UNITED NATIONS Press release COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD EXAMINES REPORT OF AZERBAIJAN Committee on the Rights of the Child 19 January 2006 (Chamber A) The Committee on the Rights of the Child today reviewed the second periodic report of Azerbaijan on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In opening remarks to the Committee, Khalaf Khalafov, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, said the insurance of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms was the supreme goal of the State in Azerbaijan. In order to achieve this goal and to create appropriate legal mechanisms, all necessary measures were being taken in the sphere of comprehensive utilisation of political, legal and economical potential of the State. Appropriate legislative reforms and necessary measures, including the adoption of new programmes to ensure the rights and interests of the child, had been carried out. There had been considerable progress over a short period, but at the same time Azerbaijan recognised that certain problems existed, and it was necessary to keep on working to solve them. It relied on effective cooperation and open dialogue with the Committee to this end. Committee Expert and Chairperson Jacob Egbert Doek, who served as Rapporteur for the report of Azerbaijan, said Azerbaijan was a relatively young country, and it was struggling with two major problems: the transition to a market economy, and the problems in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. There was a concern that the implementation of all the measures had not received sufficient financial and other resources, and the delegation should elaborate on how policies were implemented and how their budget was managed. Other Committee Experts raised questions related to, among other things the funding of the national commissions and their capacity to perform their functions; how Azerbaijan planned to implement the Millennium Development Goals, in particular those related to children; whether there was a problem with corruption which could affect the implementation of the provisions of the Convention, and these did not appear to be applied sufficiently; the development of the health system, which did not appear to have developed enough to provide the high standard of care that was required and had huge regional disparities; what was being done to address the issue of adolescent health in general, and specifically sexually-transmitted diseases and reproductive health; and issues related to the high number of children in institutions and what was being done to find alternative solutions. The Committee will release its formal, written concluding observations and recommendations on the report of Azerbaijan towards the end of its three-week session which will conclude on 27 January. The delegation of Azerbaijan consisted of representatives of the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Office at Geneva, the General Prosecutor's Office; the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Tourism, and the Ministry of Economic Development. As one of the 192 States parties to the Convention, Azerbaijan has committed itself to present periodic reports to the Committee on its efforts to comply with the provisions of the treaty. The delegation was on hand throughout the day to present the report and to answer questions raised by Committee Experts. When the Committee's Chamber A reconvenes in public on Tuesday, 24 January at 10 a.m., it will consider the second periodic report of Saudi Arabia (CRC/C/136/Add.1). *Report of Azerbaijan * The second periodic report of Azerbaijan (CRC/C/83/Add.13) says that Presidential Order No. 932 of 18 July 1999 approved the State Programme for the Protection of Human Rights. Pursuant to paragraph 22 of this Programme, the State Programme for the Protection of the Rights of the Child and Improvement of Education and Training Work with Children was drafted and subsequently approved by a Cabinet Order dated 22 July 2000. A number of commissions have been set up, and their fundamental purpose is to exert an influence on the social education of minors, protect their rights and legitimate interests, monitor their conduct, prevent unlawful acts, and coordinate the measures taken with regard to these matters by the State and local authorities and by enterprises, establishments and organizations, regardless of their form of ownership. In accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the requirements of the State Programme, work is proceeding on the drafting of a Policy Outline on work with children. A system for collecting information about children covering all aspects of their lives and Convention-related matters has also been devised. The Rights of the Child Act reflects the principles of State policy on the protection of children's rights. The Act also sets out the obligations of the State and other agencies in ensuring the protection of children's interests. The Presidential Decree of 29 July 1999 "On State youth policy" approved the Plan of Action for the Implementation of Youth Policy, which addresses issues of the legal protection of the child and the creation of favourable conditions for children's comprehensive development, as well as specifying measures to protect their health. There has been a marked increase of interest in recent years in the protection of children's rights and the diffusion of information about the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is demonstrated by the emergence of new non-governmental organizations and by the number of projects initiated by groups consisting entirely of schoolchildren and students. The National Coordination Council for Children's Affairs was established in February 2001 under the Ministry's auspices; it considers current problems, sets up working groups to draft measures to ensure the exercise of children's rights, and may lobby on any issue affecting children. Since its creation the Coordination Council has discussed policy outlines on the children's voluntary movement and the organization of children's summer holiday activities and has drafted urgent measures to help children living or working in the street. It is planning to discuss the situation with respect to working children. The Council regularly considers reports from non-governmental organizations and information from State agencies concerning their work. *Presentation of Report* *Khalaf