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24 May 2000
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CRC
24th Session
24 May 2000
Afternoon
Calls, in Preliminary Remarks, for Juvenile Justice System, Greater Budgets
for Children, Expansion of Educational and Health Services
The Committee on the Rights of the Child completed review this afternoon of an initial report of Cambodia, saying in preliminary remarks that a juvenile justice system should be established and that education and child health services should be expanded.
The Committee said it recognized that the country, emerging from three decades of war, was short of resources and was almost 'starting from zero', but that Government programmes for children should have the highest priority and budgets for them should be increased even if it meant cutting expenditures elsewhere.
Formal, written conclusions and recommendations on the report will be issued before the Committee adjourns its three-week session on 2 June.
The Cambodian report was introduced this morning by a three-member Government delegation led by the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Government officials were on hand during the morning and afternoon meetings to answer questions.
Discussion over the course of the afternoon focused on family environment and alternative care; basic health and welfare; education, leisure, and cultural activities; and special protection measures.
Responding to the questions, the Cambodian delegation said, among other things, that through the depredations of the Khmer Rouge regime, 90 per cent of the nation's school buildings had been destroyed and some 80 per cent of its teachers killed, leaving the country to re-establish its educational system from scratch. Currently school drop-out rates were high and the problem was being studied, and education had not yet been made compulsory because the Government lacked the means to provide universal access to it. The delegation also said that shortages of resources meant that juveniles and adults were often kept in the same penal and detention facilities, and that local health clinics often lacked medicines.
The Cambodian report stated that war and conflict which finally ended in 1998 had left the country impoverished and had severe consequences for children. Many were orphaned; many others had been crippled by landmines; there were problems with sexual exploitation and AIDS; and there were high rates of infant and child mortality. The report said international aid and technical expertise were needed to effectively confront these difficulties.
As one of the 191 States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Cambodia, which acceded to the international treaty in 1992, must file periodic reports with the Committee on the status of the country's children and on efforts to implement the Convention.
The Committee will meet in closed session on Thursday, 25 May. It will reconvene in plenary at 10 a.m. on Friday, 26 May, to take up a report of Malta.
Discussion
Discussion over the course of the afternoon focused on the general subjects of family environment and alternative care; basic health and welfare; education, leisure, and cultural activities; and special protection measures.
Responding to questions, the Cambodian delegation said, among other things, that the Ministry of the Interior had been charged with monitoring the treatment of children by the police; a mechanism was to be devised to prevent cases of police abuse, including the creation of a board or unit to occupy itself with the topic, to investigate allegations, and to train police in international child-rights standards.
Local health clinics existed, the delegation said, but there were shortages of medicine; the Government was trying to expand the capacity of these clinics and to make them more effective. Currently, it was true, the health services provided in rural areas were not sufficient. There was one hospital for children supported by Switzerland. Often, when parents took children to clinics for treatment, there was not enough medicine and the parents had to buy it separately. In various circumstances, NGOs helped to operate and to finance health services. A vaccination programme covering six diseases had been established and expanded and it covered up to 70 per cent of children. Cambodia was too poor and the market too small to manufacture its own polio vaccine; as a result vaccines had to be imported, and international aid was needed to help cover the costs. AIDS was an immense problem and the Government was deeply involved in prevention activities, including in the publicization of condom use.
Many Cambodian children were adopted by foreigners, the delegation said; others were adopted by Cambodians. Many children were not sufficiently quiet or well-behaved or attractive enough for adoption, in the opinion of Cambodian families, but foreigners were by and large willing to adopt children regardless of these factors. There was no precise policy on adoption, although the Bureau of Adoption of the Ministry of Social Action did review the situations of prospective adoptive parents. The Ministry tried to do at least some cursory monitoring and follow-up of foreign adoptions.
No study had been carried out on parental neglect or on abuse of children in the family, the delegation said. Some public-information campaigns had been conducted which were aimed not only at preventing violence against children but also violence between parents, which occurred most often in poorer families.
Although there was no law yet on a juvenile justice system, the Government was trying its best to provide some kind of procedure to that end, the delegation said; a child subject to criminal procedure would be monitored by a committee composed of parents, police, local authorities, a judge, and perhaps NGO representatives. The former child detention centre was now more open and more like an educational and training centre. Judges were being trained on how to handle juvenile cases.
