COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD REVIEWS THE REPORT OF GUINEA

The Committee on the Rights of the Child today concluded its consideration of the combined third to sixth periodic report of Guinea on how it implements the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Aly Diané, Permanent Representative of Guinea to the United Nations Office at Geneva, introducing the report, outlined the steps taken to strengthen the conformity of the national legislative framework with the Convention and its Optional Protocols, such as the adoption of the 2012 Code on Military Justice and the 2017 Anti-Corruption Law, and the 2016 revision of the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedures. Guinea had also revised its national preschool education policy and had put in place in 2015 the National Policy for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights and Wellbeing of Children, whose 2107-2019 work plan put the accent on strengthening the community-based child protection system. Malnutrition rates among children under the age of five had been reduced from 31 per cent in 2012 to 26 per cent in 2015, and measures were being taken to improve educational outcomes for children, particularly in rural areas. All the efforts by Guinea and its partners notwithstanding, many challenges remained in putting in place an environment in which all children would enjoy the equality of opportunity and the full enjoyment of their fundamental rights.

Committee Experts recognized the progress made in Guinea, but were concerned that it remained limited in light of the needs of children who made up 42 per cent of the country’s population and 60 per cent of those living in poverty. Budgetary allocations for health remained significantly below the target set by the World Health Organization, while the mortality rate among children under the age of five was significantly high. Children were dying due to preventable causes, malaria and malnutrition in particular. Raising concern about discrimination against different groups of children, including albino children, children with disabilities, and uncircumcised girls, the Experts asked whether a comprehensive anti-discrimination strategy would be adopted. In light of the 2017 Anti-Corruption Law, what was being done to ensure that budgetary allocations for children were spent appropriately, and what mechanisms were in place to prevent and mitigate harmful impacts of business operations, mining in particular, on the environment and children’s rights? Other concerns included the situation of the estimated two million children and youth who were not registered at birth, low school enrolment and high drop-out rates, especially in rural areas, and the fact that more than half of the children in Guinea worked, despite the legal prohibition of child labour.

Suzanne Aho Assouma, Coordinator of the Committee’s Task Force on Guinea, in her concluding remarks, urged Guinea to increase investment in the planning and effective implementation of certain strategies, adopt the bills already in the pipeline, improve and increase budgetary allocations for health and education, and adequately care for children affected by the Ebola epidemics.

Mr. Diané reiterated his Government’s commitment to press ahead, with the assistance of the Committee and the entire international community, and stressed that the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals would not be possible without protecting the children of Guinea.

The delegation of Guinea consisted of representatives of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Advancement of Women and Children’s Affairs, National Childhood Directorate, Guinean Committee on the Protection of Children’s Rights, Juvenile Court, and the Permanent Mission of Guinea to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage. The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings will be available via the following link: http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/.


The Committee will next meet in public on Tuesday, 15 January at 3 p.m. to review the fifth periodic report of Syria (CRC/C/SYR/5).


Presentation of the Report

ALY DIANÉ, Permanent Representative of Guinea to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said that the report contained information on measures taken to implement the Committee’s concluding observations following Guinea’s review in 2013 and an overview of developments in law and practice since. Several steps had been taken to improve the conformity of the legislation and practice with the Convention and its Optional Protocol, including the adoption of two laws with a direct impact on the situation of human rights, namely the law on maintaining of order and the law on judicial organization, which had established, inter alia, two new appeal courts and the justices of peace. The law on soldiers set the minimum age of recruitment into the armed forces at 18 years of age, and the Code on Military Justice had been adopted in 2012. The Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedures were revised in 2016, and the Anti-Corruption Law was adopted in 2017.

The national preschool education policy and the child protection policy had been revised, and the National Policy for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights and Wellbeing of Children had been adopted in 2015. Its triennial work plan for the period 2017-2019 put the accent on the strengthening of the community-based child protection system and inter-sectoral collaboration. The National Social Protection Policy of 2016 provided for social transfers, the development of access to basic social services in communities, poverty reduction, and social action and services for specific vulnerable groups, including children victims of trafficking in persons and forced labour. The National Child Directorate was the governmental body charged with coordination and implementation of the Convention and its Optional Protocols, and for the implementation of the national children’s policy. Progress had been achieved in the implementation of recommendations concerning data collection on the implementation of the Convention and its Optional Protocols, including in the framework of a response to Ebola epidemics in 2015, which, as foreseen in the 2017-2019 work plan, would be expanded into the areas of the country not affected by the epidemics, and which would also collect data on other child protection issues such as female genital mutilation and child marriage.

