CRC/C/OPAC/URY/CO/1
Adopted by the Committee: 30 January 2015
Published by the Committee: 4 February 2015
Issues raised:
Ratification:
The Committee welcomes the declaration made under the Optional Protocol that the minimum age for conscription is 18 years (para.5).
Military schools:
The Committee notes that military schools follow the plans and programmes established by the Ministry of Education and Culture and have a theoretical military education which does not involve the use of arms. The Committee is, nevertheless, concerned that children may be registered in these schools against their own will. The Committee is also concerned about the lack of an independent complaints mechanism for its students (para.12).
The Committee is concerned about the lack of a comprehensive and systematic human rights and peace education in the military schools or in the teachers’ training programmes (para.14).
Recruitement of children in hostilities:
The Committee is concerned that the recruitment and use in hostilities of children under the age of 18 years by the State armed forces and non-State armed groups has still not been criminalized and that recruitment of children under the age of 15 has not been incorporated as a war crime in the State party’s legislation (para.16).
Child victims:
The Committee is concerned about the lack of measures to identify refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant children that have been or can be at risk of being recruited or used in armed conflict, as well as the lack of specific physical and psychological recovery and reintegration programmes for victims of offences covered by the Optional Protocol (para.20).
