ANDORRA: Children's Rights in UN Treaty Body Reports

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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the Concluding Observations of all UN Treaty Bodies and their follow-up procedures. This does not include the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child which are available here: http://www.crin.org/resources/treaties/index.asp

Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity.

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UN Human Rights Committee

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UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

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UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

CEDAW/C/AND/CO/2-3

Last reported: 4 October 2013                                                                 Concluding Observations issued: 28 October 2013  

Issues raised and recommendations given:

Violence against women: While noting that the State party is drafting a law on gender-based violence, the Committee remains concerned about: (a) The absence of prohibition of all forms of violence against women and the unavailability of redress mechanisms for women victims of violence; (b) The low number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators, notwithstanding the sharp increase in the number of cases of violence against women and the existence of a mechanism for issuing restraining orders to protect women at risk of violence; (c) The disproportionately high number of migrant women who are victims of violence, according to official statistics; (d) The absence of information on funds allocated to shelters for victims and on gender-sensitive protocols for dealing with them and hearing witnesses during the investigation of cases of violence against women. (Para. 21)

The Committee urges the State party: (a) To ensure the adoption of a comprehensive law addressing all forms of violence against women, establishing measures to prevent and combat them; (b) To amend the Criminal Code to criminalize all forms of violence against women, including sexual violence and stalking, and establish measures to provide victims with redress; (c) To strengthen its efforts to prevent violence against women, including by conducting awareness-raising and education campaigns to inform women and girls about their right to be free from violence and about available support and legal remedies for victims; (d) To provide adequate assistance to women victims of violence, including migrant women, and ensure that victims have access to legal remedies, such as restraining orders, and to shelters and medical and psychosocial support, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations; (e) To provide public funding to non-governmental organizations that operate shelters; (f) To provide training to the police on gender-sensitive methods for investigating cases of violence against women and for providing age- appropriate advice to victims, taking into consideration their socio-economic situation; (g) To accelerate the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. (Para. 22)               

Trafficking: The Committee also notes with concern that the Criminal Code does not specifically criminalize trafficking in human beings, in particular women and girls, or forced prostitution. The Committee is further concerned at the lack of legislative and policy measures to combat trafficking in women and girls, notwithstanding the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. The Committee calls upon the State party: (a) To undertake investigations into possible cases of trafficking in women and girls and provide, in its next periodic report, comprehensive information on the extent of trafficking in the State party; (b) To adopt a national action plan against trafficking in human beings, in particular women and girls, including strategies for the prevention of trafficking and forced prostitution, measures aimed at identifying victims of trafficking and mechanisms to protect them and provide them with adequate support and redress; (c) To conduct awareness-raising campaigns about the criminal nature and risks of trafficking and forced prostitution of women and girls; (d) To amend the Criminal Code with a view to specifically criminalizing trafficking in human beings, in particular women and girls, and forced prostitution; (e) To strengthen bilateral and regional cooperation mechanisms in order to prevent trafficking in women and girls, protect victims and prosecute traffickers, within the framework of existing regional treaties. (Paras. 23-24)

Education: The Committee is concerned about: (b) The low enrolment of women in traditionally male-dominated fields of study, such as mathematics, informatics, natural sciences and technology; (c) The lack of training for teachers on women’s rights and the absence from school curricula and academic programmes of a human rights-based approach to addressing gender relations; (d) The lack of education on sexual and reproductive health and rights and responsible sexual behaviour for girls and boys, including information on contraceptive use; (e) The wide gap between girls and boys with disabilities having access to education and the lack of initiatives to combat stereotypes and prejudices against them at school. The Committee recommends that the State party: (a) Set up a system for collecting statistical data, disaggregated by sex and age, on the access of women and girls to equal education; (b) Implement a strategy to promote the enrolment of women in vocational education and training in traditionally male-dominated fields of study, through career counselling and by providing incentives for girls to choose non-traditional careers; (c) Ensure that school curricula, academic programmes and professional training for teachers cover women’s rights and promote gender equality; (d) Introduce age-appropriate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights in school curricula, including on responsible sexual behaviour; (e) Ensure that girls and boys with disabilities have access to education (Paras. 27-28)

Health: The Committee notes with concern: (a) The criminalization of abortion, including when there are threats to the life or health of the pregnant woman; (b) The interpretation of the right to life in the Constitution as a limitation on women’s sexual and reproductive health rights; (c) The lack of specific measures and programmes to ensure access to modern methods of contraception and information on their use, as well as on prevention of unwanted pregnancy and maternal mortality; (d) The requirement of effective legal residence in the State party for access to free health services, which precludes migrant women and girls from gaining access to such services; (e) The lack of information and gender-sensitive programmes on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes, in particular aimed at disadvantaged and marginalized groups of women, such as those in prostitution and migrant women. (Para. 31)

