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Summary: A compilation of extracts featuring child-rights issues from the reports submitted to the second Universal Periodic Review. There are extracts from the 'National Report', the 'Compilation of UN Information' and the 'Summary of Stakeholders' Information'. Also included is the list of accepted and rejected recommendations. Mali – 15th Session – 2012 Scroll to: National Report (Read about the first cycle review) Report only available in French at the moment. Compilation of UN information 6. In 2009 and 2010, the United Nations System Country Team in Mali (SNU-Mali) noted that efforts had been made in the field of human rights: national policies and action plans for the promotion and protection of human rights – on equality of the sexes, 2009–2018; early or forced marriage measures; discontinuation of the practice of excision, 2008–2012; and elimination of child labour had been drawn up and/or approved. 10. In October 2012, the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights (ASG) stated that women were the primary victims of the conflict in northern Mali and had been disproportionately affected by the situation. Their human rights, to employment, education and access to basic social services, had been seriously curtailed. 12. In 2011, the United Nations Resident Coordinator observed that the adoption of the Personal and Family Code containing provisions contrary to international conventions was a major concern in relation to the rights of women and girls. 13. In 2011, the United Nations Resident Coordinator noted that, despite some progress, women continued to face real obstacles in access to property and microcredit, secondary and higher education, employment and income-generating activities. Regarding the role of women in the agricultural sector, SNU-Mali reported that women were confined to market gardening and that their contribution to foreign exchange-earning crops remained unappreciated. 17. In October 2012, the ASG noted that when the MNLA was advancing and assuming control of northern Mali, there were reports of summary executions of members of the military, rapes, looting, forced displacement and forced child recruitment. 20. In July 2012, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) expressed grave concern over the situation in northern Mali, where evidence showed children were being killed or injured by explosive devices. 21. UNICEF also reported that child protection issues in the north of Mali were a major problem with reports of unaccompanied children, association of children with armed groups and sexual violence. UNICEF called on all parties to the conflict, leaders and community members to ensure that children were protected from the harmful impact of armed conflict and did not participate in hostilities. 23. In October 2012, the ASG noted that in northern Mali, forced marriages were reportedly common, and women were being sold and forced to remarry, which was akin to rape and commercial sexual exploitation. He added that there were lists being compiled by the extreme Islamist groups of women who had had children out of wedlock or were unmarried and pregnant. These lists could indicate that these women were at risk of being subjected to cruel and inhuman punishment. 27. The International Labour Organization Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (ILO Committee of Experts) stated that approximately two children out of three between the ages of 5 and 17 years were engaged in work. In the report of the International Labour Office, UNICEF and the World Bank issued in 2009, it was noted that agriculture was the sector employing by far the highest number of children – 83 per cent of all children under the age of 15. Next in order were domestic service, with 10 per cent, and trade and industry accounting for the remaining 6 per cent. It was also emphasized that girls were relatively more numerous in domestic service, a sector which exposed them to a high risk of exploitation, including physical and psychological ill-treatment and sexual abuse. 28. The ILO Committee of Experts took note of the technical validation of the National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Child Labour in Mali (PANETEM) and its adoption in 2011. In addition, it strongly encouraged Mali to intensify its effort to combat child labour; to remove children from the worst forms of labour and to provide information on the results achieved in protecting girls engaged in domestic work against economic and sexual exploitation as well as on the implementation of PANETEM. 29. The ILO Committee of Experts noted that, despite measures already taken, the trafficking of children still constituted a problem in practice. It urged Mali to ensure that children under 18 were protected against sale and trafficking, that investigations and prosecutions of offenders were carried out and that penalties were imposed. Furthermore, in view of the importance of trans-border trafficking, the ILO Committee of Experts urged Mali to take measures such as the establishment of a system for the exchange of information on child trafficking networks and the arrest of persons working in these networks. 