COMOROS: Children's Rights References in the Universal Periodic Review

C. Normative framework and international instruments (signed/ratified, reservations, declarations)

 

23. The Union of the Comoros has signed and ratified many international conventions, including:

 

• At the international level, the Union of the Comoros has ratified many treaties on the protection of children from all forms of sexual and economic exploitation, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its two Optional Protocols;

 

D. National institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights

 

Governmental and quasi-governmental institutions

 

The National Department for Gender Advocacy

 

33. The National Department for Gender Advocacy is responsible for devising and carrying out activities to promote and protect women and children and for ensuring the incorporation of a gender perspective in all development sectors. It handles the follow-up and evaluation of activities carried out nationwide and on individual islands.

 

2. Non-governmental bodies

 

(c) The Forum for Comorian Educators (FAWECOM)

 

42. This is an NGO working on gender equality in the educational field and combating illiteracy. It carries out various activities to promote the education of girls.

 

(d) The Comorian Family Welfare Association (ASCOBEF)

 

43. This association runs several family planning and reproductive health programmes. It has a counselling and care unit for child victims of abuse and ill-treatment on the island of Ngazidja.

 

(e) The Comorian Human Rights Foundation (FCDH)

 

44. This foundation is a civil society that promotes, upholds and protects human rights, democracy, good governance and the rule of law. It also addresses issues of children’s and women’s rights.

 

(f) The Elections Observatory

 

45. This is a civil society organization that promotes good governance in electoral matters. Since its establishment, it has played a role nationwide in awareness-raising and the monitoring of elections.

 

(g) National Platform for Action against Gender-based Violence

 

46. It coordinates all the NGOs working against all forms of violence and abuse of women and children.

 

Implementation of recommendations and obligations resulting from the first-cycle universal periodic review (UPR) of the Comoros

 

B. National and sectoral policies, strategies and initiatives

 

Recommendations Nos. 7, 8, 5, 16, 17, 18, 19, 32, 50

 

56. Numerous projects and programmes are being carried out with respect to reduction of maternal and child mortality and improved access of children to health care. These include a project on support to the health sector for 2010, financed by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), with the purpose of:

 

(a) Improving the health of the Comorian population by reinforcing the institutional framework and capacities of health ministries in the Union and on the islands for defining strategies, creating regulatory and follow-up instruments (information and health planning systems) and carrying out programmes financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria;

 

(b) Improving the accessibility and quality of basic health services, with particular emphasis on maternal and neonatal health, especially on the islands of Nzwani and Mwali, and the programme for protection of maternal and child health, supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

 

C. Normative framework

 

Recommendations Nos. 5, 9, 24, 27 (Malaysia), 31

 

57. The Union of the Comoros is a monist State in which primacy is given to international law. It has ratified a number of relevant international and regional instruments.

 

58. Well before the first cycle of the universal periodic review, the Union of the Comoros had ratified, among others, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; and the principal international conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), for example the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182); the seven fundamental conventions; and the conventions regulating the minimum age for certain types of work, such as Conventions Nos. 5, 10 and 33 on the minimum age for work in the industrial, agricultural and non-industrial sectors.

 

59. The Comoros has also ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Protocol on the establishment of the African Court of Human Rights, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

 

60. In an effort to fulfil the recommendations of the first cycle, the country has been strengthening its legal arsenal through the submission to Parliament of draft legislation, for adoption during the October 2013 session, on the reform of the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure. The new Codes have incorporated the international human rights instruments to which the Comoros is a party and have taken into account all the contemporary human rights issues and the recommendations of the first cycle, including on the abolition of the death penalty and the prohibition of the worst forms of child labour and of trafficking in children.

62. The Union of the Comoros has also reconsidered its position on the use of corporal punishment within the family and in the school and has taken the appropriate steps, including by adoption of a new Labour Code (Act No. 11-022/AU of 13 December 2011, promulgated by decree No. 12/167/PR of 9 September 2012, and a draft decision on the types of jobs and categories of enterprises in which adolescents may not work has been submitted to the Council of Ministers.

 

F. Economic, social and cultural rights

 

1. Right to health

 

Recommendation No. 42 

 

71. In an effort to reinforce the national health system and health infrastructure, the Government has decided that emergency care should be provided free of charge and caesarean sections performed at half their normal price.

 

74. The maternity ward at the Domoni medical and surgery unit was renovated under an AFD project on support to the health sector. The focus is on refurbishment and equipment of hospital units, training and basic health improvements.

