CRC/C/MEX/CO/3
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to indigenous groups. It also recommends developing interventions programmes for the
new challenges that emerge from the globalization and the urbanization process: child
obesity as well as environmental health.
Adolescent health
50.
While noting the decrease in the number of teenage pregnancies, the Committee remains
concerned about the prevalence of suicides in indigenous communities, the high number of
teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and the lack of programmes to
promote sexual and reproductive health, as well as mental health.
51.
The Committee recommends that the State party pay close attention to adolescent
health, taking into account the Committee’s general comment No. 4 (2003) on adolescent
health and development in the context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In
particular, the Committee recommends that the State party:
(a)
Strengthen sexual and reproductive health education for adolescents,
especially in schools, with a view to reducing the incidence of teenage pregnancies and
STIs, and to provide teenage pregnant girls with the necessary assistance and access to
health care and education;
(b)
Strengthen programmes dedicated to mental health issues such as child and
adolescent suicide;
(c)
UNICEF.
Seek technical cooperation from the World Health Organization and
HIV/AIDS
52.
The Committee welcomes the 2001-2006 Programme of Action for the Prevention and
Control of HIV/AIDS and STIs, the decrease in the prevalence rate, particularly in the neonatal
infections; and the commitment to free access to anti-retroviral medication. However, the
Committee remains concerned at the lack of data on children infected by HIV/AIDS and on
orphans because of HIV/AIDS disaggregated by age; at the relatively high prevalence rate of
infection among adolescents; and at the lack of strategies to attend HIV/AIDS orphans and other
vulnerable children.
53.
The Committee recommends that the State party, taking into account the
Committee’s general comment No. 3 (2003) on HIV/AIDS and the rights of the child and
the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights:
(a)
Strengthen its efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, including through
awareness-raising campaigns;
(b)
HIV/AIDS;
Prevent discrimination against children infected with and affected by
(c)
Ensure access to child-sensitive and confidential counselling, without the
need for parental consent, when such counselling is required by a child;