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2938th Meeting, 101st Session, Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

Consideration of Lesotho

Concluded · 2h 59m 6 languages

Description

The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the body of 18 Independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by its State parties. It also monitors implementation of two Optional Protocols to the Convention, on involvement of children in armed conflict and on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Over the past 30 years, children's lives have been transformed by the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. The Convention on the Rights of the Child has inspired governments to change laws and policies, so more children get the healthcare and nutrition they need. There are better safeguards in place to protect children from violence and exploitation. More children have their voices heard and participate in society. But there is still more work to be done.

Full transcript en transcript

I declare open the 2938th meeting of the 101st session of the committee on the Rights of the Child.
On behalf of the committee, I warmly welcome the distinguished delegation of the Kingdom of Lesotho for the consideration of its combined third to seventh periodic reports under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The committee expresses its appreciation to the government of L Soto for submitting its periodic report and written reprise and for the efforts made in preparation for this dialogue.
We appreciate the presence of the delegation today.
I would like to give the floor to the head of delegation.
His Excellency, the Honorable Pizzo, Lesana, the Minister of Gender, Youth and Social Development of the Kingdom of Lesto.
You have 15 minutes.
Chairperson, distinguished members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Kingdom of Lesotho and indeed on my own behalf, I wish to express our profound gratitude for the opportunity to engage in this important and constructive dialogue during the 101st session of the committee on the Rights of the Child.
It is with great honor and humility that we present the super State periodic report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
At the outset, allow me to commend the committee for its steadfast commitment to the promotion and protection of the rights and well being of the children across the world.
We deeply value the committee's work in holding states accountable while at the same time supporting them in translating the principles of the Convention into meaningful improvements in the lives of children.
We also extend our sincere appreciation to the Secretariat for its continued guidance and support throughout the reporting process.
De Soto remains firmly committed to the principles, standards, and obligation enshrined in the convention.
We do not regard the convention merely as an international legal instrument, but rather, we see it as a guiding framework for national development, social transformation and building of a society in which every child is valued and protected.
And afforded an equal opportunity to fulfill his or her potential.
It is in this spirit that Stu approaches this dialogue not simply as a reporting obligation, but as an opportunity for reflection, leaning, and renewed commitment to our children.
Allow me Chairperson to introduce the delegation accompanying me today.
Honorable Minister of Law and Justice and alternate Head of delegation, Honorable Richard Rami Li, Honorable Attorney General, Advocate Rapan Motila, Principal Secretary Minister of Gender, misses Machpa Magaoabdb, Principal Secretary Minister of Law, misses Rubil Debita, Ambassador of L Soto to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva.
His Excellency, S Ha Tibe and the technical officials from the Ministry of Gender, Ministry of Law and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Chairperson, since our previous dialogue with this distinguished committee, L Soto has undertaken significant legislative policy and institutional reforms aimed at strengthening the promotion, protection, and fulfillment of children's rights.
The tenth amendment to the constitution of Loto of 2025 introduced transformative provisions aimed at eliminating discrimination against marginalized groups, including girls, children with disability, children living with HIV, often children and children born outside marriage.
It recognizes Eskoza and Iaputi and sign language as official languages.
This represents a significant milestone in advancing inclusion and ensuring that children from minority groups are participating more fully and equally in society.
In addition, the government has made progress in modernizing the legal framework for the Child Protection.
The Children Protection Welfare Amendment Bill 2023 has recently been passed by the Senate and transmitted to National Assembly for concurrence.
Further, Legislative process has been made through the enactment of the Administration of Estate and Inheritance Act of 2024, which abolishes discriminatory inheritance practices that traditionally favor the first born male child.
The Act now guarantees equal inheritance rights for all eligible children irrespective of sex or birth order.
These reforms are not merely legislative milestones but signifies the Soto's continued effort to dismantle discriminatory practices.
Chairperson The government has also deployed and implemented a broad range of policy and operational frameworks aimed at strengthening child protection services and improving the prevention and response to violation of the children's rights.
This includes the gender based violence prevention and Response Management guidelines of 2024, trafficking in persons Manual of 2024, Mental Health and psycho social support Service framework of 2025, Positive Parenting Guide of 2025 guidelines for Harmonized case reporting mechanism on Child Protection in School of 2025, labor migration guidelines of 2025, and Restorative Justice Training Manual of 2021.
In addition to strengthening child protection at community level, the government developed the Soto Child Protection referral pathways.
These enable communities to identify child protection risk and facilitate access to appropriate child protection services.
Lesotho has also adopted the COST National Prevention and Response Plan on violence against children.
Which provides a comprehensive framework for strengthening and enforcing legislation, addressing harmful social norms, supporting parents and caregivers, improving reporting mechanisms, and enhancing response services.
In July 2026, Ministry of Police in partnership with non governmental organizations successfully piloted a boy child mentorship program, reaching 97 adolescent boys.
The program promotes leadership positive masculinity, resilience, responsible citizenship, and life skills.
These interventions demonstrate that the Soto is increasingly approaching child protection not only through response mechanism, but through diverse preventive measures.
Chairperson, additional milestone of our efforts to protect children was the commitment by the right honorable the Prime Minister, Mr.
Samuel Sukan Matkani during the Bota first inter ministerial conference on ending violence against children in 2024.
This commitment has already been translated into tangible action.
The government established the safe and enabling school environment program which is currently being implemented 300 schools and has reached more than 52,000 primary school learners.
The program focuses on preventing violence, strengthening school based child protection systems, improving reporting mechanisms, and creating safe and supportive learning environments.
Furthermore, 32 master trainers comprising school inspectors, teachers, and district resource teachers have been trained and are leading the rollout of training programs targeting approximately 1,200 teachers nationwide.
The government has also strengthened Helpline 116 by recruiting ten permanent social workers to enhance response capacity, follow up support and service delivery for vulnerable children.
We have further expanded child friendly justice services through the establishment of safe spaces and the strengthening of community based prevention programs.
Chairperson, we are Also, encouraged by the progress made in preventing child marriage.
The national data indicates that the prevalence of child marriage has declined from 23% to 11%.
While we recognize that challenges remain, this reduction is an important indication and that sustained and coordinated action can produce meaningful results.
Through the Children's Parliament and district child dialogues, children actively contribute to policy and legislative processes.
Recommendations emerging from these platforms have directly influenced the acceleration of the Children's protection and welfare Amendment B, the expansion of advisary support for vulnerable children, the development of cyber safety initiatives, and the incorporation of child participation provisions into child protection legislation, Chairperson, We are encouraged by the progress in expanding access to essential services.
Birth registration coverage has increased to approximately 21% supported by the deployment of registers to community councils, integration of registration services within health facilities, mobile registration initiatives, digitization and outreach programs in remote communities.
The government has also expanded support for vulnerable learners through the basic education strengthening project, more than 40,000 learners have benefited from targeted interventions, contributing to a reduction of pros at junior secondary level from 27% to 19.8% in participating communities.
In addition, teacher capacity has also improved significantly with approximately 87% of secondary school science and mathematics, teachers receiving specialized training.
Recognizing the importance of digital inclusion in contemporary education, the government has further provided Internet access to 204 public primary schools and 45 public secondary schools, improving children's access to information, educational resources, and learning opportunities.
Chairperson, more than 437 children with disabilities have received assistive technologies, including wheelchairs, crutches, spectacles, and mobility aids.
Moreover, significant progress has also been made in the health and social protection.
Despite fiscal constraints and competing national priorities, LOT increased its overall national budget from 1.5 billion in 2025, 296 to 1.9 billion USD in 2026, 2027.
During the same period, allocations dedicated to Children's program increased from approximately 12 to 14.3 million USD, while annual social sector investments remained above 80.9 million USD.
The government continues to provide free primary health care services, adolescent friendly health services, HIV prevention programs, nutrition interventions, immunization services, mobile outreach clinics, and integrated maternal and child health programs.
Chairperson, Desoto continues to address the specific needs of adolescents, including in relation to HIV.
The government has expanded youth friendly testing and counseling services, pre exposure prophylaxis, access, comprehensive sexual education and peer L outreach programs.
The adolescent and young and young People Program currently operating 179 sites across eight districts, continues to provide tailored HIV prevention treatment and psychosocial support services.
We have strengthened our focus on mental health and psychosocial well being of the children and adolescent by training service providers in five districts on mental health and psychosocial support.
In the area of juvenile justice and child protection, substantial progress has been made.
The number of court intermediaries has increased 1-10 probation officers 6-18 and village child Justice committees 43-78.
16 police station have been capacitated to provide child friendly services.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecution has increased the number of prosecutors focusing on justice for children 1-6, while child friendly courts also have increased 1-6.
The government has further developed a draft coative and child justice policy of 2026, draft standard operating procedures and referral mechanism on child justice.
The government has secured resources for construction of probation hostels aimed at promoting diversion rehabilitation and reintegration.
L Soto has also strengthened bilateral cooperation with the Republic of South Africa to enhance the protection, safe repatriation and reintegration of unaccopanied and separated migrant children, ensuring that all interventions remain guided by the best interests of the child.
Chairperson, while we are proud of the progress achieved, we are fully conscious that challenges remain.
According to the available national data, 45.5% of Basotho children continue to experience multidimensional poverty.
Violence against children, adolescent pregnancy, child labor, substance abuse, mental health concerns, and imaging risks in digital space spaces.
We also acknowledge existing data gaps relating to children in street situation, children in informal kinship care, refugee, asylum seeking children, migrant children, and certain categories of children with disabilities.
