ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA: Children's Rights in UN Treaty Body Reports

Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports 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 Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

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UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Last reported: 28 February and 1 March 2007
Concluding Observations adopted: 11 April 2007

Issues raised:

  • Education: While the Committee welcomes the abolition of the practice of excluding children of non-citizens from State schools for the first two years of their stay in Antigua and Barbuda, it notes that children continue to be excluded due to lack of resources of certain schools, that there are no mechanisms in place to check the reasons for these exclusions, and to ensure that no child is denied access to education. (article 5 (e) (v))

    The Committee recommends that the State party engage in a systematic review of any exclusions of children from schools to monitor the reasons for such exclusion, and that an independent mechanism be set up to administer the review and ensure that all children, whatever their social or national origins, enjoy the right to education. (Paragraph 18)

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UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

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UN Committee against Torture

CAT/C/ATG/CO/1
Concluding observations issued in the absence of a report: 30 August 2017

Positive aspects

The Committee welcomes the ratification of or accession to the following international instruments by the State party since its accession to the Convention: the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on 5 October 1993; the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, on 30 April 2002 (para 6: a and d).

The Committee also welcomes in particular the following legislative measures taken by the State party to give effect to the Convention: the Child Justice Act, No. 23 of 2015; the Children (Care and Adoption) Act, No. 24 of 2015 (para 7: d and e).

Conditions of detention

The State party should take measures to bring the operational procedures in the prison into compliance with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (the Beijing Rules) and the Principles and Best Practices on the Protection of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, adopted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2008 (para 22).

Refugees and non-refoulement

The State party should consider acceding to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness of 1961, as recommended by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (see CRC/C/ATG/CO/2-4, para. 56) (para 28, f).

Juvenile justice

While welcoming the adoption of the Child Justice Act 2015, the Committee is concerned that the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 8 years old and that the only alternative to conviction and imprisonment of juveniles is probation. The Committee is concerned at reports that juveniles are not detained separately from adults and regrets the lack of information on the State party’s plan to establish a separate detention facility for juveniles, as mentioned during the universal periodic review in 2016 (see A/HRC/33/13, para. 22) (art. 11) (para 35).

The State party should amend the Child Justice Act 2015 to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility. It should also use alternative measures to conviction and imprisonment for juveniles and ensure that imprisonment is used only as a measure of last resort for the shortest appropriate period of time, and is in accordance with the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (the Havana Rules), as recommended by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (see CRC/C/ATG/CO/2-4, para. 57). It should also inform the Committee of the current arrangements for the detention for juveniles, including with regard to the separation of juveniles from adults in any detention facility (para 36).

Violence against women, including domestic and sexual violence

While commending the adoption of the Domestic Violence Act 2015 and the establishment of the Sexual Offences Unit within the police, the Committee remains concerned at the wide prevalence of violence against women, including domestic and sexual violence. It is deeply concerned about reports that two 13-year-old girls were sexually assaulted by police officers in October 2016. The Committee notes with concern that the Sexual Offences Act 1995 does not recognize rape within marriage except under limited circumstances and that numerous cases of violence against women perpetrated by their spouses remain unpunished (arts. 2, 12, 13 and 16) (para 37)

The Committee urges the State party to: provide specialized training for law enforcement and judicial officials on dealing with cases of violence against women, including sexual violence against children, as well as on identifying and providing redress to victims; ensure that victims of violence against women, including child victims, obtain appropriate redress, including medical and legal services, as set out in the Committee’s general comment No. 3 (para 38, c and d).

Corporal punishment

The Committee is concerned that provisions in the Corporal Punishment Act 1949 and the Prison Act 1956 permit flogging for breach of prison discipline. While noting that corporal punishment of children is prohibited under the Child Justice Act 2015 as a sentence for a crime, the Committee regrets that corporal punishment is lawfully administered at home and in schools, day-care settings and penal institutions (art. 16) (para 39).

The Committee calls on the State party to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment in all settings and to repeal all the provisions in domestic legislation that permit corporal punishment in any setting (para. 40).

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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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