Some 300 child soldiers had been demobilized following the armed conflict, and the Government was working with UNICEF to provide training and other help for their rehabilitation, the delegation said.
In the provinces, it was true, children and adults were kept in the same detention and penal institutions, the delegation said; the Government was trying to raise money to provide other accommodation for children.
The Cambodian National Council for Children (CNCC) had formed a committee to help combat child labour and to enable such children to attend school, the delegation said.
Improving the educational system of the country was a long-term undertaking, the delegation said; education was the area most negatively affected by the genocidal regime -- more than 90 per cent of schools had been destroyed and more than 80 per cent of their teachers butchered. The Government had been trying to recover ever since, but it had had to start from scratch. The Khmer Rouge had used some school buildings that it did not destroy as barracks, as storage places for weapons, and as places for torture; that was what the Government had to begin with. Beginning with almost nothing had been very difficult; communities had been called on to bring children together for instruction by volunteers who did not necessarily have any qualifications. Matters had since improved; the numbers of trained teachers had increased, thanks to the work of 18 teacher training centres scattered around the country.
There were some 2.3 million pupils now, from pre-school through higher education, the delegation said; much had been done but not all children were attending school yet. Schools had been built one way or another -- through volunteer labour, through the contribution by different people of windows and walls. Ensuring access for all was more difficult. UNICEF had provided considerable support. The Government was now reviewing its entire educational policy and forming task forces, and loans and assistance had been provided by the Asian Development Bank to develop the school curriculum and print and distribute textbooks. Drop-out rates were a concern, it was true; an enquiry was under way into the problem, again with help from UNICEF. It was true that education was not compulsory, but to make such a thing compulsory you had to be able to implement it; and the country was not yet able to do so. The Government was merely doing its best to provide nine years of free education.
There was not a lot of precise information on child sexual exploitation, the delegation said, although NGOs provided useful data on occasion; the problem was admittedly serious, and laws prohibited sexual exploitation of children. The law was implemented, and persons such as brothel owners had been prosecuted and convicted. The Government had adopted a five-year plan to combat such exploitation, including programmes for rescuing children and reintegrating them into society, but the operation lacked resources. A subcommittee had been established to monitor and promote implementation of the five-year plan. UNICEF, the International Labour Office (ILO) and other organizations had provided support. If the problem was not sufficiently resolved in five years, the programme would be continued. The CNCC was cooperating with an international programme involving tourism ministries to combat sexual tourism involving children, in part through awareness-raising. The Ministry of the Interior had established a unit to fight child sexual exploitation and trafficking.
NGOs helped to fight child labour, the delegation said; the Government was providing some funding for this work to help the relevant NGO subcommittee to carry out a publicity campaign and to help rehabilitate children.
Preliminary conclusions and recommendations
The Committee had several preliminary responses to the report of Cambodia. Formal, written conclusions and recommendations will be issued before the Committee adjourns its three-week session on 2 June.
The Committee said, among other things, that the dialogue had been fruitful and open; that the Committee understood and was quite aware of the country's recent terrible history, and understood that the country lacked financial and human resources -- that Cambodia was almost starting again from zero; that it was commendable that much had been done to pass new legislation, plans and policies to aid children; that implementation of the Government's five-year plan for children was a political issue that should receive the highest priority, and that the educational, health, and other needs of children should receive a larger share of the budget, and the Government should thus consider reallocation of resources from other programmes to programmes concerned with children; that steps taken to combat child labour were laudable, including ratification of a relevant ILO convention; that domestic laws should be reviewed to ensure compliance with the Convention; that special attention should be paid to birth registration, family and alternative care, and juvenile justice; that the health and educational systems were very important and should be improved as investments in children, who were the future of the country; that the data-collection system on children should be improved; that more should be done to ensure that all rights in the Convention were enjoyed by all children without discrimination; that law enforcement should be strengthened to better deal with the problems of child abuse and impunity for offenders; that more should be done to integrate children with disabilities into mainstream schools and the general life of the community; that labour laws limiting child labour should be enforced and that inspectors be provided to carry out such work; that services for child victims of sexual exploitation be expanded and violators punished; and that a juvenile justice system should be established.