 

2. Right to education

 

Recommendations Nos. 46, 47 and 48

 

77. Illiteracy is not a serious problem in the Union of the Comoros. The population can read in the national language (Shikomori), Arabic and/or French.

 

78. Still, in the Interim Education Plan for 2013–2015, a policy, strategies and procedures were worked out for definitively eradicating illiteracy. A literacy office has been set up under the Ministry of Education.

 

79. The Government has made education the mainspring of the country’s economic and social development. In addition to Act No. 95-035/AF on education, four major documents have been adopted:

• A report on the national educational system, issued in February 2012 with financing from UNESCO (Dar Es Salaam office) and support from the local UNICEF office;

• A note on sectoral arrangements for education, dealing with the financial constraints associated with structural and managerial deficiencies that affect education;

• A letter on educational policy, taking account of the Act on education policy guidelines, the Millennium Development Goals, the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and a letter from the Head of State to the Minister of Education sketching out the broad outlines of Government policy on education;

• The overall plan for education for the period 2015–2020.

 

80. From 2009 to 2013, classrooms were constructed in various regions with Government funding and the assistance of the NGO Qatari Charity.

 

81. From 2009 to 2011, the overall school enrolment rate increased from 77.1 per cent to 79.4 per cent.

 

G. Specific categories of rights

 

1. Rights of the child

 

Recommendations Nos. 14, 17, 27 (Jordan), 27 (Bangladesh), 29, 32, 33, 34, 36, 43

 

82. Well before the first cycle in 2009, the Union of the Comoros had set up care structures for children and women victims of abuse and ill-treatment. On the other hand, there are no shelters or reintegration centres for children and women at risk.

 

83. Vice squads and juvenile units have been set up in police stations under Ministry of the Interior decision No. 11/528/MIID of 29 December 2011.

 

84. A juvenile ward was built during the renovation of the Koki short-stay prison on the island of Nzwani, using financing from the Peacebuilding Fund.

 

85. Cross-cutting strategies ensuring better access to education for all children have been outlined in the Interim Education Plan for 2013–2015.

 

86. The awareness-raising campaign for systematic birth registration that was begun in 2005 has continued through the present.

 

87. The systematic registration of all births has been facilitated by the construction in June 2012 of 99 new civil registry offices, 76 on Ngazidja, 20 on Nzwani and 3 on Mwali.

 

88. From 3 to 13 September 2013, as part of the efforts to combat child labour, the CNDHL organized awareness-raising workshops on the worst forms of child labour for heads of Koranic schools on Ngazidja, Mwali and Nzwani.

 

89. From 4 to 6 March 2012, national round tables on sexual and all other forms of violence were organized in Moroni by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

 

90. In Moroni, from 18 to 19 October 2013, the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), a regional organization of five countries including the Union of the Comoros, organized regional round tables on violence against girls and women.

 

91. In November 2013, the Government organized national round tables on the worst forms of child labour through its ministry responsible for employment.

 

92. The projected revisions of the Criminal Code include the prohibition of paedophilia, pornography, trafficking in children, the worst forms of child labour, pimping, abduction of minors, enslavement and smuggling of children.

 

3. Rights of persons with disabilities

 

Recommendation No. 28

 

99. The Government values and supports the National Federation of Persons with Disabilities, particularly in the areas of education, health and sports.

 

IV. Status of recommendations not accepted during the previous review

 

120. Causing injury wilfully is an offence under the Criminal Code. The upcoming revision of the Code includes provisions prohibiting corporal punishment of children and defenceless persons. The educational inspectorate provides oversight of what goes on in the school system.

 

Progress and best practices

 

A. Improved fulfilment of civil and political rights

 

Deprivation of liberty

 

135. Using the Peacebuilding Fund, specifically the programme of support for the effective administration of justice and respect for human rights, the Government has been able to renovate the Koki short-stay prison on the island of Nzwani. The juvenile ward has been reconstructed. A new child-friendly courtroom was built in Moroni in 2012.

 

Improved good governance

 

147. It must be recalled that with the change of governments, from colonialism to independence, the legal instruments on human rights, protection of women and children and civil and political rights were reaffirmed as part of Comorian legislation.

 

B. Dynamic efforts to promote economic, social and cultural rights

 

Social security

 

157. In May 2012, the Comorian Government adopted a national solidarity policy intended to enhance the long-term, comprehensive social security coverage of workers, including those in the informal sector, and to reorganize medical insurance to make coverage more extensive and subsequently universal, with particular regard for persons with disabilities, orphans, the poor and widows.