45. OCHA stated that in southern Mali, the effects of long-term drought had led to food insecurity and the loss of livelihoods of about 3.5 million people. OCHA added that the food situation was especially precarious as a plague of locusts in northern Mali was spreading and threatening agricultural production in the rest of the country. UNICEF reported the estimation that in July 2012, some 560,000 young children were at risk of acute malnutrition, including between 175,000 to 220,000 who required life-saving treatment. According to UNICEF, while the majority of malnourished children lived in the south of the country, conditions in the north had sharply reduced access for families to food, water and basic health care. 47. In 2011, SNU-Mali emphasized that more than 80 per cent of the population was concentrated in rural areas, which had a higher proportion of people living below the poverty line. It also noted that women and children were the most vulnerable population groups, a situation that was largely attributable to sociocultural constraints. 49. In August 2012, UNICEF reported cases of cholera in northern Mali and underscored that with the rainy season and population mobility related to the political instability a high risk of epidemic spread was feared. It also highlighted that the lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities put children at risk of life-threatening diseases such diarrhoea and dehydration. 50. The High Commissioner underscored that 94 per cent of clinics and hospitals in northern Mali had been destroyed or looted by the armed groups, that key medical programmes had been suspended and that 90 per cent of health personnel had relocated to the south. UNICEF also expressed concern about a lack of skilled care for women during pregnancy and childbirth increasing the risk of maternal and newborn deaths. 51. In 2010, United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids (UNAIDS) estimated that 100,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in Mali. SNU-Mali noted that seroprevalence was significant among certain high-risk groups such as women, particularly women working in the informal economy and the domestic sector, young people, children and disabled persons. In 2010, the United Nations Resident Coordinator reported the preparation of a national plan for HIV/AIDS prevention targeting young people and adolescents. In 2010 SNU-Mali mentioned that information concerning the effective prevention of AIDS, the struggle against misconceptions concerning contamination and measures against isolation and discrimination affecting infected persons had been widely disseminated. 52. The UNAIDS Executive Director reiterated his call for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and encouraged Mali to build on its success by redoubling efforts to ensure an HIV-free generation. An estimated 12 per cent of pregnant women had received an HIV test in 2008 and that same year, only 18 per cent of infants born to HIV-positive women had been given anti-retroviral prophylaxis to prevent mother-to-child transmission. 53. In August 2012, UNICEF noted that there had been over 300,000 children in schools in the northern regions of Mali (Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao) before the crisis, whose education had been affected. It also highlighted that children out of school were at higher risk of recruitment, violence and exploitation. The ASG noted that as a result of the closure of schools in the north of the country after many of the teachers had fled; children had been deprived of their right to education. He added that extreme poverty, lack of employment and education was making it easy for young people to fall prey to armed groups. 54. In September 2012, OCHA reported that in the south of Mali, the education system was under pressure due to the influx of conflict-affected students from the north of the country. Moreover, some schools had been affected by flooding and some of them had been temporarily occupied as shelter for local residents. In addition, OCHA noted that fourteen elementary schools in Mopti had been occupied my military groups. 55. In regard to education, the ILO Committee of Experts noted that, although there had been substantial progress, Mali was still far from achieving the objective of universal primary education by 2015. It highlighted that the low rates of secondary school attendance reflected that a significant number of children were dropping out after primary school. Considering that compulsory schooling was one of the most effective means of combating child labour, the ILO Committee of Experts strongly encouraged Mali to pursue its efforts to improve the functioning of its education system, particularly by increasing school attendance rates. 60. In September 2012, OCHA reported that nearly half a million people had been forced to flee from their homes due to the conflict in the north of the country. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there were 185,889 internally displaced persons (IDPs). UNICEF noted that in Bamako, 57 per cent of the IDPs were children and young teenagers (from 0 to 17 years old). Summary of stakeholders' information 3. Plan International emphasized that although a Child Protection Code existed, it did not have the force of law. In fact, the Ministry of the Family, Women and Children had intended to review the Code in May 2012, but the coup d’état of 22 March had made that impossible. Plan International also pointed out that the transition government had announced that it would address the matter as soon as the security situation in the country so allowed. 