These gaps limit our ability to fully assess the needs of these children and to target interventions as effectively as we should.
The government is therefore strengthening the Child Protection management information system to improve evidence based training, coordination, and monitoring.
Our commitment is equally focused on expanding inclusive education, increasing access to services in rural and remote communities, strengthening prevention and response mechanism for violence against children and improving justice for children, chairperson, The progress that DeSoto presents today has been made possible through collective effort.
The government therefore wishes to express its profound appreciation to our development partners and non state actors for their unwavering partnership in advancing the rights and well being of children.
We further commend other non state actors working in the field of child protection for their construction engagement and collaborative partnership with the government throughout the reporting process.
As we conclude, the Soto approaches this dialogue in the spirit of openness, cooperation, accountability, and continued improvement.
We recognize that safeguarding children's rights is not a destination that can ever be fully reached.
It is a continuing national responsibility, one that requires sustained political commitment to provide adequate resources.
Build strong institutions, ensure effective enforcement of the law, promote community participation, and above all, maintain unwavering determination to place children at the center of our development agenda.
We are encouraged by the process made since our last review.
Every child who is registered at birth, every child protected from violence, every girl who remains in school, every child with disability who gains access to the support needed, every child who receives health care, every child whose voice is heard, and every child given a second chance through the child sensitive justice system represents progress towards Lu, we aspire to build.
We look forward to a constructive and fruitful dialogue.
I thank you.
Thank you, Honorable Minister.
I now give the floor to the coordinator of the country Task Force, miss Astu Alasani Malay.
For the first round of questions on clusters one to five, you have 15 minutes.
President.
Thank you very much, Chairperson.
Minister for youth and Social Development, Minister for Justice, dear delegation members of Loto, we wish you a very warm welcome and we're very grateful to you for granting us this time dedicated to a dialogue which will allow us to share an update on the situation relating to children's rights in Loto and share the identification of challenges as well as how to overcome those challenges.
First and foremost, our committee welcomes the recent adoption by the Senate of the revised text of the law on the protection and well being of children.
This represents significant progress in the harmonization of national legislation on the protection of children.
And bringing it into line with international standards, particularly, we also greet the adoption of the second Constitutional Amendment law, which demonstrates positive actions taken particularly to support children in a position of vulnerability, as well as the La against domestic violence and child marriage, among other legislative measures.
Allow me to In setting the scene, share a brief presentation of the situation concerning children in Lesotho.
Lesotho is a landlocked country in Southern Africa where children confront various challenges such as HIV, poverty, physical and sexual violence, insufficient access to core social services, and the persistence of certain damaging traditional practices.
That said, we note with satisfaction, rather, the different legislative, institutional and political measures undertaken by the state party to implement the CRC.
And to remedy all forms of vulnerability confronted by children.
We therefore appreciate the quality of your report which highlights the efforts made by Lesotho to strengthen child protection, particularly those in positions of particular vulnerability.
The report nonetheless demonstrates that the existence of judicial and institutional tools doesn't always guarantee the effective implementation of children's rights because there is a gap between legal commitments and the resources that are actually available on the ground.
The task force responsible for coordinating the review of your reports comprises Madame Susan Ajo, Mr.
Philippe Goffi, Madame Faith Marshall Harris, and me myself, Madame Moulil.
I'll be responsible for the first two clusters of questions and I'll be therefore the first to put my questions.
First of all, in terms of general measures of implementation, with regards to the legislation, despite the updates to legislation in Loto, the current legal framework, which has been lengthy, I should say, the current legal framework does represent a significant protection of children.
Unfortunately, however, we are witnessing weak implementation of this given the weaknesses across all of the elements comprising the National trial Protection systems.
These are characterized by slowness of legal reform, a faulty implementation of the law, and a weak implementation of human and financial resources, as well as very limited communication between stakeholders, as well as mobilization thereof, and finally, a lack of coordination.
Understand that the amendment process for the law on the protection and well being of children, which was launched in 2023 and this draft was adopted by the Senate only in June of 2026.
That's three years in the draft between the drafting and the adoption of the bill.
There are still two stages before that Law is fully promulgated in its review.
What steps have been taken to ensure that the forthcoming steps don't suffer from the same obstacles and that the review process for this law be finalized as soon as possible.
What steps have been taken to strengthen the National Child Protection system in order to ensure effective implementation of the legislation? What level of participation have you seen from different stakeholders, particularly from children, communities, and civil society organizations in the drafting of laws and policies relating to children particularly? Loto has begun a reform and legislation harmonization process around its marital laws in order to establish a harmonized minimum year of 18 years of age for boys and girls.
This reform aims to remedy contradictions which exist between traditional law and legislation relating to child protection.
Where do things stand with that process at the moment? Global policies and strategies.
The report mentions a certain number of these which are no longer up to date, their implementation cycle being now overextended.
For example, the policy on social development and inclusive education.
Have these policies and strategies been subject to assessment in order to evaluate their impact on the promotion and protection of children's rights with a view to leveraging experiences learned so far.
Has Loto planned to review and update its expired policies and strategies? DeSOTO has established coordination mechanisms at the national, community, and district levels.
Could you tell me which structures or institutions are responsible for global coordination of these and what type of interconnectivity exists between these different levels of coordination? Are those mechanisms genuinely operational and effective? In terms of resource allocation now, the government of Loto seems to have made considerable efforts to allocate its budget to key sectors such as the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Ministry for Youth and Social Development, all of which have an impact on children's rights and well being.
But unfortunately, there isn't any specifically allocated budget to the protection and promotion of children's rights.
So could you tell me exactly how programs and policies aimed at ensuring access and protection for children's rights? How these are funded? In terms of data, does Lst have a digitized data collection system relating to children's rights? Is there a centralized data collection and processing system? Conflating data from the relevant sectors in order to streamline the assessments of policies, projects and programs aiming to ensure the effective implementation of the convention.
Access to justice and appeals.
Loto has a legal framework allowing children to access the justice system and indeed appeal systems.
The law on the protection and well being of children allows particularly for specialized courts and the right to access and participation as well as reparatory justice mechanisms.
What is obstructing the formal, we have this formal access to justice.
What is blocking a genuine and effective access which is genuinely accessible to all children? Or to put it another way, what is preventing the genuine implementation of the provisions enshrined in the legal framework? Independent monitoring.
The Human Rights Commission hasn't yet been fully set up or made operational more than a decade after its establishment.
Does that commission have the ability currently to properly manage children's rights violations cases in a way that's properly tailored to children and would it be accessible to children? General principles concerning non discrimination and the legal framework reflect L Soto's alignment with the principles in the UNCRC including non discrimination.
We have Article 18 of the Lesotho Constitution which prohibits any form of discrimination and which allows for a basis for legal intervention if discriminatory practices are detected.
We also have a bill of law on the protection and well being of children, which contains provisions aimed at ensuring the right to non discrimination is justiciable, allowing individuals to request reparation in cases of violation, nonetheless, there is still an important shortfall comparing legal provisions and the reality actually experienced by children, in particular, those belonging to marginalized groups.
Reports suggest there is persistent discrimination against pregnant girls in the school system, stigmatization of children with disabilities and albinos, exclusion of orphans, and discrimination Based on gender in succession practices, what measures have been taken to escalate the next stages of the adoption of this law then? In order to guarantee all forms of discrimination are stamped out and any such cases are properly sanctioned in the context of the legislative reform process, what measures have been taken to review and harmonize the whole raft of legislation in order to remove any discriminatory clauses? What provisions have been put in place to strengthen the application mechanisms for existing laws relating to child protection, ensuring that any violations be punished in an appropriate manner.
Best interests of the child.
Listho has made significant concepts forward by harmonizing the legal and political framework with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, namely by integrating the principle of the best interests of the child into the legislation and national programs.
What is being done specifically in order to guarantee consistent effective implementation of these principles across all sectors? Do institutions and relevant stakeholders, do they have necessary information in order to take this principle into account and implement it in all circumstances? Right to life and to survival.
In Desoto, murder of children going along with mutilation of body parts for ritual or medical purposes exposes children to serious risks and violates the fundamental right to life.
As enshrined in the convention.
Take, for example, a case which came to light through the Loto Times newspaper in 2006 mentioning a 26-year-old man accused of having mutilated two children aged four and 12.
Allegedly having even consumed part of their flesh.
He was a traditional healer of training under the mother of these children who was being housed by the family as well.
According to the same newspaper, the man was held in temporary detention and is expected to come to court on June 23rd.
This happened in 2026.
Apparently, the newspaper said that they could ask the relevant authorities to be released on bail.
To be released on bail after having murdered two children.
We would like to know what has become of this man because the ruling was expected in June 3rd, 2026.
The legal framework to combat these ritualistic crimes exists, but its implementation is weak.
Perpetrators of severe crimes lead to investigations that lack transparency and ultimately lead nowhere, which creates a feeling of impunity and weakens the justice system and discourages people from presenting in planes.
What measures are being taken in order to put an end to these ritualistic practices that jeopardize the life of children? Is there some dialogue between the government and traditional healers and community practitioners in order to prevent the murder of children and put an end to this Macabre ritualistic practice? Respecting the opinion of the child, the project for the internalization of Children from Parliament sends a strong government signal to make the participation of children in the national dialogue official.
Does this plan take into account sustainable financing of the children's platform and community platforms for dialogue? What are the measures that are being taken in order to ensure significant and autonomous participation of all children within their families, their communities and schools, and to bring children into the decision making process for all matters affecting them.