The law on the functioning of the national human rights institution had been promulgated in 2014, and its 33 members, including eight women, nominated by a presidential decree, had been sworn in on 8 January 2015. Civil society organizations actively participated in the planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes and projects concerning the Convention and its Optional Protocols, Mr. Diané stressed. Guinea firmly supported the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, he said, adding that the European Union had financed a project supporting the modernization of civil registration. Currently, three out of four children under the age of five were registered at birth, which represented important progress compared to 2008, when only 43 per cent of the children had been registered. With regard to violence against children, training modules for members of the armed and security forces had been developed, which put an accent on the prohibition of torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment, while the revised Child Code sanctioned the corporal punishment of children.

Mr. Diané stressed the engagement of the authorities in promoting the abandonment of harmful traditional practices, in particular female genital mutilation and child marriage, including the public condemnation of such acts by the President in July 2015. The prohibition of those practices was strengthened by the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedures, and the revised Childhood Code. Malnutrition rates among children under the age of five had been reduced from 31 per cent in 2012 to 26 per cent in 2015, Mr. Diané said, outlining measures taken to improve educational outcomes for children, particularly in rural areas, which included continuing the education of teachers, the provision of teaching materials and support to schools, the revision of educational inspection services, and others. Regardless of all the efforts by the Government and its partners, many challenges remained for the setting up of an environment in which all children would enjoy the equality of opportunity and the full enjoyment of their fundamental rights.

Questions by the Committees Experts

SUZANNE AHO ASSOUMA, Coordinator of the Committee’s Task Force on Guinea, remarked that the delegation from Guinea was made up entirely of men and wondered whether there were any women leaders in the country.

Other Experts, members of the Task Force, recognized the progress made in Guinea, and said that in light of the needs of the Guinean children, who represented 42 per cent of the population, progress nevertheless remained limited. This was of particular concern given the level of poverty in the country: 50 per cent of the population lived below the poverty threshold and 60 per cent of those were children. Turning to legal and policy frameworks, the Expert asked the delegation to explain the status of the Childhood Code, the system in place to ensure that the policy on child protection and the social protection policy were coordinated, and steps taken to ensure that budgetary allocations for children were spent appropriately, particularly in light of the anticorruption law of 2017.

Another Expert inquired about the status of the national human rights institution, statistics on complaints filed for child right violations, and steps taken to systematically disseminate the provisions of the Convention and its Optional Protocols to professionals and the public in general, including through their translation into local languages. Commending the discussions on the bill on human rights defenders, the Expert asked about its current status and whether civil society organizations were involved in its drafting. What was being done to put in place mechanisms to prevent and mitigate the harmful impact of business operations on the environment and children’s rights, including adopting an adequate Mining Code which would protect the rights of communities in which mining operations took place?

The Expert inquired about the intention to adopt a comprehensive strategy to address all forms of discrimination against all groups of children, including albino children, children who had served sentences, uncircumcised girls, and other vulnerable groups.

Committee Experts commended the setting of the legal age of marriage at 18 in the civil code in 2016, but remained concerned that the old Childhood Code, which left a possibility for children under the age of 18 to be married with the consent of parents or a legal guardian, seemed to prevail in practice. What was being done to uproot traditions and beliefs which prevented children to voice their opinions and for their voices to be taken into account by adults and institutions, and to ensure that the civil and political rights of children were truly respected?

The reform of the civil code in 2016 had brought about improvements in the birth registration system, however, access to registration services remained problematic, primarily because of costs, but also because of beliefs and mistrust that existed among the population. Legal reforms, particularly in the Civil Code and the law on children, were not sufficient to ensure the respect of Guinea’s international obligations in the domain of nationality and statelessness as defined by the United Nations Refugee Agency – what was being done to address this concern?

SUZANNE AHO ASSOUMA, Coordinator of the Committee’s Task Force on Guinea, asked the delegation to outline the steps taken to understand and prevent the phenomenon of infanticide, and to address concerns that remained in relation to the abortion law. It was estimated that there were two million children under the age of 18 who had not been registered at birth. This seemed to be partly due to the fact that the State took a long time to issue birth certificates, and also due to difficulties in accessing civil registry services in remote and forest communities.

On violence against children, did the revised laws prohibit corporal punishment and remove the right of parents to discipline their children? What was being done to counter violence perpetuated by teachers in schools, prevent school violence, and care for victims? Would Guinea prohibit corporal punishment in schools and institutions, including in Koranic schools? Was it a priority for the State to receive and process complaints on sexual violence, abuse and exploitation? How were victims cared for and what protection mechanism existed at the community level?

The Coordinator raised questions about the situation of children in care, the operation of social workers, and support available to children in prison with their mothers.

