CRC/C/15/Add.233
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32.
The Committee urges the State party to provide in its next report specific
information about the implementation of these rights and to protect adolescents against
illegal arrest, detention and ill-treatment.
Corporal punishment
33.
While welcoming the prohibition of corporal punishment and other forms of violence
against children by the adoption of Law 38 on domestic violence and mistreatment of children
and adolescents, which allows for the removal of the alleged perpetrator of violence against the
child from the home, the Committee is concerned at the lack of specific measures for its full
implementation.
34.
The Committee recommends that the State party takes the necessary measures:
(a)
For the full implementation of Law 38, inter alia, through public education
campaigns about the negative consequences of ill-treatment of children in order to change
attitudes about corporal punishment, and promote positive, non-violent forms of discipline
in the family, the schools and other institutions as an alternative to such punishment;
(b)
To strengthen complaints mechanisms for children in institutions to ensure
that complaints of ill-treatment are dealt with effectively and in a child-sensitive manner by
an independent body;
(c)
To ensure sufficient financial and other resources for the effective
implementation of this law.
5. Family environment and alternative care
35.
The Committee welcomes the activities of Family Committees and the support that the
Institute for the Training and Use of Human Resources provides to families via scholarships, but
is concerned about the insufficient social and economic policies, plans and programmes to
support parents to fulfil their responsibilities. It is also deeply concerned at the many problems
poor families and female-headed households face, which may result in neglect and abandonment
of children, and the fact that many children lack the moral and economic support of their fathers.
36.
The Committee urges the State party to develop and implement a comprehensive
policy for the family to protect their children’s rights which would include:
(a)
Measures to strengthen the competence of parents and to provide them with
the necessary material assistance and support in that regard, with particular attention to
poor families and female-headed households;
(b)
Measures to make fathers more aware of their parental responsibilities and
to ensure that they provide the necessary financial child support;
(c)
Measures to provide children who cannot be raised by their natural parents
with an alternative family environment by organizing an effective system of good quality
foster care, including kinship care;