Thank you, Chair.
I have concluded my section for the time being.
Thank you.
Thank you, miss Molly.
I I give the floor to miss Susan Ahoe for 5 minutes, please.
President.
Thank you, Chair.
I too would like to welcome the delegation of the Kingdom of Loto.
My questions are on civil and political rights.
In the preliminary remarks, she spoke of birth registration and indeed, progress has been made there.
Great progress.
Also, tablets have been handed out in communities and elsewhere.
This leads me to my question.
In remote areas in the country, is there internet access? Is there electricity? If not, what do they do in order to register births? Another question, you're registering the births of children, but it seems to me that not all children have a physical birth certificate of birth.
So then what happens before the digital age, before the tablets, the birth registrations that remain with the state that have not been taken by the family? What is being done in order to provide them to the families? And how can you make the population understand how important it is to have a birth certificate? There's also the case of boys, who work with animal husbandry.
I think that these children fall between the cracks, they're not seen and they're not declared.
You mentioned a figure a moment ago about them.
I think 21% you said? 81% registration.
What about the remaining 19% that is not being registered? What is being done to register the remaining 19%? Questions of statelessness in your country.
I know that there are cases of statelessness there.
Are there any provisions? You spoke of some laws, but is there a law on statelessness? I did not hear a law protecting children from statelessness.
My colleague already addressed matters of freedom of expression, but I would like to ask something about the Children's Parliament.
Yes, the parliament does exist.
I know this firsthand because I worked with them on June 16th, the Day of African Children.
We were able to see how children were very skilled and very talented in that area.
But the children that make up this parliament, where are they coming from? From A or they come from the mountain area as well? How are they chosen? Is there a budget for this parliament? Do they held sessions for the children? Do they have an agenda? And freedom of association.
We would like to know if children in Lo Soto benefit from this right.
How is it manifested? I have a few more questions on poverty in the country.
You have a program called Well, you mentioned it.
It's a program that exists for a few years already and I wanted to know if that program has been assessed.
Is it the same amount still and how many families have access to the cash plus program.
My next and last question is on drinking water.
We know that Lesotho there's reservoirs of drinking water because you have so much you can provide your surplus to South Africa.
But in Lesotho, there are still areas, villages without access to potable water.
Even in the schools, there's no drinking water.
You spoke about the responses that you submitted in writing, but the program that you're working on, does it really cover all areas? Does it reach schools? Because I know that children go to the latrines in the construction sites.
So what are you doing so that the schools and towns and villages are properly covered? That's all.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, miss A.
I now give the floor to Mr.
Philippe Jaffe.
10 minutes, please.
Chair, and welcome to the delegation.
Obviously, we welcome the significant legislative and policy progress with regard to child protection, and I will cover child protection, violence against children, family environment, and children with disabilities.
Like my colleague, miss Moll, I look forward to hearing more on operationalization, adequate budgets, trained personnel, effective coordination, and accountability.
Specifically on violence against children, I acknowledge the National action plan that you referenced and commend you for the pledge to the Kingdom of the Stu um, made in Bogota.
However, the evidence remains quite alarming.
Sexual violence, abuse, and exploitation occur frequently in homes, schools, and communities and often at the hands of people of trust, including relatives, caregivers, and teachers, and girls in particular risk quite a bit, apparently in schools, in domestic work, accessing water and sanitation facilities.
So could the delegation indicate what additional staff, forensic means or tools, transport, and dedicated funding will be provided for all the districts regarding child protection in all fields? How will the Child Helpline 116 be made reliably accessible and known to children, especially in rural areas and areas where communication access is compromised.
When will the state establish a centralized interoperable database on violence against children with disaggregated data by age, sex, disability, and location? Also, it would be wonderful to welcome clarification on when you will have mandatory reporting protocols that will be adopted and enforced across sectors, education, health, and social services.
How will the government of the kingdom ensure prompt child friendly investigation, prosecution, and sanctions in sexual violence cases while protecting child victims from revictimization and guaranteeing also provision of counseling, legal support, in some cases, compensation and rehabilitation.
Regarding domestic work, the issue is now effective protection in practice because you do have a Labor Act, which is an important legal advance.
But how will it be enforced in private households through inspection, reporting, referral, remedies to ensure that girls in domestic work are protected from sexual exploitation, physical abuse, and economic coercion.
And also what measures will strengthen school based reporting, teachers accountability, and child protection training? I heard that you are making advances with regard to access to genderous sensitive facilities in schools.
On corporal punishment, there remains quite a bit of concern because it is practiced widely in homes, schools, and alternative care settings, according to data we receive.
The law is understood to permit, minimal physical punishment.
Please contradict me if I'm wrong.
And so could you clarify whether the pending amendment and law removes this exception and establishes an explicit prohibition of corporal punishment in all settings, including in the judicial system, alternative care.
What resources are being committed to expand positive parenting and nonviolent discipline, although I understand you are making efforts here with the meaningful participation of children, civil society, traditional leaders and others.
On harmful practices, yes, we talked about establishing 18 as a minimum age of marriage without exception, but it does remain child marriage linked to poverty, food insecurity, school dropout, and barriers, and there are quite a few barriers to confidential adolescent sexual and reproductive health services.
Also, the practice of lobola payments seem to still exist concerning cases of rape or abduction.
If you could clarify how you're countering that.
Um, When will the Marriage Act be finalized, ensuring that it prevails over customary law? What measures will criminalize the use of bride price payments? I already mentioned that.
How will the state strengthen enforcement in customary courts, establish appropriate penalties for facilitators of child marriage? Um, Turning to children deprived of family environment, informal kinship remains widespread.
To what degree is it supported and monitored or recorded formally? There are some regulatory provisions that seem to be envisioned in the Child Protection Act amendment framework.
So what is the timetable for adopting regulations and procedures to streamline and organize and supervise the informal kinship care? Could you update us on, I believe there are foster care pilots in several communities, T beella if I'm not mistaken, the pronunciation, have they been scaled up and what evidence is available on the outcomes for children? How will the state ensure quality standards, regular review of placements, family reunification where in the child's best interests, child accessible complaint mechanisms, and timely, transparent funding for alternative care providers? How will you guarantee pre placement health screening, identity documentation, and individualized case planning, particularly for children in rural areas? On adoption, we can note reported efforts to strengthen your central adoption authority and adoption units.
But there are concerns over staffing and funding, technical capacity, case management systems, and thank you for updating us if you have that information available.
Could you provide the dedicated budget staffing plan and operational timeline needed to ensure that these bodies regarding adoption are fully functional? And if you could provide more specific data on adoption applications, decisions, delays, refusal, complaints, and any irregularities on these practices.
Regarding children of incarcerated parents, There seems to be, and please confirm a draft correctional services regulations, that adoption remains essential.
I understand that children may currently stay with detained mothers up to age of two.
What is the transition after the age of two managed? And how is it supervised? I Finally, regarding children with disabilities, thank you for your updates in the opening statement, Excellency.
But on children with disabilities, including children with albinism, these children continue to face stigma and inaccessible information and infrastructure, and there are significant barriers to education, health care.
Protection and participation, especially in rural areas.
So please, if you may, identify the budgets and targets and accountability arrangements for implementing the Persons with Disability Equity Act, and what investment will strengthen early identification, referral, community based rehabilitation, and support for families with children with disabilities as well as service providers.
What dedicated measures will be taken to confront discrimination against children with albinism and ensure specialized support for these families.
When will information, complaint mechanisms, education, health services become fully accessible through sign language and bright accessible infrastructure and you mentioned assistive technologies being progressing on that count.
So I think I'll end here.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very thank you very much.
The delegation has 15 minutes to organize its responses according to the clusters.
Room ten on the third floor, on this floor.
Room ten on the same floor is available to the delegation for the entire dialogue.
When the delegation returns, it will have until 17 30 to reply, and at 17:30, I'll give the floor to the country task force for the second round of questions under the convention.
Then the delegation will have time during the whole of the next meeting, which is tomorrow morning to complete your answers to the first round of questions and to start answers to the second round of questions.
I would also like to inform you that the committee may where necessary, ask for the floor for follow up questions to have clarifications on what the delegation has answered.
So we now take a 15 minute break for the delegation to arrange its answers.
Thank you.
I think we should start.
I would like to give the floor to the head of delegation.
His Excellcy, the Honorable Pole Sona, Minister of Gender, Youth and Social Development.
Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Okay.
If I may be allowed maybe to start immediately.
The question on general measures, especially on the implementation of the amendment bill.
I may tell the committee that fortunately, the amendment bill is about to finish.
We have two systems, we have the Senate and we have the parliament.
I was delivering that bill in the Senate and it has been concluded.
From there, we just have to wait for the parliament to open and we are opening, I think on the 11th We are going to try our level best for the bill to be the first one that is deliberated in the parliament.
But since it is already in the second, third reading, it will be finished within time.
So I think in as far as the bill is concerned, we are almost done with it.
I would like to now maybe be allowed Mr.
Chairman, to yield to the Director legal to expand on to expand on the marital law question that came about.
I think what is happening? Thank you, Head of delegation.
My name is Tinamgsan Prak elegal Services from the Minister of Gender Youth and Social Development.
I'm addressing the question on the harmonization of um customary law marriage and the common law marriage in the suit.
The Children's Protection and Welfare Amendment Act 2018 criminalizes the child marriage.
In terms of that bill, it is an offense to marry it is an offense punishable by law to marry a child, which means that bill has abolished the customary practice of a 16-year-old girl it prohibits a 16-year-old girl from being married as it is stated by the laws of Latti.