In line with its general recommendation No. 24 on women and health, the Committee calls upon the State party: (a) To decriminalize abortion and provide access to legal abortion in cases of threats to the life or health of the pregnant woman, rape, incest and severe foetal impairment; (b) To ensure affordable access for women and girls to modern methods of contraception and educate them about the risks of early pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS; (c) To ensure affordable access for all migrant women and girls to the health-care system and consider amending the legislation restricting access to health care on the basis of legal residence; (d) To devise and implement gender-sensitive programmes to prevent HIV/AIDS and include disadvantaged and marginalized groups of women, such as those in prostitution and migrant women, therein. (Para. 32)

Marriage: The Committee is concerned about the fact that the minimum age of marriage is 14 years for girls and boys. It notes the slow progress in applying the legislative framework (Qualified Act 21/2005) providing for economic rights for women in stable unions. The Committee recommends that the State party raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 years for girls and boys. It also recommends that the State party implement Qualified Act 21/2005, which provides for rights for women in stable unions, in line with the Committee’s general recommendation No. 29 on the economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution and article 16 of the Convention. (Paras. 37-38)

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CEDAW/C/AND/1

Last Reported: 10 and 13 July 2001

Concerns Raised:

  • Abortion laws: The Committee expresses concern about the punitive abortion laws that could cause women to seek unsafe and clandestine abortion.

    The Committee suggests that the State party:

    (a) Consider the revision of such punitive laws according to general recommendation 24 of the Committee. (Paragraph 48)

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UN Committee against Torture

CAT/C/AND/CO/1

Last reported: 11 and 12 November 2013

Concluding Observations adopted: 20 December 2013

Violence against women: The Committee is concerned at the absence of specific legislation prohibiting all forms of violence against women and children, including domestic and sexual violence as well as marital rape, and at the low number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions of the perpetrators of acts of violence against women (arts. 2, 12, 13, 14 and 16).

The State party should:

  1. Amend the Criminal Code with a view to prohibiting as criminal offences all forms of violence against women and children, including domestic and sexual violence as well as rape;
  2. Ensure that reports of domestic violence, including sexual violence and violence against children, are registered by the police, that such incidences of violence are promptly, impartially and effectively investigated and perpetrators prosecuted and punished in accordance with the gravity of their acts;
  3. Sensitise and train law enforcement personnel and judicial officials in the Public Prosecutor’s Office in investigating and prosecuting cases of domestic violence and conduct awareness-raising campaigns for the general public; and
  4. Ensure that victims of domestic, including sexual, violence benefit from protection, including restraining orders for the perpetrators, and have access to medical and legal services, including psycho-social counselling, and to rehabilitation as well as to safe and adequately funded shelters. (para. 13)

Justice: While noting that electric discharge weapons (such as “tasers”) have been used in very few instances, the Committee is concerned that they have been used in closed settings such as prisons and are included in the standard equipment of prison staff (arts. 2, 11 and 16).

The State party should ensure that the regulations concerning the use of electrical discharge weapons are modified so that they are not part of the standard equipment for prison staff and can be used exclusively in extreme and limited situations where there is a real and immediate threat to life or risk of serious injury, as a substitute for lethal weapons, and by trained law enforcement personnel only. The State party should revise the regulations governing the use of such weapons, with a view to establishing a high threshold for their use, and expressly prohibiting their use on children and pregnant women. The Committee is of the view that the use of electrical discharge weapons should be subject to the principles of necessity and proportionality and should be inadmissible in the equipment of custodial staff in prisons or any other place of deprivation of liberty. The Committee urges the State party to provide detailed instructions and adequate training to law enforcement personnel entitled to use electric discharge weapons and to strictly monitor and supervise their use. (para. 19)

Corporal punishment: In light of the State party’s commitment under the Universal Periodic Review to enact and implement legislation that prohibits all corporal punishment of children, the Committee is concerned that corporal punishment is not yet prohibited in the home, some alternative care settings and day care (art. 16).

The Committee recommends that the State party enact and implement legislation that explicitly prohibits corporal punishment of children in all settings. (para. 20)

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UN Committee on Migrant Workers

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UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

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UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance

 

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Organisation: 
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Countries

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