Khalafov*, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, said insurance of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms was the supreme goal of the State in Azerbaijan. In order to achieve this goal and to create appropriate legal mechanisms, all necessary measures were being taken in the sphere of comprehensive utilisation of political, legal and economical potential of the State. All conditions were present to establish institutions particular to a democratic society. In order to implement the previous recommendations of the Committee, the Cabinet of Ministers had adopted the National Action Plan, and set up a working group consisting of representatives of appropriate State bodies and non-governmental organizations. Appropriate legislative reforms and necessary measures, including the adoption of new programmes to ensure the rights and interests of the child, had been carried out. The Law on the Rights of the Child had been adopted in 1998, aimed at strengthening the political, social, economic and cultural protection of children, as well as maternity, paternity, family and the nation's gene pool, and this had become a major step in the improvement of the legal basis of the rights of the child in Azerbaijan. According to the Constitution, the Convention was a component part of the legislation of the country, and consequently the courts of the country were guided by its provisions. The Convention had been translated into Azerbaijani, and 7,500 copies disseminated. Public awareness of the principles and provisions of the Convention were also raised through conferences, seminars, fora and round tables. The State structures on education, youth, culture and public health organised various contests to check the knowledge of the contents of the Convention, and to popularise its provisions. Besides the difficulties particular to a transitional period, difficulties that to a lesser or greater extent affected the ability to implement the provisions of the Convention, the basic obstacle for its more effective implementation as well as for the development of Azerbaijan as a whole was the continuous aggression of neighbouring Armenia, which caused, besides others, severe humanitarian consequences, with approximately 1 million refugees and displaced persons, the most vulnerable of whom were children. Azerbaijan gave a high level of importance to its cooperation with the Committee, and State policy was directed towards the construction of a democratic rule-of-law-based State that could guarantee human rights and freedoms in the country. There had been considerable progress over a short period, but at the same time Azerbaijan recognised that certain problems existed, and it was necessary to keep on working to solve them. It relied on effective cooperation and open dialogue with the Committee to this end. *Questions by Experts* JACOB EGBERT DOEK, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report of Azerbaijan, said Azerbaijan was a relatively young country, and it was struggling with two major problems: the transition to a market economy, and the problems in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. However, it appeared the economy was moving in the right direction, and one which should allow a considerable increase of the budgetary allocation for children, which was currently at a very low level. The Rome Statute should also be ratified, as it was an important instrument for addressing serious violations of human rights. The second periodic report showed an impressive list of legislative and other measures that had been taken to implement the Convention. However, the impact of these could have been better described in the report. There was a concern that the implementation of all the measures had not received sufficient financial and other resources, and the delegation should elaborate on how policies were implemented and how their budget was managed. Budget allocation was limited, in particular for health, which was 0.9 per cent of the GDP, and Mr. Doek asked whether efforts were underway to improve this. The National Strategy for Children and its Poverty Reduction Strategy required further elaboration. Were the reports of the Ombudsman, in particular with regards to her dealings with children, disseminated, he asked. Other Experts raised a series of questions pertaining to the funding of the national commissions and their capacity to perform their functions; how Azerbaijan planned to implement the Millennium Development Goals, in particular those related to children; why there was such a small allocation for sports; problems with the application of laws; whether there was a problem with corruption which could affect the implementation of the provisions of the Convention, and these did not appear to be applied sufficiently; what had been done in order to increase participation of children in decision-making at both a national and local level; whether it was necessary to pay for birth registration and whether it could be made free of charge; issues related to corporal punishment including whether the public was being educated on non-violent forms of discipline; and the reduction in the number of facilities available for children. Several Experts also noted with regret the absence of high-level women from the delegation. *Response by Delegation* Responding, the delegation said that very little information had been included in the report about the various programmes and projects carried out by the Government. The Government took its national and international obligations very seriously, and kept these in mind when developing programmes. On budget programming and the relationship between mechanisms for adopting laws and implementing them, children being the most important members of society, Azerbaijan recognised this in its policies. In order to implement the Poverty Reduction Strategy and Goals, the Government was using a budget-planning mechanism involving all Government Ministries. Oil revenues for the future were an important part of budget allocation for the Government. In the last few years, health allocations and social provision allocations had increased by 120 per cent. In the last three years, the Government had managed to reduce poverty by 9 per cent. There were two specific Millennium Development Goals relating specifically to children's education which had already been adopted into legislation, the delegation said. Budget allocations for the implementation of social goals