CRC/C/OPSC/IND/CO/1
Below is a short summary of some of the key issues from the Committee on the Rights of the Child's 66th session concluding observations for India. Read the full text, and you can find other documents related to the Committee's 66th session (including alternative reports submitted by NGOs and the Committee's concluding observations for other States reviewed in this session) on the Committee’s session page.
Measures adopted to prevent offences prohibited under the Protocol: The Committee urges the State party to establish effective mechanisms to identify and monitor children at risk of becoming victims to the offences under the Optional Protocol and carry out research on the nature and extent of the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
Adoption: The Committee urges the State party to develop and implement policies and legal provisions to guarantee that all cases of adoption are in full conformity with the Optional Protocol and take all necessary measures to prevent the stealing of babies from hospitals and their abandonment in the cradle centres, fraudulent birth registration, and intermediaries from attempting to persuade mother to give children in adoption, as well as ensure that such practices are adequately sanctioned.
Child sex tourism: The Committee urges the State party to implement an effective regulatory framework and take all necessary measures to prevent and eliminate child sex tourism and to ensure that cases of child sex tourism are investigated and duly prosecuted. The Committee urges the State party to establish a surveillance system to detect online pornography.
Existing criminal or penal laws and regulations: The Committee recommends that the State party revise its penal law and bring it into full compliance with the Optional Protocol, and ensure that the law is effectively enforced in practice. The Committee urges the State party to expressly stipulate that child victims of the offences under the Optional Protocol are not considered as offenders.
Extraterritorial jurisdiction and extradition: The Committee recommends that the State party take steps to ensure that domestic legislation enables it to establish and exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction in all cases listed under the Optional Protocol, including extraterritorial jurisdiction without the criterion of double criminality.
Access to justice: The Committee urges the State party to strengthen measures to protect the rights and interests of child victims of the offences prohibited under the Optional Protocol at all stages of the criminal justice and any accountability process, amongst other things by ensuring complaint mechanisms and counselling are easily accessible.
Recovery and reintegration of victims: The Committee urges the State party to take all the appropriate measures for the physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of child victims of offences under the Optional Protocol and ensure that those measures take place in an environment which fosters the self-respect and dignity of the child including by establishing mechanisms and infrastructure for providing recovery and rehabilitation support to child victims of all offences under the Optional Protocol. Amongst other things the State party should ensure that effective measures are adopted for the review and reconsideration of a child’s placement in institutions at regular intervals and take all necessary measures to locate their families and ensure family reintegration.