31. AI highlighted that, since March 2012, a number of women and young girls had been raped, sometimes gang-raped, by armed men, including members of the MNLA, in Ménaka and Gao. Some of the women were assaulted and raped as they were getting food supplies in Gao, others were abducted at home or in the street and taken to a military camp. According to AI, in Ménaka, some MNLA members were reported to be targeting Bambara women in particular. To AI’s knowledge, most of the perpetrators of these crimes had not been punished and the rape victims had not received any medical care or compensation. 32. STP stated that many of the sexual abuses committed by MNLA fighters on the civilian population in occupied cities had been based on a lack of discipline and obvious command structures. According to STP, several women and girls had testified to human rights researchers that they deliberately had been abducted and raped by MNLA fighters. Many victims of rape were refusing to testify for fear of being stigmatised. 35. AI collected testimonies indicating that there were child soldiers within the ranks of the armed groups in the three large northern towns and within the Arab militia of Timbuktu. Armed children, some of them wearing uniforms, had been seen travelling in cars or posted at checkpoints. 36. AI urged the armed groups to put an end to the recruitment and use of child soldiers. 37. AI highlighted that despite Mali’s accession to several international standards protecting the rights of children and women, the deeply rooted practice of female genital mutilation persisted. It added that during the previous review, Mali stated that while it could not commit to repressive measures to curb the practice, it was committed to undertaking public education and awareness-raising campaigns. 38. Plan International recalled that female genital mutilation (FGM), known as “excision”, was one of the most common and entrenched practices in the Malian tradition. It indicated that 85.2 per cent of women aged 15 to 45 had been subject to FGM/excision, and added that the prevalence rate was 49.5 per cent for girls aged 0 to 5, and 77.5 per cent for girls aged 6 to 14. It also pointed out that all types of FGM had harmful consequences for the health of girls and women, and that the victims of the most extreme forms of mutilation were particularly at risk of serious, enduring complications. Moreover, the psychosocial consequences of FGM were poorly understood and rarely taken into account. In addition, no law had been drafted on FGM since 2008 and, the legal gap notwithstanding, there were many factors hampering the eradication of that practice. 39. Plan International recommended that the Government of Mali should, inter alia, adopt legislative measures prohibiting FGM and other practices harmful to children and women, and ensure that the legislation provided that the perpetrators should be brought to justice. 40. The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children (GIEACPC) highlighted that corporal punishment of children was lawful in Mali despite repeated recommendations to prohibit it by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and Mali’s acceptance of the recommendation on the issue made during the 2008 review. 41. Plan International stressed that corporal punishment, which was traditionally a part of children’s upbringing, was permitted and practised in the family home. It also noted that the ban on corporal punishment in schools was not enforced and that the use of such punishment was even preferred, as having educational value. GIEACPC mentioned that in the penal system, corporal punishment was considered unlawful as a sentence for crime and as a disciplinary measure in penal institutions, but there was no explicit prohibition. 42. GIEACPC recommended that legislation was enacted to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment of children in all settings, including the home, as a matter of priority. Plan International recommended, inter alia, to revise, if necessary, the draft Child Protection Code, by bringing it into line with international standards, and to adopt and implement it. 48. Plan International stressed that both the north and the south of Mali were in the grip of a food and nutritional crisis. It pointed out that the nutritional situation of children under the age of 5 had deteriorated and that the national rate of acute malnutrition was 10.9 per cent, while the rate of severe malnutrition was 2.2 per cent. The occupation of regions in the north by the armed Islamic groups Ansar Dine and AQMI had aggravated this precarious situation, as had the coup d’état of 22 March 2012. 49. In view of the current situation in the country, Plan International recommended adopting, as soon as possible, a programme approach integrating child protection, gender, education, food security, nutrition and health, so as to reduce the impact of the crisis on children and women. It also recommended developing a coherent agricultural policy, adapted to Mali’s particular climatic and environmental challenges, with a view to controlling the endemic drought. Lastly, it recommended developing a culture of social peace and sustainable development through good governance and an inclusive, systematic dialogue between the different strata of society, including civil society, non-governmental organizations and children. 51. AI noted that the right to education had been severely undermined in the north of Mali by AQIM and Ansar Eddin. STP also reported that, in some areas in north of the country, schools and libraries had been burned; only Islamic schools had been spared from destruction. Accepted and Rejected Recommendations - To follow
Tuesday22nd January 2013 - 2.30 p.m. - 6.00 p.m
Compilation of UN information
Summary of Stakeholder information
Accepted and Rejected Recommendations