CRC/C/GTM/CO/3-4
57.
The Committee recommends the State party to:
(a)
Ensure that programmes such as “My Family Makes Progress” (Mi
familia progresa) and CAI centres strengthen family work from a child rights
perspective, broaden their coverage, and promote programme sustainability and
greater transparency. The Committee further recommends that those programmes
also be provided with national budgets, adapted to the varying local needs and
situations in the State party and facilitate the participation of parents and children in
their evaluation, implementation and programming;
(b)
Adopt technical criteria to ensure that priority will be given to families
who need positive action measures, such as indigenous and Garifuna families, families
living with HIV, single-parent families, families at risk of separation, migrant families
and children whose parents have migrated.
Children deprived of a family environment
58. The Committee is concerned at the large number of children in institutions, as well
as at the insufficient implementation of minimum care standards and monitoring systems
for these institutions. The Committee notes the State party’s intention to address the
institutions’ problems, including the lack of trained staff. However, the Committee remains
concerned at the placement of more than 1,000 children in a large institution (Hogar
Solidario) in the capital.
59.
The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a)
Seek to reintegrate children with their biological and extended families,
to which priority should be given and ensure the right of the child to identity and the
re-establishment of family ties;
(b)
Strengthen community programmes and promote foster families;
provide adequate service and specialized care in institutions, giving priority to
younger children leaving centres, and use residential care in institutions as a last
resort.
(c)
Create and implement programmes for institutionalized children to
facilitate their reintegration into their communities of origin.
(d)
Take into account the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children
contained in United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/64/142 adopted on
20 November 2009.
Adoption
60. The Committee is concerned about information that organized criminal networks
that were active in the sale of children for international adoptions have not been dismantled,
and the information given by the State party that there are 600 children ready for
international adoption.
61. The Committee recommends that the State party ensure strict transparency
and follow-up controls and prosecute those involved in illegal adoptions and sale of
children for adoption purposes. The Committee further recommends that the State
party implement all the CICIG recommendations made in its recent report on actors
involved in irregular adoptions in Guatemala, since the entry into force of the
Adoption Act (decree 77-2007), and take adequate measures to eliminate corruption
and impunity, and prosecute and punish the perpetrators.
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