Replies by the Delegation

In response to questions raised on the Childhood Code, the delegation explained that the revision of the Code had been launched in 2016 and had been undertaken by a team set up by the President himself, under his aegis, and presided over by a Minister. Following the directions of the President, all the ambiguities that existed in relation to child marriage had been eliminated from the text, which was now awaiting the second reading by the National Assembly. A five-year national action plan on the fight against child marriage had been adopted, to drive forward the elimination of this practice.

With regard to the Children’s Policy, the delegation stressed that all actions undertaken to implement it were firmly anchored in the triennial 2017-2019 work plan. This was a cross-cutting policy which came under the aegis of the Ministry for Social Protection, which ensured that all vulnerable groups were equally protected. The National Committee for the follow-up of the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child was the lead implementing and steering body, the delegate clarified. Children could speak and be involved in decision-making, stressed the delegate, noting as an example the takeover of the Office of the President by a girl child for one hour during the national day of the girl child.

A delegate addressed questions on the legislative framework for child protection, and said that the Independent National Human Rights Institution was a constitutional body set up by the organic law which defined its power and attributes, in tune with the Paris Principles. The Institution was not as yet accredited by the United Nations, and this was a legitimate concern. The Institution was made up of representatives from civil society organizations, State bodies, and religious and faith groups, the delegate said, noting that one obstacle to the accreditation was the unequal voting power between different members of the Institution. The delegate stressed the importance of tangible steps taken to promote and protect human rights, including through the complaint mechanism it had set and independent visits to places of detention. A legal clinic had been opened in October 2018 to receive complaints from victims of violations of rights, and support was being provided to non-State actors to support children, particularly those in conflict with the law, and to receive complaints.

Turning to measures in place to reduce statelessness, any child in Guinea whose parents could not be identified was automatically given the nationality, while the revised Civil Code made it possible for either one of the parents to register the birth.

There was no consensus concerning polygamy, said the delegate, noting that the revised Civil Code contained provisions that allowed the practice. The President had returned the revised Code to the National Assembly because it contained provisions incompatible with women’s rights. The debate was there now, and no longer in the Government. The Code had eliminated any discrimination in inheritance rights between children of the same father or mother.

The Mining Code contained provisions related to the protection of the environment, and mining companies were now bound by law to contribute to the reforestation of areas where they had operated. The National Assembly had passed the Disability Act in May 2018, and the President had enacted it in July 2018; the Disability Act recognized the right to inclusive education, among other rights of persons with disabilities.

The matter of child marriage had been permanently settled, said another delegate, and the legal age of marriage was 18 years for all. The only exception could be made in the existence of legitimate causes, decided upon by a judge. One such legitimate cause, for example, could be a girl under the age of 18 who was already a mother, and who requested the permission to marry. There was a procedure for the protection of a minor threatened by forced marriage, which called for the involvement of a social worker and the placing of the child in a shelter, as well as placing the child under legal protection. A child who had been a victim of rape would never be forced to marry. The “legitimate causes” that the law referred to was applicable to situations where the child wished voluntarily to enter a marriage and consented to the early marriage.

The bill on the Child Code prohibited corporal punishment. It provided a definition of acts constituting corporal punishment, and applied to children at home and at school.

The delegation stressed that in the context of decentralization, birth registration was the responsibility of municipalities and communities, and the mayor was the person in charge of the civil service. A support programme for municipalities was in place, and health services had been approached to “piggy-back” birth registration services onto the vaccination campaigns.

An important study on the deprivation of children of the enjoyment of their rights had been recently concluded, and its findings would be used not only to advocate for the children, but would guide the allocation of resources to communities.

Questions by Committee Experts

SUZANNE AHO ASSOUMA, Coordinator of the Committee’s Task Force on Guinea, asked about the budget for health, raising concern that it remained significantly below the target set by the World Health Organization. Furthermore, the staffing in health prefectures was not adequate, including in mother and child health centres, which had a direct negative impact on the access of people to quality health care. What was the status of children with disabilities in the Disability Act, and were there qualified health workers to provide specialized services to them, and qualified teachers to ensure the implementation of the right to inclusive education? The mortality rate in children under the age of five was significantly high, often due to preventable causes. Malaria in particular was endemic and the leading cause of death in the country – what was the State doing in the fight against malaria?

Notwithstanding the progress, the malnutrition rate among children remained a cause of concern, given that 45 per cent of deaths in children under five was due to malnutrition. What steps were being taken to improve food security and reduce malnutrition prevalence rates, particularly in vulnerable regions? The delegation was further asked to outline the approach to improving water and sanitation coverage, prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, mitigate the negative impact of drought and deforestation, and increase the resilience of families at risk of disaster. What programmes were in place to raise living standards, and to reduce dependence on international aid?