were decided upon in two ways - everything that was part of the budget per se was decided by the State sectors themselves, and the Government, when drawing up specific plans and projects, provided for these out of special funds which were aimed at carrying out additional activities. Whenever a decision was taken on a legislative and normative act, the Coordination Council was involved. Regularly it discussed the situation concerning children, including street children, and heard reports from non-governmental organizations and State units on work that had been done. It did not have a specific budget, as it was an advisory body. Through existing State structures, monitoring was carried out. The Republic was carrying out a programme for national immunization and was carrying out programmes on respiratory diseases and diarrhoea, promoting breast-feeding and reproductive health and family-planning activities. A system of "biological passports" would be issued in 2006, and given to each newborn child, in the form of a plastic card carrying all medical information. All medical institutions provided for free medical care for children up to the age of 15, and a list of free medicines had been drawn up for children. There had, the delegation said in response to a question by Mr. Doek, been an increase in the number of suicides in the ages of 14 to 17, most of which were males. On child mortality, the Ministry of Health was working on the basis of statistical data, and these were of 9.6 per thousand for the last year. Concern for children was a daily priority in Azerbaijan, and a number of policies had been adopted for their protection, the delegation said. The reasons for the suicides were very many. Suicides often occurred in the rural areas, where children were not very interested in studying and educating themselves in world literature and other subjects, and had a more limited vision of the world. The inclusion of child-related issues into the Official Documents adopted by the country would be done in order to incorporate policy issues with the budget. One of the most acute issues facing Azerbaijan was child mortality, and its focus was on improving capacity building of care providers, and the improvement of data gathering. A monitoring function was also important in this regard. Another important focus area was education, with early-childhood development a major priority among all children, including the most vulnerable, namely the children among the large displaced population in the country. Young people's participation in health and decision-making was also recognised to be important, as children were tomorrow's decision-makers, and had to be prepared to take up that role, the delegation said. The case of the displaced population in Azerbaijan was not currently being dealt with by a United Nations agency, and the Government was working on the issue itself. *Questions by Experts* During the second round of questions, Experts raised questions on the development of the health system, which did not appear to have developed enough to provide the high standard of care that was required and had huge regional disparities; what was being done to address the issue of adolescent health in general, and in specific sexually-transmitted diseases and reproductive health; the implementation of the law on education, in particular with regards to complaints in its regard and that non-attendance was high; whether it was not necessary to have a mediator to protect the rights of the child in the context of complaints; issues related to the high number of children in institutions and what was being done to find alternative solutions; issues linked to adoption, in particular international adoption; and special protection issues in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including the high number of displaced persons and refugees under the age of 15, and the difficulties linked to birth registration in this context. *Response by the Delegation* Responding to these questions and others, the delegation said more than 50 legislative documents were indirectly and directly related to the rights of the child. On improving the system of birth registration, the question of registration of births and deaths was dealt with locally, which made it possible to have facilitated access by the population. Seminars, meetings and trainings had been carried out with the administrators of registration. Statistics had also been improved, and a central archive and database established, with a single computer system covering all the bodies managing the civil status of the population. Changes had also been made to the adoption system, incorporating changes in order to make it possible to revoke an adoption under certain circumstances, including cruelty on the part of the adoptive parents and a request by the child once he or she had reached the age of 14. Concerning the age of criminal responsibility, a special procedure was provided for investigating the cases of minors and trials in their regard. But there was a heavy burden on the courts, and there was need for experience in dealing with minors, which meant that special demands were put on those who already had such experience. There were special rules for the detention of minors, and the legislation laid down very rigid limitations on the use of short-term detention. There was a special part of the Criminal Code concerning the investigation, interrogation, and other issues with regards to cases involving children. Last year, the number of convicted juvenile offenders had amounted to 1.8 per cent of the entire convicted population. Intensive work was underway as a whole to improve the court system in Azerbaijan, and reforms were aimed at respecting human rights. In specialised penitentiaries for women, they could keep children up to three years of age, and there were special conditions to ensure the children were brought up normally. Also, legislation allowed that if the women were imprisoned for more than a year that the child could stay until the end of the sentence. All necessary conditions such as medical care were provided, the delegation said. With regards to the Ombudsperson, the delegation said she was doing active work in Azerbaijan. She visited juvenile penitentiaries, and carried out monitoring. Children under 16 were not considered responsible for a certain number of less serious crimes, and the parents were considered responsible where damage was done, otherwise, the