COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD EXAMINES REPORT OF KAZAKHSTAN ON SALE OF CHILDREN AND CHILD PROSTITUTION AND PORNOGRAPHY
The Committee on the Rights of the Child today reviewed the initial report of Kazakhstan on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
In introductory remarks to the Committee, Madina Jarbussynova, Ambassador at Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, said the Government was carrying out a huge amount of work to improve the lives of citizens, and had increased efforts for children, in particular as the economy had improved. Protecting the rights of children was one of the main foci of the Government. A targeted programme to improve the status of women and children and to increase the protection of children had been undertaken. There were constant efforts to protect women and children from violence. The Government was convinced that this session of the Committee would help Kazakhstan to further help its children.
Committee Expert Yanghee Lee, who served as Rapporteur for the report of Kazakhstan, said Kazakhstan was to be congratulated for the submission of its report. Kazakhstan was the ninth largest country in the world, and the wealthiest in Central Asia. The ratification of two ILO Conventions and various other forms of protection were to be praised. However, other agreements, such as the Hague Convention had not yet been ratified, and there had been no answer to the List of Issues sent by the Committee, which was thus lacking statistical data and others. The State party report stated that mechanisms had not been adequately developed, and more information was required on this, and on other matters.
Other Committee Experts raised questions related to, among other things, what was being done to help AIDS orphans; whether awareness-raising efforts had been targeted to children in order to help them to protect themselves; was the scope of child prostitution due to a societal problem, and if so, which one; what exactly was being done for victimised children; issues related to the registration of births and the acquiring of nationality; and numbers of street children and what was being done to protect this particularly vulnerable group; a wide range of legal issues including how children who were victims of sexual exploitation or abuse were protected in the legal process against the perpetrators; and what measures would be taken in the future to cover all acts and facts under the Protocol.
The Committee will release its formal, written concluding observations and recommendations on the initial report of Kazakhstan on the Optional Protocol towards the end of its three-week session which will conclude on 27 January.
The delegation of Kazakhstan also consisted of representatives of the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the United Nations Office at Geneva.
As one of the 192 States parties to the Convention, Kazakhstan is obliged to present periodic reports to the Committee on its efforts to comply with the provisions of the treaty. The delegation was on hand throughout the meeting to present the report and to answer questions raised by Committee Experts.
When the Committee reconvenes in public at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 12 January, it will take up the third periodic report of Peru (CRC/C/125/Add.6).
Report of Kazakhstan
The initial report of Kazakhstan (CRC/C/OPSA/KAZ/1) on the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography says that the Optional Protocol takes precedence over domestic legislation. This norm is contained in article 4 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan, which provides that “international treaties ratified by the Republic shall take precedence over its laws and be directly applicable, except in cases where the application of an international treaty requires the promulgation of a law”. The sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography are prohibited in Kazakhstan. The Rights of Children in Kazakhstan Act of 8 August 2002 guarantees the personal inviolability of children, including from acts of a sexual nature, from prostitution and pornography and unlawful removal.
The Criminal Code of Kazakhstan, which entered into force on 1 January 1998, includes article 133, which establishes liability for the purchase or sale of minors or other transactions involving their transfer or acquisition. According to information provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2002 investigations were conducted in Kazakhstan in connection with five criminal cases involving trafficking in minors. The Constitution of Kazakhstan contains a provision prohibiting forced labour. This provision is supplemented by special legislation on child labour. Kazakhstan provides for criminal liability for sexual relations and other acts of a sexual nature with a person under the age of 16; clients of child prostitution are also liable. The Criminal Code of Kazakhstan places particular emphasis on the involvement of minors in the commission of antisocial acts, including in prostitution.
The Criminal Code does not make special reference to the dissemination of materials and articles relating to child pornography. However, it establishes general criminal liability for the dissemination of pornography. In Kazakhstan, only physical persons are criminally liable for committed offences. If acts involving the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography constituted the main activity or one of the types of activity of a legal person, the question of liability in this case can be considered only with respect to the individual employees of the legal person (perpetrator, organizer, instigator, accomplice) who participated in the commission of the offence as part of a group of persons, an organized group or a criminal association. Under Kazakh law, all the acts and activities referred to in the Optional Protocol are considered to be criminal offences.
Presentation of Report
Madina Jarbussynova, Ambassador at Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, said the Optional Protocol was ratified in 2001. The initial report was presented in 2004. Today, in Kazakhstan, there were 4.9 million children, which was 33 per cent of the population. There were 3.7 million children under 14. The Government was carrying out a huge amount of work to improve the lives of citizens and had increased efforts for children, in particular as the economy had improved. Protecting the rights of children was one of the main foci of the Government. A targeted programme to improve the status of women and children and to increase the protection of children had been undertaken. Kazakhstan was a country of transit for trafficking, and therefore family and children were under the protection of the State. A law on the rights of the child that met the requirements of the Convention on the right to life and to live in dignity and protection from prostitution, pornography and illegal trafficking had been adopted.
Children had free and specialised health care, Ms. Jarbussynova said. The law on education guaranteed free education to all children, and mandatory education existed. Pre-school education was also obligatory for 5-6 year olds. A National Plan on Human Rights had been begun which would ensure human rights education for all. An Ombudsman for Children, under the aegis of the Ministry of Education was also under consideration and should be installed in 2007. A law on preventing juvenile delinquency had been adopted in 2004 which included measures to protect the rights and interests of minors to prevent them from being drawn into crime, and to protect them if this was the case. Child prostitution and sexual exploitation of children had been criminalized, as had been the illegal distribution of child pornography.
