CRC/IDN/CO/3-4
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 Indonesia. 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.
Corporal punishment: The Committee urges the State party to amend its current legislation to prohibit corporal punishment everywhere and carry out public education campaigns about the negative consequences of ill treatment of children and promote positive, non-violent forms of discipline as an alternative to corporal punishment.
Adoption: The Committee recommends that the State party amend the current legislation on adoption so as to ensure that it conforms to articles 2 and 3 of the Convention; take the necessary measures to monitor and supervise effectively the system of adoption of children in accordance with the principle of the best interest of the child; accede to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption.
Support for children affected by armed conflict: The Committee recommends that the State party develop, in collaboration with NGOs and international organisations, a comprehensive system of psychosocial support and assistance for children affected by [armed] conflict, which also ensures their privacy.
Child marriage: The Committee recommends that the State party amend its legislation and raise the marriage age for girls to 18 years, and furthermore review the age limits set by different legislation, in order to ensure that they conform to the principles and provisions of the Convention and under no circumstance lead to a child under the age of 18 being considered as an adult.
Non-discrimination: The Committee urges the State party to vigorously address all forms discrimination, and to repeal all laws which discriminate against girls and eliminate negative attitudes and practices towards girls by formulating a comprehensive strategy. The State party should take all necessary measures to ensure equal access of children with disabilities and indigenous peoples to all public services and to eliminate discrimination against children based on their religion.
Best interests of the child: The Committee recommends that the State party strengthen its efforts to ensure that the right of the child to have his or her best interests taken into consideration is explicitly mentioned in the State party’s domestic legislation and consistently applied.
Forced evictions: The Committee urges the State party to take all necessary legal measures to ensure that forced evictions are only used as a measure of last resort, always subject to adequate alternatives, and may under no circumstance lead to homelessness.
Respect for the views of the child: The Committee recommends that the State party ensure the participation of children in vulnerable situations and take into consideration these views in decision-making procedures affecting children. The Committee further urges the State party to amend its legislation in order to avoid any limitation of the child’s right to be heard or express his or her view.
Birth registration / name and nationality: The Committee recommends that the State party ensure that all children born in Indonesia are registered and issued birth certificates, regardless of their nationality, religion and status at birth, and that birth registration is facilitated and free of charge under all circumstances.
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion: The Committee urges the State party to amend its legislation in order to effectively guarantee the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion of children of all beliefs. The Committee further recommends that the State party take all necessary measures to combat intolerance on the grounds of religion and urges it ensure that non-Muslims are governed by secular law.
Sexual exploitation and abuse: The Committee recommends that the State party strengthen its efforts to protect and prevent children from sexual abuse and exploitation and develop a strategy to respond to the special needs of child victims of sexual exploitation and abuse.
Harmful practices based on tradition, culture, religion or superstition: The Committee urges the State party to adopt legislation to fully prohibit FGM in all its forms and to provide for physical and psychological recovery programmes for victims of FGM, as well as establish reporting and complaints mechanisms accessible to girls who have become victims, or fear becoming victim of the practice.
Freedom of the child from all forms of violence: The Committee urges the State party to take all necessary measures to establish adequate monitoring mechanisms to effectively eliminate violence suffered by children in conflict with the law and ensure that girls are adequately protected from all forms of violence, and are supported by programmes providing financial and legal aid to allow full access to the formal justice system.
Helplines: The Committee recommends that the State party increase resources to ensure that children in every province are aware of, and have 24-hour-access to the helpline, and that sufficient follow-up is provided.
Children deprived of a family environment: The Committee recommends that the State party strengthen the support provided to biological families and provide community-based assistance to families in their child-rearing, by trained social workers and provide family type care wherever possible for children who cannot stay with their families. The State party should periodically review placement of the child.
Children with disabilities: The Committee recommends that the State party take every necessary effort to implement the National Plan of Action on Disabilities 2013 - 2022, and urges the State party to make all necessary legal amendments to ensure that discrimination on the grounds of disability be expressly prohibited, as well as ensure that all provisions resulting in de facto discrimination of persons with disabilities be repealed.
Health and health services: The Committee urges the State party to increase its health budget and expand access to primary health-care services across all provinces, and deliver these services in such a manner as to be accessible and affordable for populations in both urban and rural areas, independent of their economic background, and in particular to ensure the provision of primary health-care services for all pregnant women and children. The State party should ensure that health-care services include access to sanitation and clean drinking water.
Adolescent health: The Committee recommends that the State party take all necessary legal amendments to ensure full and unconditional access of adolescents to information and services regarding sexual and reproductive health and contraception, without the need for consent from parents or husbands as well as ensure that information is treated in a confidential manner.
HIV/AIDS: The Committee urges the State party to develop and strengthen policies and programmes to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to provide care and support for children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, the Committee urges the State party to provide for counselling and improve follow-up treatment.
Drug and substance misuse: The Committee recommends that the State party allocate all necessary human, technical and financial resources to address the incidence of drug use by children and adolescents by providing children and adolescents with accurate and objective information as well as drug dependence treatment and harm reduction services.
Standard of living: The Committee recommends that the State party develop a holistic anti-poverty strategy and take all necessary measures to understand and address the root causes of, and eliminate child poverty, and to establish poverty reduction strategies.
Education: The Committee urges the State party to take prompt measures to ensure the accessibility of quality education for all children in the State party’s territory, in particular to ensure that education is available to all asylum-seeking and refugee children, to children of migrant workers, and to children not holding birth certificates. The State party should ensure that corporal punishment is no longer practiced in schools.
Early childhood development: The Committee recommends that the State party ensure that early childhood care and education is free and that institutions are accessible, adequately staffed and furnished, as well as capable of providing early childhood care.
Rest, leisure, recreation and cultural and artistic activities: The Committee recommends that the State party pay adequate attention to planning leisure and cultural activities for children, taking into consideration the physical and psychological development of the child.
Asylum-seeking and refugee children: The Committee urges the State party to bring its immigration and asylum legislation into full compliance with the Convention and other relevant international standards. The State party should ensure that the best interest of the child is always regarded as a primary consideration in all immigration and asylum processes, and that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are provided with adequate guardianship and free legal representation.
Child labour: The Committee urges the State party to make every effort to ensure that those children, who do work, do so in accordance with international standards and that the involvement of children in labour is based on genuine free choice, and does in no way hamper their education. The State party is urged to amend legislation to ensure the criminalisation of forced labour of children.
Children in street situations: The Committee recommends that the State party allocate every necessary human, technical and financial resource to comprehensively apply a child-protection-based approach. The State party should undertake a systematic assessment of the conditions of children in street situations and amend all legislation treating children in street situations as criminals and take all necessary measures to protect them from violence.
Sale, trafficking and abduction: The Committee urges the State party to improve and extend the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Task Force to cover every part of the country, and to furthermore take vigorous measures to effectively eliminate child-trafficking and to carry out all necessary legal amendments to ensure that child-trafficking is defined and criminalised. The State party should provide for sufficient and adequate reintegration and rehabilitation services.
Administration of juvenile justice: The Committee recommends that the State party consider raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years of age and ensure that deprivation of liberty is used only as a measure of last resort, for the shortest appropriate time, that children are not detained with adults and that detention conditions are compliant with international standards.
