CRC/C/CRI/CO/4
(b)
Design and implement an intersectoral public policy for health, sexual
and reproductive rights aimed at adolescents within and outside the educational
system and taking into account sexual and reproductive rights, healthy sexuality,
prevention of unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, and
the accessibility and use of condoms and other contraceptives;
(c)
Adopt guidelines informing doctors when they can legally perform
abortions in cases of risk to the life and health of mothers and clarifying that the
health exception in article 121 of the Penal Code applies, inter alia, to pregnancies
resulting from sexual violence and to those pregnancies involving a severely
malformed fetus, and ensure the right of pregnant women and adolescents to appeal
decisions of doctors;
(d)
Expand legal abortion in cases of rape and intra-family sexual violence
and improve the availability and quality of post-abortion care in public hospitals;
(e)
Ensure that girls and adolescents have free and timely access to
emergency contraception and raise awareness among women and girls about their
right to emergency contraception, particularly in cases of rape;
(f)
Include systematic, comprehensive and scientific-based education on
sexual and reproductive health, including on HIV/AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases as well as on contraception, in regular school curricula and
ensure that adequate resources are allocated for such education; and
(g)
Ensure that the Institute for Alcoholism and Pharmacological
Dependency extends its plans to care for child victims of drug and substance abuse,
including the use of appropriate diagnostic tools and rehabilitation services, beyond
the recently created specialized centre for children who consume drugs.
Standard of living
65.
The Committee is concerned that the State party has been affected by the global
economic situation and that poverty and inequalities have increased (with one out of three
children living in poverty). It notes that efforts are being made to protect social investment
and to extend the coverage of basic services for children to all cantons, but remains
concerned that structural measures to stimulate economic development and raise the
standard of living, particularly in rural areas, with a view to reducing poverty and
improving children’s access to basic services such as adequate housing, food, water,
sanitation, electricity and education, need to be put in place.
66.
The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a)
Continue to implement programmes for targeted and universal social
and economic benefits for children and their families, in particular in relation to
services that are not accessible to them because of poverty, vulnerability and social
exclusion, including the “Avancemos” Programme and the “Red de Cuido y
Desarrollo Integral”;
(b)
Ensure that benefits in the social services are equitable, thus requiring
territorially differentiated policies, as well as the promotion of gender-sensitive and
child-friendly employment and support to working parents; and
(c)
Accelerate its efforts to develop a single register of social security
benefits granted to individuals, including children and/or their parents, and collect
disaggregated information on social investment destined to childhood and
adolescence, as well as on the efficiency of the executing agencies, their financing and
the effectiveness and appropriateness of investments made.
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