 

Right to health

 

163. A package of measures to make a real impact on maternal and child mortality has been adopted and integrated into the new health-care development plan.

 

166. A fund was set up in order to halve the cost of caesarian sections, from 20,000 to 10,000 Comorian francs (US$ 50 to 25). Consideration is being given to making caesarians free of charge.

 

170. The Government has received support from UNFPA for instituting a programme for the protection of maternal and child health.

 

171. All newborns are generally inoculated against measles, but to promote better health, from 17 to 21 June 2013, the Government organized a comprehensive measles immunization campaign for children aged 9 months to 5 years.

 

C. Major progress in the fulfilment of specific categories of rights

 

Rights of the child

 

175. The Government can bring to bear its legal arsenal and intensive awareness-raising efforts carried out through State and non-State institutions and organizations in stepping up its policy of combating child labour. Massive school enrolment of children has been facilitated by the extension of the public school network to even the most remote villages, societal evolution, parents’ realization of the need for their children to be educated and not held back by ignorance and the development of civic spirit.

 

176. National round tables on child labour have been organized by the ministry responsible for employment in order to establish the best conditions for coping with this problem.

 

Challenges and constraints

 

180. Despite the State’s efforts to attract investment to modernize the basic economic infrastructure, school and health facilities are often financed by the local communities. Hospitals and their equipment are outdated, and the roads are in poor condition.

 

181. More support structures for women and child victims of sexual violence or abuse should be built and endowed with more human and material resources.

 

Expectations in terms of capacity-building and technical assistance

 

• Establishment of shelters for women and child victims of abuse and ill-treatment.

 

30. The country team expressed its concern about the multiplication of acts of violence against women and children. The advisory and protection services for the child victims of violence set up by the Government registered an average of 1,000 cases of violence against children. In 2011, the services registered almost 1,047 cases to which it had responded, including 566 sexual assaults on minors. In many cases, the assaults were committed by someone close to the child.

 

31. In 2012, the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions andRecommendations (ILO Committee of Experts) reiterated its previous request that Comoros indicate the measures taken or envisaged to prohibit and treat as a criminal offence, in accordance with article 3 (b) of the ILO Convention No. 182, the use, procuring or offering of a child under the age of 18 for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances. It also once again requested Comoros to establish penalties for that purpose.

 

32. The country team said that the Government would submit for approval by parliament, before the end of 2013, the new Criminal Code which introduced more severe penalties for child labour and human trafficking.

 

33. UNHCR stated that the geographical location of Comoros made it particularly vulnerable to the problem of trafficking of persons. While Comoros had ratified OP-CRC-SC in 2007, little information appeared to be available on how it intended to address, in a more effective manner, the issue of trafficking more broadly. UNHCR recommended that Comoros undertake a thorough assessment of the issue of trafficking in persons and take adequate follow-up measures/actions, including enactment of adequate legislation to combat the practice.

 

Right to privacy, marriage and family life

 

40. UNHCR stated that, despite achievements made by Comoros on the issue of birth registration and ongoing efforts more remained to be done to ensure a 100 per cent birth registration rate. UNHCR recommended that Comoros continue to ensure that the births of all children were registered.

 

41. UNHCR welcomed several safeguards against statelessness found in the 2001 Constitution and the nationality law. Nevertheless, UNHCR noted that there were several gaps between the current nationality law and international standards, in particular with regard to: (a) procedures for renunciation of nationality; and (b) the right to a nationality of a child born on the territory who would otherwise be stateless, because he/she was born to parents who were stateless, of unknown nationality, or foreign citizens who were unable to transmit their nationality to a child born abroad. UNHCR also indicated that, contrary to article 9, paragraph 1, of CEDAW, the law also distinguished between men and women in the right to acquire, change or retain their nationality.

 

42. UNHCR recommended that Comoros amend legislation to include safeguards against statelessness that provided that children born in the territory, who would otherwise be stateless, acquired Comorian nationality; that nationals could only renounce their nationality if they possessed or had an assurance to acquire a foreign nationality; and that men and women were equal in the right to acquire, change or retain their nationality.

 

Right to health

 

58. The country team in Comoros mentioned that clandestine abortions are reportedly very widespread.

 

60. As regards child mortality, the country team found that the risk of a child dying before the age of 5 is 50 per thousand live births. In other words, 1 child out of 20 dies before the age of 5 years.