* *** *
24th Session
24 May 2000
Afternoon
Calls, in Preliminary Remarks, for Juvenile Justice System, Greater Budgets
for Children, Expansion of Educational and Health Services
The Committee on the Rights of the Child completed review this afternoon of an initial report of Cambodia, saying in preliminary remarks that a juvenile justice system should be established and that education and child health services should be expanded.
The Committee said it recognized that the country, emerging from three decades of war, was short of resources and was almost 'starting from zero', but that Government programmes for children should have the highest priority and budgets for them should be increased even if it meant cutting expenditures elsewhere.
Formal, written conclusions and recommendations on the report will be issued before the Committee adjourns its three-week session on 2 June.
The Cambodian report was introduced this morning by a three-member Government delegation led by the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Government officials were on hand during the morning and afternoon meetings to answer questions.
Discussion over the course of the afternoon focused on family environment and alternative care; basic health and welfare; education, leisure, and cultural activities; and special protection measures.
Responding to the questions, the Cambodian delegation said, among other things, that through the depredations of the Khmer Rouge regime, 90 per cent of the nation's school buildings had been destroyed and some 80 per cent of its teachers killed, leaving the country to re-establish its educational system from scratch. Currently school drop-out rates were high and the problem was being studied, and education had not yet been made compulsory because the Government lacked the means to provide universal access to it. The delegation also said that shortages of resources meant that juveniles and adults were often kept in the same penal and detention facilities, and that local health clinics often lacked medicines.
The Cambodian report stated that war and conflict which finally ended in 1998 had left the country impoverished and had severe consequences for children. Many were orphaned; many others had been crippled by landmines; there were problems with sexual exploitation and AIDS; and there were high rates of infant and child mortality. The report said international aid and technical expertise were needed to effectively confront these difficulties.
As one of the 191 States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Cambodia, which acceded to the international treaty in 1992, must file periodic reports with the Committee on the status of the country's children and on efforts to implement the Convention.
The Committee will meet in closed session on Thursday, 25 May. It will reconvene in plenary at 10 a.m. on Friday, 26 May, to take up a report of Malta.
Discussion
Discussion over the course of the afternoon focused on the general subjects of family environment and alternative care; basic health and welfare; education, leisure, and cultural activities; and special protection measures.
Responding to questions, the Cambodian delegation said, among other things, that the Ministry of the Interior had been charged with monitoring the treatment of children by the police; a mechanism was to be devised to prevent cases of police abuse, including the creation of a board or unit to occupy itself with the topic, to investigate allegations, and to train police in international child-rights standards.
Local health clinics existed, the delegation said, but there were shortages of medicine; the Government was trying to expand the capacity of these clinics and to make them more effective. Currently, it was true, the health services provided in rural areas were not sufficient. There was one hospital for children supported by Switzerland. Often, when parents took children to clinics for treatment, there was not enough medicine and the parents had to buy it separately. In various circumstances, NGOs helped to operate and to finance health services. A vaccination programme covering six diseases had been established and expanded and it covered up to 70 per cent of children. Cambodia was too poor and the market too small to manufacture its own polio vaccine; as a result vaccines had to be imported, and international aid was needed to help cover the costs. AIDS was an immense problem and the Government was deeply involved in prevention activities, including in the publicization of condom use.
Many Cambodian children were adopted by foreigners, the delegation said; others were adopted by Cambodians. Many children were not sufficiently quiet or well-behaved or attractive enough for adoption, in the opinion of Cambodian families, but foreigners were by and large willing to adopt children regardless of these factors. There was no precise policy on adoption, although the Bureau of Adoption of the Ministry of Social Action did review the situations of prospective adoptive parents. The Ministry tried to do at least some cursory monitoring and follow-up of foreign adoptions.
No study had been carried out on parental neglect or on abuse of children in the family, the delegation said. Some public-information campaigns had been conducted which were aimed not only at preventing violence against children but also violence between parents, which occurred most often in poorer families.
Although there was no law yet on a juvenile justice system, the Government was trying its best to provide some kind of procedure to that end, the delegation said; a child subject to criminal procedure would be monitored by a committee composed of parents, police, local authorities, a judge, and perhaps NGO representatives. The former child detention centre was now more open and more like an educational and training centre. Judges were being trained on how to handle juvenile cases.