Criminal responsibility had been established for those abusing children. According to statistics, in 2003, illegal trafficking in children was identified in eight individuals, who were punished. No cases had been brought in 2004. In 2004 and 2005, individuals had been found guilty of child pornography-related offences. More cases were being brought to the attention of the authorities in this regard. A law had been adopted to add to the legislation in place on illegal immigration, in order to combat trafficking. There were also crisis centres for women and children, through which significant numbers had passed. A booklet had been published to sensitise children to issues related to law-breaking. A special department had been set up to determine ways to combat the phenomenon of illegal trafficking and an International Centre had been established to train specialists in the fight against trafficking and illegal immigration. There were constant efforts to prevent women and children from violence. The Government was convinced that this session of the Committee would help Kazakhstan to further help its children.
Discussion
YANGHEE LEE, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report of Kazakhstan, said Kazakhstan was to be congratulated for the submission of its report. Kazakhstan was the ninth largest country in the world, and the wealthiest in Central Asia. The ratification of two ILO Conventions and various other forms of protection were to be praised. However, other agreements, such as the Hague Convention had not yet been ratified, and there had been no answer to the List of Issues sent by the Committee, which was thus lacking statistical data and others. The State party report stated that mechanisms had not been adequately developed, and more information was required on this.
Further information required by Ms. Lee included who was responsible for the implementation of the Convention and the Protocol, and what their budget was; whether civil society had been involved in the preparation of the report; whether a comprehensive study had been undertaken to determine how children were involved in prostitution; further information on reports of child sex workers in the south of the country; figures for sexually-transmitted infections among girls and whether there was a comprehensive approach for dealing with sex workers in this context; whether there was a comprehensive National Plan of Action for combating trafficking other than that for 2004-2005; information on internal trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, as the Committee had received reports on this; and what happened to the victims of trafficking and those children who had been subject to prostitution and pornography.
Other Experts raised a series of questions pertaining to what was being done to help AIDS orphans, as there was a high level of infection among baby-boomers in the population; whether awareness-raising efforts had been targeted to children in order to help them to protect themselves; the need for a statistical system that would provide disaggregated data in order to give a clearer picture of what was going on in the country; what was the purpose of the moral guidelines that had been issued and who used them; was the scope of child prostitution due to a societal problem, and if so, which one; what exactly was being done for victimised children; issues related to the registration of births and the acquiring of nationality; and numbers of street-children and what was being done to protect this particularly vulnerable group.
Madina Jarbussynova, Ambassador at Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, responding to the questions and comments, said on the issue of which Governmental bodies coordinated and implemented the Protocol, the system of State structures in Kazakhstan included the Ministries of Education, Justice, Protection, Health, Culture, Foreign Affairs, and the Committee on Human Rights under the General Prosecutor’s Office, but the coordinating activities were carried out by the National Commission on Family and Women’s Affairs, which had the status of a Ministry. A Special Committee on the Rights of the Child, under the Ministry of Education and Science, would be established, which would coordinate all efforts and measures to implement the Protocol. Budgetary figures would be provided in writing.
There was an inter-departmental Commission to combat trafficking, Ms. Jarbussynova said, which coordinated a council of law-enforcement bodies, headed by the Ministry of the Interior and a special Working Group on trafficking. These had been established in the context of the National Action Plan for 2004-2005, whose work had not been concluded, but would continue in the National Action Plan for 2006-2008, which contained many specific measures and events to facilitate a resolution of these difficult issues. The work of the Coordinating Council and the Inter-Departmental Commission had led to greater transparency, and statistics had increased proportionally. The very targeted approach to accounting was helping Kazakhstan to move towards its objective of adopting concrete measures to curb illegal trafficking in human beings and children in particular.
It was difficult for Kazakhstan to prevent the dissemination of child pornography over the Internet, Ms. Jarbussynova said, when working only within its own resources, and it was therefore working with partners to eliminate it on a global level. On HIV/AIDS and the situation of infected children, in Kazakhstan, which was working closely with the Global Fund, a National Plan had been developed to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and to rehabilitate those who were infected. Maximum transparency was required in the figures related to HIV/AIDS in order to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS effectively. The situation in Kazakhstan, due to the high level of education and the programmes surrounding HIV/AIDS, was not particularly problematic. The need for all groups to work together to prevent a rise in cases was fully recognised and understood. The high number of young people having sexual relations was being tackled.
Two pilot projects had been undertaken over the past two years to establish a Juvenile Justice System, following a decision by the Supreme Court, and focusing particularly on the rights of the child in the justice system, and performing preventative work among children.
In a second round of questions, Experts took up various topics, including why the possession of child pornography was not criminalized; a wide range of legal issues including the extradition practices in the context of double criminality and how children who were victims of sexual exploitation or abuse were protected in the legal process against the perpetrators; why the submission of a child to forced labour was not punished on a criminal basis; and what measures would be taken in the future to cover all acts and facts under the Protocol.
Responding, Ms. Jarbussynova said there were potentially some problems with the translation from Russian into English, which caused some interpretation problems. The rest of her answers would be based on the criminal code of Kazakhstan where it was linked to the provisions of the Protocol. The Criminal Code had a provision on the trafficking of minors, and it was believed that this fully covered the provisions of the Protocol. On child prostitution, article 131 of the Criminal Code covered the enticement of the minor into a criminal act by a legal adult, who could be condemned to 5 years of prison, and therefore covered the issue of who was punished most effectively. Article 132 continued on the logic of this, and should be looked at consequently.
On whether local authorities had the possibility of monitoring and ensuring that those guilty of producing or transmitting child pornography were brought to justice, this was indeed the case, Ms. Jarbussynova said. As to the protection of the rights of children who were witnesses in an adult criminal trial and their participation in the criminal proceedings, a provision had been drafted providing for their protection in such proceedings. Further answers would be provided in writing by the end of the week.
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