On education, another Expert expressed concern about low enrolment rates, high drop-out rates, ill-fitted school infrastructure, and the inadequate number of textbooks. Children with disabilities were virtually excluded from the education system because of the lack of qualified staff, inadequate infrastructure and the lack of awareness. What oversight was there for Koranic schools? Child labour, although prohibited, had been an issue of concern for a long time and over 50 per cent of children were in work, principally in the informal sector. The Expert asked the delegation to inform on the situation of children living and working in the street, including to provide them with necessary support and services, and to curb the apparently wide-spread phenomenon of trafficking in children.

The Committee took positive note of the 2014 reform of the judicial system, which had focused on increasing access to justice, improving conditions in detention centres, and combatting impunity. And yet the deprivation of liberty was the most used measure to sanction children in conflict with the law, and children were often detained with adults, in deficient and overcrowded conditions. What steps were being taken to adopt a juvenile justice system and provide free legal aid to all children in their court proceedings? How many children had been imprisoned and how many had been given alternative sentences?

Turning to the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, an Expert asked for clarification as to how the Childhood Code would address the crimes under this instrument. How would the crimes under the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict be addressed in the country’s legal framework?

RENATE WINTER, Committee Chairperson, asked whether there were cases of children returning to Guinea after having being involved in an armed conflict abroad, or with a terrorist organization, and what structures were in place to guarantee the child’s safe return to the territory, and the provision of support services.

Replies by the Delegation

In the next round of questions, the delegation clarified that according to the law, families had six months to register the birth of a child; such a long delay was due to the fact that many families lived far away from civil registration services.

Malaria and acute respiratory diseases were major diseases affecting children, the delegate said, noting that Ebola epidemics had really tested the national health services. As a result, the national health strategy now stressed the ability to effectively identify and deal with all kinds of epidemics. The provision of health care was organized through health districts; there were 410 health centres, 38 regional hospitals at the prefecture level, and three national hospitals, based in the capital. HIV/AIDS orphans received health care free of charge. One of the challenges in the provision of health care was related to beliefs and practices of the people, who seldom used the official health services, while vaccination was sometimes seen as a witchcraft. This pointed to the need to strengthen information, education, and awareness raising to change mind-sets and behaviours.

As far as water and sanitation services were concerned, 75 per cent of the population had access to clean drinking water, while the sanitation coverage was much weaker: 25 per cent in urban areas and 11 per cent in rural areas. The Government had committed to setting up a dedicated social protection agency, with a $ 5 million initial budget. The reform of the adoption procedures had started in 2015, with the introduction of the moratorium on international adoptions, to allow the authorities sufficient time to align the system with international standards and obligations.

It was not possible to talk about juvenile justice without mentioning the new law on the status of justice in the country, a result of the European Union-supported legislative reform which had done away with anachronistic laws. The 2015 law had established exceptional juvenile courts. A group of international partners, including the United Nations Children’s Fund, had come together to prepare a technical note to the Government concerning the situation of children in the justice system, and had supported the drafting of the Childhood Code that was currently being debated in Parliament.

The revised Criminal Code of 2016 had raised the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 13 years of age, and the offenders under the age of 13 could only be monitored and supervised by judicial authorities. A real bottleneck in the juvenile justice was the lack of specialized juvenile prosecution services, due to which children were often dealt with by the common law magistrates rather than specialized prosecutors and judges. In such case, the juvenile justice authorities would notify the magistrate and prosecutors to ensure that the juvenile justice procedure was triggered. As part of the justice reform system, the Youth Protection Department had been established in the Ministry of Justice, which was a welcome step forward.

It was hard to say how many minors were in detention in the country, but at any given time there had never been more than 100; two-thirds of minors received alternative sentences to detention. Admittedly, conditions of detention of minors put in the central prison were not up to standards, but the authorities had no other option due to the lack of juvenile detention facilities. The pre-trial detention of minors was often undertaken to protect the child and was in his or her best interest, since their safety outside of the prison could not be guaranteed because of the nature of the crime committed.

The Criminal Code provided for the crimes against children, as did the Childhood Code; a crime against a child was an aggravating circumstance. The African Charter for Children’s Wellbeing prohibited the long-term incarceration of a child with the mother who was serving her sentence; the children of mothers who received long-term sentences were cared for by the social services. The 2016 Code of Criminal Procedure set out the conditions of legal aid, but this provision could not be implemented due to the lack of financial resources.

