CRC/C/NIC/CO/4
Health and health services
62.
The Committee welcomes and acknowledges the progress made in reducing child,
infant and maternal mortality rates, but notes that they remain high. The Committee is
concerned at the limited access to health-care services, especially in the Caribbean Coast
autonomous regions (RAAN and RAAS) and rural areas of the Pacific. It is further
concerned at recent decreases to health allocations from public resources and international
donors, mainly due to the economic crisis.
63.
The Committee recommends that the State party increase its efforts to sustain
and increase achievements in infant, child and maternal mortality by ensuring access
to high-quality, culturally-sensitive health care for all children and women, including
in rural and indigenous areas, targeting especially the prenatal and neonatal period. It
further recommends that the State party:
(a)
Promote exclusive breastfeeding and enforcement of the Breastfeeding
Marketing Code, and develop a feeding strategy for small children;
(b)
Implement the comprehensive care programmes for Prevailing
Childhood Illnesses (AIEPI) and Maternal Illnesses (AIEPM), as well as the Women
and Child-Friendly Units Initiative (IUAMN);
(c)
Strengthen the Family and Community Health Model, and support
public and private service providers in implementing the maternal houses network;
and
(d)
Sustain and increase budgetary allocations to primary health care, and
facilitate appropriate increases in international cooperation.
Adolescent health
64.
The Committee is deeply concerned that despite the reduction in maternal mortality,
the percentage of adolescent maternal deaths in relation to total maternal deaths has
increased, especially in rural municipalities. It is further concerned that the Penal Code has
criminalized abortion, even when the mother’s life is at risk and when the pregnancy is the
result of rape or incest, and in this regard it shares the concerns expressed previously by the
Committee against Torture (CAT/C/NIC/CO/1, paragraph 16, 2009), the Human Rights
Committee (CCPR/C/NIC/CO/3, paragraph 13, 2008), the Committee on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (E/C.12/NIC/CO/4, paragraph 26, 2008) and the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW/C/NIC/CO/6, paragraph 17,
2007). The Committee is also concerned that health and community services do not pay
sufficient attention to the overall physical and mental well-being of adolescents and their
sense of belonging to their families and communities, as well as issues related to sexual and
reproductive health and substance abuse.
65.
The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a)
Ensure that adolescents have access to safe, legal and confidential sexual
and reproductive health services, including information, counseling and termination
of pregnancy, and that contraception is widely available;
(b)
Strengthen adolescent-friendly health and community services with a
view to preventing teenage pregnancies and substance abuse, supported by
information and education in schools and the media; and
(c)
Give strong priority to the development of a strategy to promote healthy
lifestyles for adolescents, including leisure and sports activities, and re-activate the
National Commission for the Fight against Drugs to provide inter-institutional and
inter-sectoral support to prevention and care.
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