a programme to train persons to investigate cases of child-soldiers. In addition, an inter-ministerial coordinating organ had been created to monitor the integration of displaced children following armed conflicts.

On the question of Tutsis isolated in a camp in the capital, the delegation said it was a measure taken to protect them from any retaliation at the beginning of the attack by the Rwandan forces against the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Those who had been living in camps in Kinshasa had gone back from where they came and at present there were no protected Tutsis in the camp.

Asked if the Government was ready to ratify the two Optional Protocols to the Convention, the delegation said that once the legislative provisions regarding the contents of the protocols were amended, the Government would be able to ratify them. It hoped that would be in the near future. On the question of dissemination of the provisions of the Convention, the delegation said that although there were weaknesses in publicizing the Convention in the remote areas of the country, the implementation of the provisions had been enhanced.

Until the age of 18 years, children were considered as children and they were protected as such, the delegation said.

Pornography was prohibited under the Congolese legislation contrary to what was said by one of the Experts, the delegation said. In addition, legislation had been strengthened against the crime of incest.

Police detained juvenile delinquents for acts they committed and not for the fact that the lived in the streets, the delegation said. Street children were not beaten up as alluded to by some Experts. They were victims of social problems.

The fate of children sentenced to capital punishment was not known pending the response of the President of the Republic, the delegation said. Those children who were sentenced to capital punishment were detained in prisons intended for juveniles on the outskirts of the capital Kinshasa. Child law offenders were not imprisoned together with adults; and no brutality was exercised against them. Those children detained for offences were brought before juvenile courts and they were not kept under arrest not for more than two months.

Children in the Katanga areas where mining was taking place were drawn to mining-related trades and activities because of their families’ poverty, the delegation said. Many of them did not complete school or had never attended school in their lives. The Government was making efforts to take the children away from the mining industry and to put them back in school. UNICEF had been instrumental in assisting the Government in its efforts.

The delegation said that a series of programmes had been carried out by the Government to reintegrate child-soldiers who had already been demobilized. Many of the child-soldiers were without families and it was not safe for them to go anywhere. The International Labour Organization (ILO) was also aware of the problems related to the demobilization process.

A programme was envisaged for the protection of victims of sexual exploitation, the delegation said. Additional measures would also be taken in line with international standards discussed in Harare, Zimbabwe, where a meeting discussed the protection of victims of abuse. The Government of the Congo would also take part in the international conference to be held in Japan to discuss the issue of sexual abuse of children.

The Committee Experts continued raising questions on remaining clusters on civil and political rights, health and welfare, child environment and the family, and education and culture. An Expert asked about the measures the Government was taking to help demobilized children who were past school age; and about the fate of the children on death row if their sentences were to be commuted.

Questions were also asked on the subject of the break out of diseases such as polio and tuberculosis in the country; and the situation of disabled children, among whom some were considered to be disabled due to witch craft and were thus neglected. An Expert asked to what extent the Government was encouraging young people to express their rights and to take part in demonstrations; about access to information; and about the participation of children in television and radio transmissions. In the process of granting nationality, a certain category of the population was asked to justify that his or her grand-parents had lived in the Congo before 1885 which complicated the process, the Expert said.

A number of questions were also put to the delegation on such issues as the conditions of abandoned children; adolescent health; prevention against HIV/AIDS; breast-feeding; adoption; the status of children born from close relatives; and the use of traditional medicines, among other things.

Responding to the questions, the members of the delegation said that they had a serious problem in integrating displaced children back in school. The Government had not found a system to provide education to those children without delay as it was the case of regular children already in schools.

Parents were made aware of the need to register their new-born children so that they would not encounter problems in the event of death or other incidents, the delegation said. During the celebration of women's day, this issue had been stressed.

The Ministry of Health had launched an awareness campaign against malaria and other diseases, the delegation said. In addition, preventive measures had been taken against contagious diseases, including hygienic measures.

Children with disabilities were not neglected, the delegation said; they were provided with the necessary material and moral support; they were encouraged to integrate themselves in schools and the society in general.

Asked if children were allowed to create associations, the delegation said that the Government was not preventing them from doing so; the creation of associations or political parties was not exclusively allowed to adults, children could also create their own associations if they so wished.

Tutsis were using business to establish themselves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the delegation said. In addition, when the Hutus ousted the Tutsis from power, their refuge was the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and the Tutsis or Hutus who were living in the eastern part of the country were not obligated to take the Congolese nationality, but they were asked at least to respect the law of the country.

Rwanda and Uganda had been abducting Congolese children to use them as child-soldiers, the delegation said. The practice of these countries had been cited during the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on Human Rights. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had been a victim in that regard because of the fact that its children were abducted and taken away by the two foreign forces.

The Government had been campaigning for vaccination against all sorts of diseases, the delegation said. In addition, it had set up vaccination centres where routine vaccinations were carried out.

The use of contraceptives was prohibited by a legislative act during the 1990s, the delegation said; by doing so the Government was convinced that the population had to increase since the country was a young and developing one. At present, the concept of limiting the size of a family through family planning had been introduced by the Ministry of Health. The spread of HIV/AIDS had also prompted the Government to launch preventive measures among which was the use of condoms and other contraceptive means. There were also non-governmental organizations working in such fields. In 1997, there were 310,000 children under the age of 15 whose parents, or whose mothers, had died of AIDS.

Asked if children were abducted for the purpose of inter-country abduction other than for the use as child-soldiers, the delegation said that abducted children were taken to the aggressor countries. That state of affairs had been mentioned in the report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the human rights situation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Those abducted children were held in those countries and trained as soldiers to attack their own country.

In conclusion, the delegation said that the international community should assist Congolese children through financial support, which the Government was lacking.


Preliminary Remarks

Following the discussion of the report, a Committee Expert said in preliminary remarks that the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo should be encouraged to continue its efforts in improving the health and educational sectors of the country; the rebels should stop recruiting children to be used as soldiers; and the Government was urged to implement the programme and plan of action of the Stockholm conference on sexual exploitation of children.

The Expert said the Committee would recommend the elimination of racial discrimination in the country involving children from minorities, as recommended by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; and the elimination of discrimination against women, in application of the provisions of the Convention against All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Police brutality should be halted; and the report and the recommendations of the Committee should be disseminated so that everyone, children and adults, were aware of their rights and obligations.


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