 

Right to education

 

61. CEDAW was concerned at the high illiteracy rate of women (64.8 per cent) in the group of 15–24 years. It was concerned that 55 per cent of the total children between 6 and 14 years who were out of school were girls, as well as at the lack of alternative ways to accommodate these girls in the education system. It was further concerned about the gender disparity in primary and secondary school and about the alarming and consistent dropout rates of girls in secondary school. UNCT and the ILO Committee of Experts also expressed similar concerns. The ILO Committee of Experts urged Comoros to intensify its efforts to improve its education system, in order to prevent children under 15 years of age from working.

 

62. CEDAW urged Comoros to: take measures to expand capacity, particularly for the age cohort of 6–14 years old; identify and implement measures to reduce the gender disparity in primary and secondary school; address causes of the high dropout rates of adolescent girls from school such as gender stereotypes, poverty and sexual harassment in school, teenage pregnancies and early marriages; revise the school curriculum in order to eliminate stereotypes which impeded girls” wide curriculum options and career paths; and improve the literacy rate of women through the adoption of comprehensive programmes of formal and non-formal education and training.

 

63. UNESCO encouraged Comoros to focus its efforts on the access to and permanence in education by vulnerable groups of the population, especially girls and women.

 

Right to development and environmental issues

 

67. UNHCR stated that the past 30 years in Comoros had been marked by precipitation fluctuations and intervals in the season, early and prolonged droughts and a 1 °C rise in the average temperature. In 2012, severe weather and flooding devastated several villages resulting in homelessness, infrastructural damage and disruption to the education of 20,000 children.

17. JS draws attention to an increase in juvenile delinquency and acts of sexual violence mainly against women and children. There has accordingly been a sharp increase in the number of murders in recent years; newborn babies abandoned in dustbins; women and men raped and/or murdered; and sometimes political assassinations.

 

18. JS notes that measures have been taken to tackle violence against women and the family (Family Code, criminalization of sexual violence). Nevertheless, the lack of victim protection measures (measures to remove a woman battered by her husband from the home, measures to relocate vulnerable or mistreated children) presents a challenge.

 

20. JS recommends that Comoros should publicize and implement national laws on the rights of children and women and ensure the sustainability of initiatives to promote and protect those rights. JS also recommends improving the counselling units for child victims of abuse and ill-treatment established since 2004, and creating an agency to provide assistance and temporary care for women victims of violence and a fund to provide them with medical, psychological and legal support. JS also recommends setting up a legal committee on case files for all forms of violence.

 

21. JS also notes a new form of exploitation of children from poor families. The same is the case for children placed in foster-families, who are often subjected to violence; that certainly has harmful consequences, such as increased delinquency and the disruption of schooling at a young age.

 

22. The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children (GIEACPC) states that corporal punishment of children is lawful in Comoros, despite the Government’s acceptance of recommendations to prohibit it in the home and other settings made during the UPR in 2009 and the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

 

23. GIEACPC indicates that corporal punishment of children in the home, schools, penal institutions and alternative care settings is not prohibited. The near universal acceptance of a degree of violent punishment in childhood and deeply held views that parents and other adults have a “right” to physically punish children could challenge efforts to achieve prohibition. This situation also means that corporal punishment — at least to some degree — is typically not readily perceived as a violent act in the same way as, for example, sexual and other socially unacceptable forms of violence: prohibiting laws, as well as recommendations to enact them, would be effective only when they explicitly refer to corporal punishment.

 

Right to health

 

42. The CNDHL notes, however, that there is not always effective access to health care due to staff shortages and overcrowding at facilities. In addition, some services (e.g. birth, emergency) are often free in theory, but the families of those treated are frequently obliged to pay additional fees and buy the various consumables used for the treatment. What is more, the CNDHL deplores the non-imposition of penalties for chronic absenteeism and the unprofessionalism among medical personnel. The CNDHL recommends improving access to health care for vulnerable persons, including persons with disabilities, pregnant women, children and older persons.

 

43. The CNDHL draws attention to infanticides due to unwanted pregnancies and the lack of shelters for unwanted children.

 

Right to education

 

44. JS notes that there remain problems with children’s access to education and the supervision of children in difficult circumstances. The Ministry of Education has recorded a drastic drop in pupil numbers. Each year, the pass rate has been falling for many reasons, including the fact that children are dropping out of primary school or their schooling is not provided for. JS recommends that Comoros should facilitate children’s access to primary schools, promote the return to school of children who drop out, and accelerate the implementation of the 2013–2015 Interim Education Plan.

 

Persons with disabilities

 

46. The CNDHL also recommends implementing the Interim Education Plan with emphasis on access to education for children with disabilities.