The Children's Protection has impliitly amended the customer law marriage, which states that a 16-year-old girl can marry.
I now return the floor to the head of delegation.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
I would like to go on to the questions under resource allocation.
They're talking about budget and even the data collection that we are not yet dealing with it significantly, but I may highlight to the committee that we have improved a lot on that issue, but I would like to yield the floor to Director Child Protection to elaborate more.
Thank you.
Much, Head of delegation.
My name is Mohammed Han, Director of Child Protection Services.
Yes, on the issue of resource allocation, the government has made significant initiatives to train the ministries on public finance for children, where the departments are trained on specifically making the line items that speaks to child protection.
That also speaks to health and education.
And with the example of the Ministry of Social Development or Ministry of Gender Youth and Social Development, the Desares the child Crans and all Child Protection budget is allocated under one department, which is easier to track the budget.
And also, when we look at the five year plan we have with under UNICEF support, there is allocation of $14 million for the period of 2024 to 2028 to cover a broad spectrum of child protection sectors including health and education.
And when we look in the child protection budget allocated under the government of Lust, there is a significant increase in the budget specifically in children in the institutions as an example, and children receiving child grants.
I may indicate through head of delegation that when you look in the transfers to institution and in the budget of health and education, we'll see the significant growth.
Some other areas will see the significant growth of 8.6% over the period of three years.
Thank you very much, Head of delegation.
Thank you, Chair.
I would like now to move to another sector on the access to justice and like the director of public prosecution, talk shall address the whole issue.
Chief A from the Director of Public Prosecution Office in the Ministry of Law and Justice.
We acknowledge that there has been challenges with budgetary constraints.
However, there has been great strides in ensuring that children access justice.
There has been the formulation of this specialized courts.
We have increased 1-6 in Stu and this has assisted in children accessing justice.
Also, We mentioned that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution has collaborated now with the women and Law in Southern Africa, they sent an MOU in which the organization is equipping prosecutors with skills and expertise in prosecution of cases of violence against children.
Also, in ensuring access to justice for children.
The office is also collaborating with Lanford Two, ensure that also prosecutors are skilled in prosecuting cases of children with disabilities.
This has ensured that these children are accessing justice.
In combating the constraints earlier mentioned, the European Union has assisted the Office of Public of the Director of Public Prosecutions in holding criminal sessions.
This is where the prosecutors from different districts gather in one district for a week to prosecute cases and five sessions have been held across the Stu whereby in these sessions, 101 cases of violence against children have been completed.
Accused persons have been convicted in those cases.
We also mentioned that for children to access justice properly, there has to be systems that are there in courts for them to participate in this accessibility of justice.
We mentioned that court intermediaries have been increased 1-10 in order to assist children when matters are proceeding in court.
I thank you, Head of delegation.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
May I go back to the resource allocation and maybe have a bit of emphasis on the data collection and even the expired policies I remember that they were asked upon.
May I yield to my director child to respond to both of them.
Of delegation.
The government is towards the end of completion or completing the National Child well being and Development policy.
That policy is going to help us to amend the social development policy that has expired and indeed we acknowledge and we believe that policy will help the government to address the needs and complexities of NA.
And we believe by the end of 2026, 2027, that policy would have been passed by the cabinet since it is at the final stage.
On the digitization and data collection, In this year, the government is developing the child protection and information management system, which is intended to digitize the case management system.
And we believe since the process under the support of UNICEF is ongoing, And last month it has been piloted rather the officials have been trained on it.
We also believe by the end of 26 27 will have advanced the system that will enable us to improve our data collection.
I thank you, Head of delegation.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
If we go on general principles as it was asked, especially about the Article 18 of the Constitution on discrimination.
Pay more attention also on the people with albinism.
The question was, what are the measures in law? May I first highlight that as is the constitution in the country, the constitution is the Supreme law there and we are very deliberate on the issue of discrimination.
But most importantly, on albanism, I know I was with the United Nations as we're heading the revival of the day of albanism so that all of the Albino population, we call them in the UN House.
I was leading that and We're trying by all means to see to it that children with albinism are being protected.
However, I would like to give Chief Legal Ministry of Justice to further the response.
Legal Officer based in the Human Rights Unit, Ministry of Law and Justice.
I'm going to articulate on the questions posed in relation to the implementation of Section 18 of the Constitution with regards to non discrimination on children, as well as the issue on measures taken to promote as well as the measures taken to ensure that non discrimination in practice and as well as the appropriate sanctions that are guaranteed.
First and foremost, Lesotho has continued, as we have alluded into our report in the reply to the list of issues, that Lesotho has recently adopted the tenth amendment to the Constitution, which in particular, speaks to the discrimination with respect to language.
The tenth amendment, the Constitution recognizes Is Asuti and sign language as one of the official languages in Lesotho.
This does not only eliminate the communication barrier, but it also recognizes or enhance the enjoyment of other rights by children.
Affected.
In particular, we can talk about the right to access to information.
We can talk about the right to practice culture or to cultural practices, we can talk about the right to access information and freedom of expression, which this provision enhances.
In addition to that, we have also reported on the measures by this constitution that mandates the government of Listo to implement a myriad of, um, a myriad of affirmative action initiatives in order to remedy the equality gaps between and among children who have been historically disadvantaged.
It makes specific mention of children with albinism, children with disabilities, children from the minority groups and others.
So we can safely say that from this constitution now, then the government of Lot shall have to implement the continuous measures to implement Section 19 or non discrimination to remedy the equality gaps that already exist between and among children.
In addition to that, LS has continued to implement other policy measures in implementation of the aforementioned section.
I would like to make specific mention of the inclusive education policy of 2018, under which the government implements various measures across all sectors to enhance access to right to education by learners with special educational needs, we call them Elson.
This includes learners from the rural areas, learners who are from poor households, learners with disabilities and so on and so forth.
It describes who are the Elson.
In addition to that, I would like to make a specific mention of, um, the adopted disability equi Code rules, which mandates the provision of accommodations within the court settings, as well as the early stages of access to judicial justice, including in the police.
It also mandates the provision of accommodations to people with disabilities are including children who are put in detention facilities.
That means to children with disabilities who find themselves being put to the Juvenile center.
In addition to that, there have been other measures to implement the laws and the policies that I've alluded to.
In recognition of these non discrimination clause in the Constitution, there have been various administrative measures that have been put in place.
We have mentioned that currently the Lo National Broadcasting Services has now included sign languages in news bulletins and other programs which facilitate access to information by children.
Eradicating discrimination on them with regards to access to information.
In addition to that, while we still waiting to have amass enough resources to implement the court rules that I've mentioned, the courts of List have already started to engage the accommodation providers in the court systems whose duty is to assist children with disabilities to give evidence in the court of law.
In addition, there are so many, in addition to that, there have been measures that relates to translation of the primary textbooks into accessible formats for ease of access by learners with disabilities.
In addition to that, the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the disabled people's organizations have put children at the center of the initiatives to eradicate discrimination between and among children.
They have been the inclusive education school clubs that have been established, particularly in the southern region, in secondary and high schools.
Their mandate is to advocate for inclusion of learners with special educational needs in schools and in their communities in particular.
They look at the needs or the challenges that are faced by the students and address them to the school management.
They also advocate for their recruitment or their enrollment and retention in schools.
With regards to the rights of children with albinism, with your permission, Chair, I would like to ask my colleague, legal officer to articulate on that.
I thank you.
Very much Chair and thank you very much, the leader of delegation.
My name is Bacan Lutuna and I will respond to the question relating to the progressive realization and protection of children with albinism.
In Loto already we have the Albinism Association, which is being provided with a subvention from the government with a view to meet their related needs.
Again, we do awareness raising which are done through the district offices, and also now we do provide sunscreen as part of the self care packages which are provided to children with albinism so that they can easily and ably attend school without any hindrances.
Also, we do provide them with spectacles and we do have the statistics on those that we have provided that we can I wish to provide that statistics because it's in the table format with the replies, excuse me.
Through the EU reporting session that was held in April 2026, there has been developed a guidance note for reporting for children with albinism, and it has been launched.
As we had the pleasure of hosting the UN expert on albinism in our country, and she made the recommendations that are being implemented and part of these interventions have come from such recommendations.
And while on the floor, I wish to also respond to the issue relating to the National Human Rights Commission.
Which is yet to be operational because the tenth amendment to the Constitution, which was passed in 2025 has established it with a purpose to promote, protect, and monitor human rights in the country in accordance with other laws and the regional and international human rights instruments to which Lstu is a state party.
And also, we have tried to make sure that it is in line with the Paris principles.
And the establishment of this National Human Rights Commission is part of the ongoing national reforms process.
And as such, the government is highly committed to this process.
And currently there is enabling legislation that is going to operationalize the The Commission.
It is in a bill format, and it is scheduled to be tabled before once the parliamentary session is open.
We hope that, It will be passed because it has taken a long time for us and we do agree to that.
This bill also remains one of the key government's priorities because it reflects an independent national human rights institution.
That means we need to timely make sure that it is operational.
And the envisaged commission when it is operational, it will have the ability to deal with children's rights as it will have the thematic areas, and among them is that of children.
But while it is not yet operational, in the interim, we have avenues that we are using for reporting violations against children's rights.
These include the free child health plan that has been alluded to earlier, the Child Protection unit from the the Suu Mounted Police Service.
We also have the national referral pathways mechanisms which are in our local language.
