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Summary: Committee examines Reports under Convention and under Optional Protocols on Children in Armed Conflict and on Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. [17 January 2008] - The Committee on the Rights of the Child concluded its review of the initial report of Timor-Leste on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It also examined initial reports submitted by Timor-Leste under the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
Lúcia Maria Brandão F. Lobato, Minister of Justice of Timor-Leste, introducing the reports, said it was a fact that the report process for Timor-Leste had been a challenging one. As a young and poor nation, Timor-Leste had not had the benefit of pre-established machinery for data collection. Further, the development of policies remained highly dependent on the availability of resources. One aim for the near future was to make the National Commission for the Rights of the Child operational. It was expected that that would be achieved by June this year, and that would strengthen children's rights. Timor-Leste also needed a comprehensive and consistent legal framework to ensure the promotion and protection of the rights of the child. In that regard, there were a number of legal projects, including a Children's Code, which were currently at different stages of being drafted by the Council of Ministers.
Moushira Khattab, the Committee Expert serving as co-Rapporteur for the report of Timor-Leste, in preliminary concluding observations, noted that – even given the constraints facing Timor-Leste – it would need to implement immediately a minimum core package of measures. Such measures could not be confined to one or two areas but would by necessity be multisectoral. With children it could not be a question of health alone or birth registration or education alone, as each achievement would feed into each other. The Committee would expect Timor-Leste to start immediately to implement that core package. To do so, they would need to draw on assistance from international partners, including United Nations partners. In particular, Timor-Leste had to put in place urgently legislation to protect the child, whether or not they decided to implement a comprehensive Children's Code.
In additional preliminary observations, Yanghee Lee, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report on Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, said the Committee would expect Timor-Leste to formulate a specific provision to criminalize the recruitment of those under age 18. Birth registration, in particular, formed a critical part of the guarantee that children would not be recruited, and that was an area that needed to be worked on. Provision of assistance and counselling for former child soldiers was necessary and it was hoped that rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for such children would be put in place.
Also making preliminary remarks, Agnes Akosua Aidoo, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report on Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, recommended that the Government work very quickly to set up a database and gather information about children in this area. Recommendations would also be made on what legislation had to be adopted and implemented right away to give effect to the Protocol, in particular to cover the offences covered by the Protocol in the national Penal Code. Services also had to be put in place for the social, physical and psychological recovery of victims.
The Committee will release its formal, written concluding observations and recommendations on the initial reports of Timor-Leste, which were considered over the course of three meetings, at the end of its three-week session, which will conclude on 1 February 2008.
The delegation of Timor-Leste also included Sergio Hornai, Director of the Office of Public Defenders, Licíno Branco, Human Rights Officer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Nelinho Vital, a Human Rights Officer with the Ministry of Justice of Timor-Leste.
As one of the 193 States parties to the Convention, Timor-Leste is obliged to present periodic reports to the Committee on its efforts to comply with the provisions of the treaty. The delegation was on hand throughout the three meetings to present the report and to answer questions raised by Committee Experts.
When the Committee reconvenes on Friday, 18 January, at 10 a.m., it will take up the initial report of Germany on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on children and armed conflict.
Reports of Timor-Leste
Timor-Leste's common core country report states that despite significant achievements, Timor-Leste is still among the world's poorest countries. In 2001, 40 per cent of the total population of 1 million was living on less than $1 per day. Although the fertility rate is perhaps the highest in the world, life expectancy is low and infant mortality high.
Utilization rates for health services are low, and school repetition and dropout rates are high. Infrastructure and institutional and administrative capacity are limited, and the private sector faces significant legal and other constraints. The urban poor, particularly youth, face growing unemployment, while the rural poor face food insecurities and lack of social and economic infrastructure. Nationwide, something like three in four persons live without electricity, three in five without safe sanitation, and every other person is without safe drinking water. Concomitantly, there is a high incidence of preventable communicable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, childhood respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases. While currently the Constitution guarantees an entitlement of "social assistance and security" to all citizens, the establishment of national social security and pension regimes is not within the immediate remit or capability of the Government.
The initial report of Timor-Leste underlines that Timor-Leste's recent history presents particular difficulties and challenges in meeting the obligations and standards of rights and protections for the child set out in the Convention. Nevertheless, these are also all areas in which significant progress has been. The Ministry of Education and Culture has commenced the drafting of a National Youth Policy, which is expected to be ready sometime in 2006, although the age definition of "youth" is yet to be determined. In Timor-Leste, a child is defined as being every human being under the age of 18 years. In addition, different legal minimum ages are prescribed in various domestic laws. The age of sexual consent is 15 years old for females and 18 for males, and the age of criminal liability and deprivation of liberty and imprisonment is 12 years old for serious crimes and 17 for minor crimes. In the legal context, the concept of respect for the views of the child does not appear to be well understood or used during judicial proceedings and it appears that the views of the child are rarely sought in establishing what may be in its best interests when making decisions relevant to it. In drafting new national legislation, standards and procedures, the respect for the views of the child has been taken into account. Of equal importance are the measures which the Government has taken to strengthen the capacity of children to formulate and express their views, including children's input to and participation in recent events such as the Regional Conference on Violence against Children (Bangkok, June 2005).
Further information
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CRIN's thematic page on the Committee on the Rights of the Child can be found here
pdf: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/MUMA-7B34RH/$File/Full_Report.pdf