Some 300 child soldiers had been demobilized following the armed conflict, and the Government was working with UNICEF to provide training and other help for their rehabilitation, the delegation said.
In the provinces, it was true, children and adults were kept in the same detention and penal institutions, the delegation said; the Government was trying to raise money to provide other accommodation for children.
The Cambodian National Council for Children (CNCC) had formed a committee to help combat child labour and to enable such children to attend school, the delegation said.
Improving the educational system of the country was a long-term undertaking, the delegation said; education was the area most negatively affected by the genocidal regime -- more than 90 per cent of schools had been destroyed and more than 80 per cent of their teachers butchered. The Government had been trying to recover ever since, but it had had to start from scratch. The Khmer Rouge had used some school buildings that it did not destroy as barracks, as storage places for weapons, and as places for torture; that was what the Government had to begin with. Beginning with almost nothing had been very difficult; communities had been called on to bring children together for instruction by volunteers who did not necessarily have any qualifications. Matters had since improved; the numbers of trained teachers had increased, thanks to the work of 18 teacher training centres scattered around the country.
There were some 2.3 million pupils now, from pre-school through higher education, the delegation said; much had been done but not all children were attending school yet. Schools had been built one way or another -- through volunteer labour, through the contribution by different people of windows and walls. Ensuring access for all was more difficult. UNICEF had provided considerable support. The Government was now reviewing its entire educational policy and forming task forces, and loans and assistance had been provided by the Asian Development Bank to develop the school curriculum and print and distribute textbooks. Drop-out rates were a concern, it was true; an enquiry was under way into the problem, again with help from UNICEF. It was true that education was not compulsory, but to make such a thing compulsory you had to be able to implement it; and the country was not yet able to do so. The Government was merely doing its best to provide nine years of free education.
There was not a lot of precise information on child sexual exploitation, the delegation said, although NGOs provided useful data on occasion; the problem was admittedly serious, and laws prohibited sexual exploitation of children. The law was implemented, and persons such as brothel owners had been prosecuted and convicted. The Government had adopted a five-year plan to combat such exploitation, including programmes for rescuing children and reintegrating them into society, but the operation lacked resources. A subcommittee had been established to monitor and promote implementation of the five-year plan. UNICEF, the International Labour Office (ILO) and other organizations had provided support. If the problem was not sufficiently resolved in five years, the programme would be continued. The CNCC was cooperating with an international programme involving tourism ministries to combat sexual tourism involving children, in part through awareness-raising. The Ministry of the Interior had established a unit to fight child sexual exploitation and trafficking.
NGOs helped to fight child labour, the delegation said; the Government was providing some funding for this work to help the relevant NGO subcommittee to carry out a publicity campaign and to help rehabilitate children.
Preliminary conclusions and recommendations
The Committee had several preliminary responses to the report of Cambodia. Formal, written conclusions and recommendations will be issued before the Committee adjourns its three-week session on 2 June.
The Committee said, among other things, that the dialogue had been fruitful and open; that the Committee understood and was quite aware of the country's recent terrible history, and understood that the country lacked financial and human resources -- that Cambodia was almost starting again from zero; that it was commendable that much had been done to pass new legislation, plans and policies to aid children; that implementation of the Government's five-year plan for children was a political issue that should receive the highest priority, and that the educational, health, and other needs of children should receive a larger share of the budget, and the Government should thus consider reallocation of resources from other programmes to programmes concerned with children; that steps taken to combat child labour were laudable, including ratification of a relevant ILO convention; that domestic laws should be reviewed to ensure compliance with the Convention; that special attention should be paid to birth registration, family and alternative care, and juvenile justice; that the health and educational systems were very important and should be improved as investments in children, who were the future of the country; that the data-collection system on children should be improved; that more should be done to ensure that all rights in the Convention were enjoyed by all children without discrimination; that law enforcement should be strengthened to better deal with the problems of child abuse and impunity for offenders; that more should be done to integrate children with disabilities into mainstream schools and the general life of the community; that labour laws limiting child labour should be enforced and that inspectors be provided to carry out such work; that services for child victims of sexual exploitation be expanded and violators punished; and that a juvenile justice system should be established.
* *** *