We have the Village child safe spaces in communities which are attached to our chiefs offices because these chief's offices are in the villages and we are ensuring that they cover even the remote areas.
We also have the office of the ombudsman through which children can also lodge their complaints.
These are just examples of those mechanisms that we are having in the interim while the Human Rights Commission is not yet operational.
I thank you.
Thank you, Chairperson.
I would like to move to the issue of best interests of the child, which is one of the pillars and very important and it really spins so many disciplines.
I would like first to have the Director Child Protection to elaborate on that and show how we are implementing it and guaranteeing it.
And then also the chief legal will also add some issues on it.
If Director child you may proceed.
Delegation.
Indeed, the best interest of the child is enshrined Insurance Protection and Welfare Act Section four, and the best interests of the child is in different sectors of child protection indute.
Even in the forthcoming bill, the best interests of the child is even reinforced, especially for children in alternative care, adoption, and justice system.
We have the national case management system, which we follow for assessment to determine the best interests of the child in cases of custody, adoption, children in contact or in conflict with the law.
In all cases of adoption, where a child is ten years and above, we have to interview child and find out from him or he what he thinks about the adoption and the views so that his best interests are taken care of.
And when we administrate all the social cases that we do in child protection, the assessments that we do determine the best interests of the child.
Like I said, whether it's in court or in custody cases.
We have the National Child Protection Referral pathways that puts the best interests of the child by giving children direction and guidelines of where to report, how to report, and how to contact the help next to them.
These pathways are accessible even into vision and distributed even in rural areas.
In 2026, we have printed over 8,000 copies of referral pathways and placed them in different offices where children are able to know about the referral pathways and are able to access the best interests of the child, where the services are provided for them.
We consider the best interests of the child in mental health and psychosocial support, and we have developed the mental health and psychosocial support minimum package of services in 2025.
We have trained social service providers on the best interests of the child to make sure that when they address issues and needs of children, they consider this important principle.
We have trained the prosecution, social workers, police, on the play therapy so that they are able To do interviews in the best interests of the child, especially for children who are in contact with the law or who are victims of different violence.
For the best interests of the child, we have also made a positive parenting guideline 2025, where we have trained service providers, teachers, parents, nutrition clubs, and community council child protection teams to ensure that as they administrate child protection services, they put forth the best interests of the child.
We are not only limited in this section categories that I've mentioned.
We also train the residential care facilities so that they are able to exercise the best interests of the child, even for children who are in institutions.
We have the national standard guidelines for children in the care facilities, and at the core of that guidelines is the best interests of the child.
At this juncture, I would like through you head of delegation to allow chief Attorney to continue.
Thank you, Head of delegation.
As has already been mentioned, the court of law also recognized the principle of the best interests of the child.
I will now attempt to give an example of where this principle was applied before the court of law.
A case of a child 14-years-old who approached the court by herself to have herself removed from the custody of her mother because of the abuse and prostitution that her mother put her under.
In assessing this, the courts placed this principle at the core of their decision.
A consultations with the Ministry of Social Development, the courts decided that it was in the best interest of that child to be placed in custody of a father who resided in the UK and the child now resides in the UK.
This is an example of how this principle was applied in the court of law.
Through you Chair, I would like to pass the floor to Director of probation.
Okay.
Thank you very much, the head of the delegation.
I would like to add on the issue of the best interests of the child and non discrimination when dealing with the young offenders or children in complic with the law.
I forgot to mention my name.
My name is Mudim Mu, the Director of probation.
When we are addressing the issue of children who have committed the offense, we also apply the the principle of the best interests of the child, together with the non discrimination.
What we normally do when the child enters into the conventional justice system, we first requested by the court to compile what we call biopsychosocial assessment.
In that assessment, we normally we treat children in the same way.
And in that assessment, we we look at the background of the child, the circumstances like poverty, what are other circumstances like the area where the child is staying and we compile the report to the court and in most cases, we recommend the non custodial sentences.
In other words, the imprisonment of the children is the last resort when dealing with children.
And in most cases, we give them the diversion, meaning that we don't institutionalize them.
We we return them to the village and they will be under supervision of the probation officer.
That's how we apply the best interests of the child in the court setting.
Okay.
In addition to that, even before the child comes to the court in most villages, we have what we call village child justice committees.
These are the committees when the child has committed the offense, those cases will be handled in those village child justice committees and membership of those committees are children, meaning that we also practice child participation in cases involving children even before coming to the conventional justice system.
I thank you, the head of the delegation.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
If I may now move to issue of right to life.
I'll have myself, the Attorney General, and even our staff to tackle on that because it's an important issue.
First of all, I just want to talk about the child that was mutilated.
The question actually came from the floor.
I want to show that even at policy level, that issue was a great concern to the extent that I had to accompany the Deputy Prime Minister to the family where we gave counseling, where we tried our level best to see that the family is helped to bury those two children, but that is not enough.
We have to do something in the law.
As the question has come, that talks about bill, but I would like to yield to the Attorney general to expand on the issue.
Thank you.
Thank you, Head of delegation.
As we have already pointed out, there is this high profile case involving Cleo, Pani, who was arrested and charged with brutal murders of two brothers aged two and four.
Now, there was a question posed if I remember well regarding whether there was whether the accused was granted bail or not.
Now, the current status is that the case remains pending before court as investigations are continuing and the accused person hasn't been granted bail.
There was also a question, if I remember well posed on whether there is a dialogue between the government and the traditional healers regarding the ritual killings.
At the present moment, there's no such dialogue taking place.
But that's not to say the government is sitting back.
The government is taking measures to see to it that it prevents the happening of such heinous crimes and others again.
The government continues to engage in community sensitization and child protection programs through community structures, social workers, Child protected communities and media campaigns.
As I said, in an attempt to prevent mutilation of children among others, thank you, Head of delegation.
Thank you.
I would like to have the Office of the Director of the Public Prosecution to also have a weight on the issue of right to life to children.
The government of Lstu takes seriously the right to life of a child.
That is the reason that the court of Lstu cannot sentence a child to death.
That shows the commitment of the government in this instance.
And there was a question, I would like to allude to it, of what measures have been taken to address The cases of these matters.
The government has decentralized the high courts of Litu to the northern and to the southern region in order to address the backlog of cases in the courts of Litu and this initiative has assisted in cases proceeding more expediently than before.
I thank you Head of delegation.
Thank you, Chair.
Still on the subject, there was a question on corporal punishment.
It was like in the law, it is still there.
But in actual fact, it's just that I don't remember the term that is used there.
It is no more than the corporal punishment.
But it's scaring a child or something like that, just to instill discipline and deliberately, as we're debating in parliament on that law, actually addressed the issue that corporal punishment must be abolished, but I missed the term.
I want the legal team to assist me with the term that they use there, but it scare the child, not necessarily to do any harm.
Indeed, I have been involved in the cases where a child had been beaten so badly and within 2 hours we had taken that child from the parent and from the person and touched them and taken that child care.
But I would like the legal team to elaborate on the issue.
Um, I'm going to articulate more on the issue of corporal punishment in the suit against children.
Indeed, corporal punishment has been abolished even in cases where it was provided for the forms of chastisement.
It was abolished through the Correctional Services Act of 2016, which now prohibits it in correctional settings.
That means even in juvenile sentence, it is no longer allowed to be provided as a form of punishment.
In addition to that, it was also abolished by the Criminal Procis Evidence Act.
That means we no longer have it as a form of punishment.
As we have rightly mentioned, reports also appear that it is, however, in practice still practice in home settings because of the deeply deep convictions of society of when you spare the rod and spoil the child.
Reports exist that in some home settings.
It is still punished is still provided or is still done as a form of punishment.
So meanwhile, in order to prohibit that, as we have articulated earlier, we promote positive parenting guidelines, which we have shared with the stakeholders as you've mentioned, we also continue to hold awareness raising in communities in order to encourage parents to implore other forms of positive or chasti punishment or corrective measures for children instead of applying corporate punishment to children.
I thank you, Head of delegation.
Thank you, Chair.
Maybe we can move now to the national dialogue issues and start with the civil right and political rights.
This will include even electricity, the issue of birth certificates, and maybe I'll give to Director Child to answer and maybe from the Human Rights Office, she will it to the Human Rights Office after giving the answer if need be.
To very much head of delegation.
Sections eight and nine of Children's Protection and Welfare Act provides for registration of children and that every child has to be registered no matter the circumstances of such child.
And as the head of delegation has alluded that we are at 81% coverage, though we still have 19%, which through the projects like Naftabana under the support of UNIC, we are registering children in the very hard to reach areas where there is no Internet and electricity.
There are mobile registrations done by the National Civil Registration Office, where they target very hard to reach areas and take some time over those places and register, even the head boys.
They target areas that previously was not even easy to reach under this project I have mentioned.
I must also add that under the Children's Protection Welfare and Amendment Bill, the issue of registration is no longer going to be an issue that won't be punishable.
But the bill, when is an act of parliament will ensure that it is even now a crime not to register a child.
Registration remains free and in cases where children are abandoned, neglected.
It is the responsibility of the ministry responsible for child protection to ensure that social workers register children and through the community council Child Protection teams and the social workers and auxiliary, social workers that are placed in the community councils.
Children who are not registered are identified and are linked to the services so that are registered.
If you Chair, you can allow me to touch on the issue of coordination as I'm still on the floor.
I have mentioned the Community Council Child Protection Teams.
These are the teams of social protection actors at the community level.
These teams link children with the services.
They even share resources so that they expand coverage within our communities.