Corruption was certainly a reality and a great matter of concern in Guinea which had prompted the Government to develop a bill on the prohibition and repression of all acts of corruption that the National Assembly had passed into law in 2017. The law was already being implemented and trials were ongoing against high-level public managers, all the while applying due process. There was zero tolerance towards corruption, in the public administration, public enterprises, education and other areas, stressed a delegate, noting that Guinea had taken the fight against corruption to heart.

The Disability Act defined the right of children with disabilities to inclusive education, said the delegate, stressing that children with motor disabilities were included in mainstream education, while the national school for deaf and hard of hearing children had been in place for 40 years; its teachers received specialized training, and there was a need to provide the school with specialized equipment to facilitate the education and training of children and their preparation for an independent life and work. La Cité de la Solidarité, a neighbourhood in Conakry, had existed for more than 40 years; it received persons with disabilities, and provided them with training and accommodation. Every person with disabilities tended to end up on the street, begging, the delegate said, stressing that work was ongoing to change mind sets and attitudes towards persons with disabilities.

Data on children returning to Guinea after having been involved in armed conflict or terrorist activities abroad was not available. In terms of trafficking in persons, including children, Guinea had been ranked in 2017 as a third tier country in the report by the United States Department of State, which was mainly due to the lack of prosecution of this crime, which had not even been in the books for a long time. Some aspects of the trafficking in persons, including women and children, were now included in the Criminal Code, in order to provide alignment with the Economic Community of West African States trafficking commitments. The National Commission for the Countering of People Trafficking had been created in 2017 by a Presidential decree; it was an overarching body which coordinated anti-trafficking in actions by persons, while the 2017 emergency action plan, adopted at the suggestion of the United States, contained suppression and repression measures. Between 2015 and 2017, over 400 trafficked children had been intercepted, and their return and reintegration supported, while over 30 judicial decisions related to trafficking in persons had been handed down during 2017 and 2018.

Responding to questions raised on the education of persons with disabilities, the delegation said that persons with albinism were not considered to be a special group; they had been included in mainstream education and society for a long time. There was no dedicated syllabus for inclusive education; persons with physical disabilities were included in mainstream education, and there were specialized schools for persons with visual disabilities and for the deaf and hard of hearing, who were not included in mainstream education. The country was making efforts to accommodate persons with disabilities in mainstream schools.

The delegation explained that the adoption law was being revised, which was a positive development, since the country was lagging behind compared to other countries in the region. Guinea was learning from them and working on adapting their experiences to its own circumstances. A manual governing international adoption procedures had been put in place, but the process remained suspended since 2012; only ongoing cases were being processed, and only two adoptions had been finalized since 2014, and both referred to intra-family adoption.

During the Ebola crisis, only five families had been formally designated as host or foster families, as part of a pilot project; none of the 6,000 Ebola orphans had been placed in care, as Guinean and African solidarity had kicked in and the children were absorbed by larger families. There were no regulatory legal texts governing the functioning of foster families. In the culture of the country, the family was the most appropriate environment for children.

Responding to questions raised on inheritance law and practice, a delegate explained that the law used terms like “a child resulting from an incestuous relationship” and “a child resulting from an adulterous relationship”, which echoed religious and customary practices. The delegation did not find such an approach discriminatory, as such children had the same inheritance rights as legitimate children.

A bill on trafficking in women and children was being developed and would address all the gaps that remained in the legislative framework on trafficking in persons set out by the Criminal Code. The delegation stressed that allegations of judicial corruption in cases related to trafficking in persons had not been proven and “not a shred of evidence” had been offered. Progress was being made in reducing malaria morbidity, which remained an important public health problem. Vaccination was systematic for children under the age of five.

Concluding Remarks

SUZANNE AHO ASSOUMA, Coordinator of the Committee’s Task Force on Guinea, in her concluding remarks, said that the wealth of information that the delegation had provided would enable the Committee to assess the situation of children in the country. Nevertheless, more investment in the planning and effective implementation of certain strategies was needed, as was the adoption of bills already in the pipeline. Ms. Assouma urged Guinea to improve and increase budgetary allocations for health and education and to adequately care for children affected by the Ebola epidemics, and reiterated the Committee’s concern about child labour in mining, child prostitution, and trafficking in children.

ALY DIANÉ, Permanent Representative of Guinea to the United Nations Office at Geneva, concluded by thanking the Committee for their engagement and reiterating the commitment of his Government to press ahead, with the assistance of the Committee and the entire international community. It would not be possible to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals without protecting the children of Guinea, the Ambassador stressed.

RENATE WINTER, Committee Chairperson, thanked the delegation for their transparency and honesty.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CRC19/02E