This community council child Protection teams have the terms of reference, and they are trained by the District child Protection teams, which is the team at the district level, which also work together in terms of resource sharing and case conferencing and case management.
We have the national OVC Coordinating Committee, which has a Secretariat in the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Social Development.
Which has a budget to train for this community and district child protection teams and have the peer trainings and have the annual work plans revise the work and train these community structures.
These are some of the measures that we take as a country to ensure coordination structures.
Not only that head of delegation and the Child Protection Services, we have a Secretariat, which is the office Yes, we have to admit that we have a problem of staffing and we are anticipating to improve on that.
But this office is very important to coordinate all the child protection issues and capacity building and development of guidelines and tracing the new trends and communicating with children and making sure that children participate fully in the activities that affect them.
At this juncture, I will humbly ask doctor Mang Rb to add more on that Thank you, Head of delegation.
My name is Gesin.
My name is Mark Mabe Hiba.
As Director of Child Protection has indicated, the Office of Coordination ensures that all the child protection stakeholders come on board on issues affecting children, all the stakeholders give support to the child protection department through sometimes allocate resources, sharing of resources, sharing of sharing of Sharing of information to the communities and education about the different mandates that fall under child protection that fall under child protection and thank you, Head of Delegation.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
If we may move now to the issue of stateless children.
If I remember, in the amended bill, the issue actually has been addressed, but I will have the director legal to address the issue in depth and followed by the Attorney General.
Thank you.
Thank you, Head of delegation.
The Children's Protection and Welfare Amendment Bill 2023 addresses the statelessness.
It says that the minister responsible for social development shall in consultation is the minister responsible for home affairs grant a nationality to a child born in the suit if that child would otherwise be stateless.
We acknowledge that there's a gap and we commit to fast tracking the passing of the bill into law.
I thank you, Head of Delegation.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
May at this juncture, take the issue of children's Parliament.
The Children's Parliament we have been implementing for some time now and indeed, we take children from all over the country, but the Peers Social Development will elaborate on the answer.
Delegation.
My name is Mashalpani Mako Buber, the principal Secretary for the Minister of Gender Youth and Social Development.
As the head of delegation has already indicated, children's Parliament is held on an annual basis whereby children themselves actually in all the ten districts sit together in different districts to select those who will represent them when we have the children's Parliament.
It is not the ministry that actually nominates children.
All children from the urban and rural areas are represented chosen by their own peers.
And yes, there is budget and we work together with development partners that assist us in going around the ten districts to prepare the children, coach them, and ensure that they are ready for the parliament and about three days or so before the parliament starts, the children come to Maseru and wherever the venue is at the time, they stay there over some time, whereby children themselves argue between themselves and prepare themselves for the actual parliament that will be taking place on the last day of the three day duration that they take there.
All children are represented in the rural and in the urban areas.
I thank you, Head of delegation.
May I have the director child to go a little bit deeper, especially on how they are being selected in the funding.
Thank you very much, Head of delegation.
In children's Parliament, we ensure inclusion.
Children who are in conflict with the law and are in detention also participate throughout those four days of session of children's Parliament.
Children with disabilities from different categories of disabilities also are represented.
Children in the rural areas become part of a children's parliament.
The selection is done by children themselves at their community areas, where they discuss and debate and come up with children who can present themselves at the larger National Children's Parliament.
Topics that are selected by the children normally are informed by the Day of African Child themes and the trends that are in our countries.
For this year, the issue was child online protection because we have realized that child online protection is a serious issue that we need to consider.
Children felt that they are not protected fully on child online protection and they wanted to influence the policy.
Indeed, This contribution of topic of their choice is going to influence their policy, which I have mentioned earlier, that before the end of this financial year will be adopted.
I thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
As I've been instructed, may I finish with the last one on the water and sanitation? I would like Pierce Law to elaborate on it, and then I can yield the floor.
Thanks.
My name is Milei the principal Secretary Minister of Law and Justice.
Astu we note concerns raised by the tu citizens as well as the international community insofar as the issues around water and sanitation services are concerned, while we know we transfer water to South Africa.
I must say that we also have to maintain and ensure that there is transboundary water cooperation.
Astu is the upstream country for the four riparian straits in the Southern African region.
We are not ignoring the fact that there is still need for water supply and sanitation services in the suit or there is still challenges around that function.
I must say that the present moment is at 82% water supply.
We have 96% water supply in urban areas as well as 76% in rural areas.
Through the initiatives being carried out in the country, we foresee that by 2029, through the initiatives that we are carrying out now, we shall be at approximately 90%.
That means beyond 2029, we still continue with the initiatives until the whole country is covered.
In issues related or in sanitation services, we are at 46%.
Surely, we are lagging behind.
That means in urban areas we have 44% coverage while in rural areas is 48%.
The sanitation services in this regard comprise sewer lines as well as Pitler trains.
How do we do this? We have several projects that are housed in the Ministry of Natural Resources mandated with water supply and sanitation services.
The ministry is working tirelessly with the Ministry of Health and education to ensure that there's water supply and sanitation services for schools, communities, and health facilities.
We have several projects in that ministry, that is rural water supply project, that is a continuous government problem that ensures that there's water and sanitation services in both I mean in rural areas.
There's also mediato project.
Also dealing with communities, schools, and clinics.
There's also the Lowlands Water Supply project phase one, phase two and phase three.
All these projects are aimed at ensuring that there is water supply and sanitation services in both rural and urban areas.
How do we ensure that this is attained through legal framework and policies? We have a number of pieces of legislation that are in process.
We have the Water Act 2008, that we have bill now to improve it.
The bill is in parliament.
It is Water Resources and Management bill.
The bill is improving on the Current Water Act to ensure that the water resources are well managed.
And it covers the issues of technology to improve water supply, the issues of sustainability, the issues around climate change, the issues around water rights as well as the transboundary water cooperation.
We also have the new Water and Sanitation Services bill to ensure that there is attention given to water supply and sanitation services, specifically the sanitation services.
As we may be aware that the African Union has just passed a policy on water policy in addressing the 2063 African Union policy.
We also have the bulk Water Authority bill.
The bulk watera authority established an entity to manage bulk water supply, infrastructure, storage, treatment, basically to ensure that there is bulk water management and supply services.
This is where we are asso.
I maybe in five or so years, we'll have reached 100% of the population.
I must mention that in terms of sanitation, we see ourselves at 70% by 2029.
Thank you very much, Head of delegation.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
May I give back to you? Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I warmly welcome the delegation, first of all, thank you very much for your excellent and clear answers.
Maybe you were not able to answer all the questions, but you will have time for tomorrow.
Thank you for keeping time.
I would like to open the floor for our colleagues first for follow up questions on the first round.
I have a here, the two members.
But I would like to give the floor first to the country Task Force.
I have Madam Aho from Country Task Force first and please let me know if the Country Task Force other members would like to have questions.
Philippe Jaffe and Brag.
Thank you.
Please, Madam.
Thank you very much, Chairperson.
Thank you also to the delegation for the clarifications they've just provided us.
But I'm sorry, I wanted to come back to this issue of birth registration.
It strikes me that you haven't answered the question of the birth certificates that were drawn up and not withdrawn before the transfer to data digitization.
How exactly can the population access these physical documents that were missing before that? Secondly, I believe you mentioned unmarried mothers.
What percentage of children are born to those mothers who have obtained birth certificates? I'd like to know that please.
Another thing, I spoke about children of boys.
There are cases of boys working in pastoral work.
I wonder whether or not those births are registered because among the 19% that are invisibilized, I think that group of children also belongs to those children.
When we talk about this 19% of undeclared births, I'd like to really get to the bottom of who we're talking about.
As you present the situation, you're saying that everybody is going to be registered, everybody will have a birth certificate.
That's very good.
It would be all well and good if in Africa, Lesto was going to be the first country to obtain 100% birth registration, that would be fantastic.
But it strikes me that there are still significant challenges to overcome in that road because not all children are declared by any strait.
Thank you.
Thank you also for the information concerning drinking water supply.
It's true That you're the first people to enshrine this in law in Southern Africa.
My question is to know, are there still areas that don't have access to drinking water in Loto? Can you tell us about the service in place to put in the proper piping so that drinking water is accessible to all? Thank you for the moment.
That's all.
Thank you very much, Madame Mao, Mr.
Philippe Jaffe.
So I echo the Chair's remark on thanking you for the answers to, I think, many of the queries I had.
I'm coming back to corporal punishment and I just want to make sure that I understood correctly that corporal punishment is banned, prohibited in all settings at this point.
In Loto or if there are still exceptions in the law.
Just to be very clear on that point, and I heard you head of delegation and others talking about positive parenting ongoing initiatives and programs.
I and your acknowledgment that there are some challenges still within the family and traditional ways of bringing up children.
Do you have, how should I put it, data on progress made or any research that you have in the works to see if those initiatives bear their fruits? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr.
Brag Grano.
Welcome to the delegation and thank you very much for the interesting information that you have shared with us.
I noticed that you have taken certain steps in terms of implementing child friendly justice, particularly protecting children who need to testify in court.
With the option of having an intermediary to ask the child.
So the child is protected from intimidation or confrontation from the accused.
Is that a correct understanding? I would like to ask you, is this a default procedure to use the intermediary or is it only done according to an assessment when the child is considered to be specifically vulnerable.
But related to this, It's my understanding that it's an obligation for the child to testify in court.
So you do not have a legal provision that allows the forensic interview, the interview of the child, the first disclosure or where the police and the social workers are interviewing the child to record that audio visually and to submit the recording as evidence in chief during the court procedure.
Isn't that correct understanding that you have no provision allowing for that? But I want to highlight the importance of perhaps introducing such provisions because it can be pretty hard on the child to wait for the trial.
It can take years.
And during that time, the the child is in a state of a paradoxical situation.
It needs to continue with his or her life, but at the same time needs to remember not to forget any details about the abuse.
This can be very distressing for the child.
My final question relates to the actual therapeutic support that child victims of abuse are able to receive in the country.
Children who are victims of abuse, let's say, sexual abuse or severe neglect or physical abuse, are they ensured the appropriate support, therapy treatment or whatever in the country, not only in the cities, but also in the countryside.
Thank you very much in advance for your answers.
Yeah.
Thank you, Madame Hinaubitrii.
Well, I too would like to welcome the delegation from the Kingdom of L Soto.
I am grateful for all of your answers.
I have three small requests for clarification.
On child marriage, you said that all marriage before the age of 18 is considered null and void.
My question would be, if the marriage has already been consummated and if there's been pregnancy as a result, does that annulment get accompanied by guarantees for the support of children or a wife who is in a pregnancy.
The second question relates to the National Commission for Children's Rights We know that this is going to be set up, but in the meantime, children can access the mediator.
You say, can they access that mediator themselves with no parental or adult representation? Can you tell us about the confidentiality security around that access and what happens to complaints lodged by children? The third question relates to the best interests of the child.
Above all, when you mentioned The community measures or justice measures.
What are the guarantees here that the best interests of the child is taken into account by these justice mechanisms? In contrast to everything that relates to social considerations or customary legal considerations which we know are well rooted in our countries.
What are the guarantees to ensure that? Thank you in advance for your answers.
Merci, Madame Tobbal Barbani.
Thank you very much to the delegation of the Kingdom of Listoto.
Thank you for all your answers and for the detailed information you shared with us.
I have two questions.
One is a follow up of what my colleague Hiner bi has just asked about the Commissioner for Children.
I was wondering what somebody mentioned that it's not yet operational and you are taking some, I would say, different approaches until it is operational.
Uh what is it actually that is stopping the government from making it operational? What are the obstacles that are stopping it from being operational? Because as far as we're concerned, it's one of the most important organs for us to see that it works well and it follows the Paris principles and is in line with our general comment number five.
So I'm just interested to know why is it taking long and what are the obstacles that the government is facing to make it operational.
That's number one.
The second question is on disability and the inclusion of children with disability in schools.
I I just want to know whether it is optional for schools to take these children in.
When we talk about inclusion, is it a classroom within a school or are they really included in the classrooms with other children and they're learning equally on equal basis with other children, with somebody helping them to cope based on their disability.
Those are my two questions.
Thank you very much.
Yeah.
Thank you, Madame Al Barbani.
We do not have follow up questions for the first round.
You have one.
Yeah.
Mr.
Ring and Chapel, please.
Thank you Chair, since I was a little hesitant thinking that I may be out for follow up, but I'm very impressed with your submission on the children's Parliament, the process of selection of children, and how much political commitment is invested in backing this process.
I also heard that you actually utilize the outcome of the children's Parliament to influence your policy making or decision making.
I I just wanted to find out how effectively these outcomes have influenced national policies and decision making, thereby making the Children's Parliament a viable children's participation effort to be in the mainstream.
Thank you very much for that.
Thank you, Mr.
Chopel.
Now, Madam Acho for follow up questions or the second round.
Follow up, please.
P in one.
I apologize, chair.
I don't think we've mentioned at all the matter of children online in the digital Internet sphere.
How are you aiming to protect them from everything that's going on online at the moment, sexual predators and so on and so forth.
I know you have a law, but we often have laws.
They don't necessarily meet all of the real world situations.
How are you really protecting children and informing parents as well? I'd like some clarifications on that.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Thank you very much, Madame Maj.
Now we move on to the second round of questions for the first of all, country Task Force.
I would like to invite again, Madame Susana Ho, 10 minutes, please.
Now we're going to look at health and the health system.
I would like to begin by congratulating you because the goals that you have for health and the 15% budget, the 12% one, there's an increase.
We appreciate that.
This contribution, the 12% contribution, we're not exactly sure how it's being distributed throughout the various programs.
You So I'll begin with social workers.
We heard you talked about them a bit.
Do you have a school for training social workers? I think so.
But they're not recruited because they're there, but they're unemployed.
If they are hired, then what means are made available to them so that they can work? I read the documents and I saw that some areas remote in the mountains there, they need four by fours or SUVs to get there, these vehicles.
Are those vehicles available? And especially how are the fuel costs covered? Because that's an issue throughout Africa.
How do these social workers carry out their social work? Are they really able to reach out to the population? I heard a moment ago that they were also being called on to register births.
Did I understand that correctly? Are they trained on that? Because not everyone is fit to transcribe a birth certificates and birth registration.
Maybe they can provide a certificate that someone was born, but a copy.
The original one is done by the mayor.
On health, specifically the health care staff, from what I read, there's a dearth of qualified specialized staff.
There's a shortage.
What are you doing in order to keep the staff that is there because there's a brain drain and what is the country doing to try to hold on to the knowledgeable staff that would otherwise go to South Africa? The community health workers that you hire, I imagine that they have many skills.
Are they trained and are they given additional subsidies to encourage them to do the work being asked of them? Still on health, just a moment ago, we spoke about drinking water.
I had a question on breastfeeding.
Mothers, especially heavy positive mothers, fear contaminating their children.
What do they do? They use milk substitutes.
The water that is used for these substitutes makes them sick.
That means that the death rate of these children goes up.
I wonder, The milk substitution procedures, are they clearly specified? Is it clearly explained? How is it implemented? Because you have hospitals somewhere, and if they use those hospitals for the milk substitution protocols, are the mothers informed about this and especially the mothers that are living far away in remote areas in the mountains? Do mothers actually have all the necessary information because breastfeeding up until six months is not necessarily practiced.
The babies are given something else before that time.
What is being done to explain the mothers about the dangers of such behavior to protect children and to ensure that they remain alive? Now, I'd like to ask about mental health.
You mentioned this in the introductory remarks already.
But it seems that there's only one center in Loto that takes in any person with indications of mental health issues.
Is there a specific wing there or section working with children And are there child psychologists and psychiatrists in the country to address the needs of these children and adolescents? What part of the budget is earmarked for mental health? Children can fall prey to drug abuse and what is being done to help them? Children are so vulnerable to using drugs.
What is being done about that? Is there awareness raising? Are you protecting young people? Why are there such high numbers of drug users? Are the programs being reviewed and what is being done specifically to assist them? On HIV AIDS, Desoto heads the list of HIV AIDS prevalence rates.
What measures are being taken in order to raise awareness, to provide information, and to care for HIV positive individuals? What is being done for them? Because it seems to me that there's a shortage of trained staff and the situation is not explained well enough to the population.
What are the measures being taken in the country that would explain this prevalence rate? What is it? 20 some percent, 28? There are certain high risk behaviors and nefarious practices in the country that increase the prevalence rate in Loto.
The children that are affected, how are they being cared for? Do these children really have access to treatment? It seems to me that sometimes there may be a shortage of antiretroviral drugs and they're not enough to provide the children with HIV AIDS.
There's also an issue with child obesity in the country.
Are there programs to help these children? What care is afforded to them? Do you actually have the means to assist them? On obstetric fistules the fistula, there are many girls who are pregnant and they're giving birth is arduous and difficult.
What programs are there for the obstetric fistula? In the area of adolescent health, what are you doing in that case? Because the early pregnancy rate is quite high.
How are you giving them information? How are you protecting them? How are you assisting them? Because they do not know who to turn to, where to go.
They're not listened to, they're marginalized, and so they do not know who to turn to for information and guidance.
In sexual and reproductive health, are there services provided in schools to provide these young girls and young women with information? What are you offering these young girls? That concludes my list of questions.
I think there are some key issues that we want to address because the youth in the Soto is at risk and we must protect them.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you very much, Madame Macho, and also for exactly keeping the time.
Madame Isa Du is the next speaker.
Madam President.
Thank you.
Chair.
I also had a few questions on the standard of living and access to water.
In Minnesoto, unemployment and poverty rate is high and it represents a significant risk for children.
Economic vulnerability is a contributing factor to school desertion to child labor to child marriage, and other problems on the protection of children.
What measures are being taken in order to curb and to extend the use of protection services for children, especially the family allocation program, guaranteeing that it has sufficient financial resources and complete geographic coverage so that the most deprived children living in rural and mountainous regions still benefit.
On social services and basic services, in spite of progress made at the national level, the rural areas are still lagging behind with regards to access to water, to hygiene and sanitation.
Approximately 50% of the population has access to basic health facilities.
What measures are being taken in order to ensure fair equal access to health services without discrimination? We know that a lack of menstrual health facilities and clean toilets has an impact on school attendance and the well being of girls.
What measures are you taking in order to create the necessary hygiene and sanitation conditions in the school environment? Many rural health centers do not have sufficient potable water, which jeopardizes safe births and the prevention of infections.
What is the government doing to ensure that potable water is provided in health centers and to create the proper hygiene and sanitation conditions with a view to reducing avoidable infections.
Thank you.
Merci Madame co.
And also for keeping your time.
Madam Face Marshall Harris is the next speaker.
15 minutes, please.
Yeah.
A number of the matters and issues I want to deal with have already been covered both by the delegation and by other members of the task force.
But a few of the areas so I would like to cover.
First of all, environment.
I'm aware from the reports that you have many periods of prolonged drought which can lead to water scarcity.
Yet I see reports and I just need you to explain to me that you will be selling water to South Africa I need you to reconcile these two circumstances because because they seem contraindicated, I'm sure there's a very good explanation.
I'd just like to be able to record that.
Is work being done to develop climate resilient water supply systems in order that they may remain functional during periods of drought.
There are also reports for lack of safe drinking water in several areas, and this is linked with poor sanitation.
So there are there preservation techniques being developed to mitigate against severe drought conditions and the eventual contamination of your water resources? In fact, of course, I have to point out, this is very vital to children, the environmental questions because this is what they will inherit from us.
I also need to know if mitigation and adaptation is part of the school curriculum, the mandated school curriculum, and whether included in that curriculum is a conservative use of water, such as the use of greywater for irrigation, I noted the establishment of the National Climate Change Committee, which is very welcome, but I am not too sure what its mandate is.
Is it developing awareness raising campaigns or strategies to manage climate change? I would like you to outline the efforts being made there on disaster resilience, the response to climate change, and whether children are involved, especially those living in remote areas.
And whether children are being taught about all of this in schools because none of it will work unless the future generations are fully involved.
For example, disaster risk reduction strategies, and whether these strategies include child specific considerations, and whether I'd like to know if children are involved in the design of any of the environmental interventions on education.
I had a raft of questions.
I suspect some of them are already dealt with.
But let me see if I can break it down to the most essential.
I appreciate learning that education gets possibly the largest subvention of your national budget.
23% of the national recurrent budget, it seems or 12% of the GDP.
That's good.
But it is of concern that this does not seem to benefit in certain areas and there's still lots of barriers and challenges.
I'm particularly concerned, it might be a particular hobby horse of mine that this is not going to much towards early childhood care and development because I believe that's where it should begin.
This seems to be severely underfunded and this is of a concern.
A lot of what happens in that area seems to be privately provided and I'm not sure if it is well monitored or regulated by the state.
I'd like to know if this is happening.
I also noted too that you have a high literacy rate, one of the highest in the continent, 85% in men, 68% in women.
You also have a high enrollment in primary education.
But I don't want to be a doomsayer but a lot of these positive indicators will be eroded if we are not using the subvention towards, as I said, early childhood care and development because naturally, if it is not going to happen there, it will not develop into the future.
Because the report seems to be that there is limited oversight in what is happening in that area.
So I want to know, of course, whether and I believe they do exist some free reception classes and home based ECCE, but is this being monitored and evaluated and is it going to be further expanded? I believe that there was a commitment among the policy measures I read that you are as committed as I am, the ECCE, so I would like to see it demonstrated and if you can tell me how.
It is reported that the timing of cultural initiation rights clash often with school calendars and this can result in school exclusion for children who are forced by parents to participate.
Can this be reviewed and measures put in place to rectify the school calendar or the initiation rights to prohibit such expulsions, because I do think it's important that the education of your country is the future of your country.
I note that you do have school feeding programs, and this is good because this can help to counteract child poverty, this can keep children in schools, because often the lack of good nutrition, it can be linked to school dropout.
But can it possibly be extended to the secondary level? Because I know it's only in the primary school.
This is where I think the crunch comes for me.
I understand you have free primary education, and it's compulsory.
But then you have a huge drop off at that point because secondary education has to be paid for.
What happens to those children after primary school? I beg the question seems to beg itself because after that, they go to work, what do they do? Therefore, at the age of 13, they become part of the workforce, so this gets linked to each child labor.
I feel that there must be a serious investment by you into secondary education.
The secondary education at the moment does not seem affordable.
The poverty persistent poverty existence, so I think the statistics are quite alarming.
Therefore, it is obviously not feasible that children parents can pay for secondary education.
Um, so I think that no matter what happens, unless there's an investment in secondary education, we're really not going to make much progress because children without that secondary education are forced then to take jobs which are menial.
They then become domestic workers, as we will see from when I speak about child labor, they can only herd cattle.
We are not equipping them for further better occupations.
So I would beg that you carefully at that secondary education because as I see, 49% of the population suffer persistent poverty and this will remain at that level without an investment in secondary education because then there's no certification.
Yet, obviously, I'm very pleased to see the very higher enrollment in primary school, but we need to take it further.
Nevertheless, with the primary schools, I notice that there's some barriers that needed to be attended to, which involves things like transportation.
There are certain indirect costs that still needs to be looked at.
I saw that you had the book rental scheme, which is very good as well.
I'm still pleading for the secondary education for it to be extended that much further.
No, I have to look particularly at the education of girls because this bothered me a lot.
I I think you do have a policy that pregnant girls can stay in school and they can re enter the system after giving birth.
But this is a policy, but I'm not sure how well it is applied, whether if there's any real time investigation to how these girls are treated, I gather there's a lot of stigma attached when they do return.
The policy won't have effect without some implementation.
And speaking of that, there's a high level of teen pregnancy.
Could I suggest that empirical evidence has shown that where there is sexual health and reproductive education in schools, this can often counteract the rate of teen pregnancy.
I think that a vigorous campaign of teaching sexual and reproductive health in schools is important and in fact, by the way, for the boys as well.
It is shown also that that can have an effect on the rate of SDAs and HIV AIDS, which as we know, the Soto is the second highest rate of it in the world.
I'm skipping through quickly to make sure I don't ask the questions a second time.
But I would advocate that girls access to secondary education, again, will help to prevent girls entering into early and forced marriages and into economic exploitation and where we, as we know, the domestic were often leads to sexual exploitation as well.
Because after primary education, girls are then forced to look either the domestic work or seek to have some other form of economic support which they get through marriage.
Because the secondary school fees exclude a majority of your children because it's not affordable.
Again, I want to look at the education of boys, where a lot of the boys drop out of school as well, preferring, of course, to go to earn money to help with the household financing.
Many of the families are child.
Headache, so this becomes important.
But I'm suggesting too that you can, if it is possible, look at how you can attract boys into secondary education by probably addressing curriculum change, that you're ensuring that you're teaching the things that meets their needs and using more flexible models by the provision of quality vocational training programs and actually having a curriculum that works towards what they need to have better jobs.
The I understand that you have a stated policy, and this has been dealt with quite a bit already of inclusion inclusive education.
My only point I heard that you have You worked quite a lot on this and this is commendable, but I'm still feeling that you have some deficits.
The extent of assistive devices in the school, accessibility infrastructure, whether the teachers are specially trained, child friendly transportation for the children in rural and mountainous areas.
It seems to me that you can't be having inclusive education without looking closely at the provision of those things.
I think you did mention that you're making sure that the education in minority languages.
I think I heard that and that would be very commendable.
The rest ledger and play, from my reports, the reports that I've read, it seems like there's little appreciation in your state party that of our recognition that there's value and absolute need for children to be allowed to rest, to have leisure and time to play because most adults consider that children should spend their time either in school or working, whether chores at home or earning money.
I'm asking can there be any awareness campaigns and education to counteract that belief that children do not need this.
I also am asking if you can develop safe green spaces for children to play because it makes them healthier children.
And to look at correcting the gender gap, which will allow girls to have greater access to sports.
Asylum seeking children.
I know there's a lack of data, this or otherwise about children in your jurisdiction, accompanied, whether they're unaccopanied or internally displaced.
I find this commendable.
I always like to give praise with you that these children are not put in detention camps.
However, I would like to have some information whether they continue to have access to education, health, psychosocial care, And I note from the reports that there seems to be some dilatory approach to processing of asylum claims, and this has led to families being separated because claims are not settled at the same time or in a timely manner.
And could you comment on that? In terms of child labor, there's a major problem.
There's a problem, a prevalence of 31.9%, I note, and there is a major economic exploitation here and children are engaged in so called late work from the age of 13.
This is contrary to the ILO provisions you need to look at this closely because this is not acceptable international standards.
Your Labor Act of 2024 is welcome, but I'm wondering, does it actually address child labor in terms of the domestic work and so on.
That seems to be a gap.
I may be wrong.
Elaborate on that.
Your numbers of street children, you do not have any data, we need to know that you have some data, that it knows that most NGOs are dealing with the street children, you are not.
Could you make sure that the social workers connect up with them, provided them with family reunification, family tracing, and give them psychosocial support and get them back into school if necessary.
I have runs of time.
Administration of justice being my last point.
Yeah.
Please if I may to sum up.
Pardon? To ask you.
If I may to ask you to sum up because the time is over.
Oh, administration of justice was my last point.
That is why I was simply saying that I'm not entirely happy that there is a modern approach still.
I have heard about the Village Justice committees, and they didn't seem to correlate with children in conflict with law, so you need to explain that.
But the main worry I have is that you must lower the age of criminal responsibility because it is too low, it should be raised to at least 14.
I know that you only have one JTC Juvenile training center.
And this is only for boys.
There's no detention facilities of girls and they are therefore detained along with women.
You seem to use a lot of detention pretrial and otherwise, and I would urge that you follow our DC 24, where detention of children is the last resort for the shortest possible time, and you should be promoting more of the non judicial measures such as diversion and mediation.
Thank you.
Thank you, miss Marshall Harris and we can conclude today's first session.
I would like to thank to all of you once again and wishing you a very nice working evening to prepare yourself for tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will open with your answers, and then we will have again the follow up questions.
Wishing you a nice evening and see you tomorrow.
Thank you.

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