courts dealt with the issue. A large number of courses and trainings had been held with the Ministry of Education, incorporating the rights of the child, covering the time of early childhood and parents' initiatives. Projects aimed to prepare children for the future, and to increase awareness of the Convention, spreading knowledge about it and encouraging observance of the rights among teachers, parents, and children themselves, the delegation said. Children were provided with free textbooks. Following a Presidential Decree, Azerbaijan had shifted to the Latin script, and many works of great literature had been translated and put in school libraries. Schools were also being provided with computer technology, with the aim of ensuring that the general educational schools could help children to acquire know-how in using modern technology. They could thus train themselves in using electronic textbooks, digital libraries and electronic resources. Azerbaijan regularly held meetings and assemblies of teaching personnel, and manuals on human rights had been published and distributed, the delegation said. School attendance was compulsory, as well as being a Constitutional right. The salaries of teachers was a problem, as teachers' average pay was not sufficient, despite having gone up more than 30 times between 1990 and today. Today it was about $ 70 a month. One of the Millennium Development Goals that Azerbaijan was seeking to implement was on improving the quality of education in schools. A lot of work was being done in all spheres to regulate all areas of Azerbaijani life, including education, to achieve a market economy, and it was not considered illegal when teachers did some extra work on the side. Azerbaijan had been implementing a social policy, aligned with the economic reforms in the Republic, with the aim of fulfilling the potential of the country to a greater extent, whilst avoiding economic and social problems. Laws had been adopted on targeted governmental assistance, which radically changed the approach to family issues. This targeted social assistance used needs criteria to determine how much was required. One of the reasons for the situation facing children with disabilities in Azerbaijan was the continued aggression by Armenia and the problems of refugees and displaced persons who had been deprived of normal living conditions for many years, and the children involved were frequently subject to diseases as well as to psychological problems due to their situation. The proportion of children with disabilities among the refugee and displaced population was twice the number as that among the general population. An Expert urged the delegation to take every step to ensure that children did not remain on the streets, and that they were reconciled with their families where possible, before being put in institutions. The protection of children was one of the important parts of the social policies of the State, and it adopted programmes to prevent disabilities and rehabilitate persons with disabilities, including children, the delegation said. Today, children with disabilities were almost all provided with rehabilitation including artificial limbs and wheelchairs. The State had been considering setting up specialised educational institutions for these children. The problem of general institutions was recognised, and the State was working to find other options for children, in particular for healthy children who were in specialised institutions due to the poverty of their families. Various methods, including foster families in what was called SOS Villages and SOS Houses, were used to this end. The minimum age for child labour was 15, according to the Labour Code. Azerbaijan had acceded to many ILO Conventions, the delegation said, including Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. It was permitted to take on 14-year-olds to work, but only with the agreement of parents and only for training purposes, provided it did not affect the normal development or health of the child. Adoption and foster care were important options for children requiring care, the delegation said, but the current legislation gave preference to adoption within the country. Azerbaijani citizens were therefore given priority, and only if a child was not wanted by anybody within the country were they offered up for international adoption. There was a formal mechanism in place to encourage foster families, including an allowance. Research was continuing to examine the effects of foster families on children as opposed to children living with their birth families. The Government was trying to ensure that social developments moved in tandem with economic developments, ensuring greater respect for the rights of the child in Azerbaijan, the delegation said. A new procedure would be adopted with regards to international adoption which would be adopted by State bodies and would be fully implemented in all future cases. A law had been adopted combating the trafficking in children, and appropriate State structures built to combat this phenomenon, with a number of criminal cases prosecuted, and court decisions taken on these cases. Unfortunately, it was a social scourge, but the State policy was to combat this phenomenon and these crimes and increase the level of prevention work to halt its spread. Infant mortality had decreased, but was still quite high compared to other European countries, and there were various reasons for this, including different methodologies applied to mortality figures. A new study was planned on mortality, with the assistance of UNICEF and other international organizations. There was a high prevalence of haemophilia and thalassemia in the Republic, with every 12th person a carrier of the genes, and new cases every year. A law had been adopted with regards to inherited diseases, and programmes and studies implemented. There was a programme to combat HIV/AIDS, and to prevent its spread. There was increased access to contraceptive methods, with the aim of improving women's reproductive health, and 24 Centres for Family Planning and Reproductive Health had been opened. There had been an increase in the number of sexually transmitted diseases. *Preliminary Remarks* JACOB EGBERT DOEK, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report of Azerbaijan, said in preliminary concluding remarks that the Committee was very pleased with the dialogue, which had provided a lot of information. Azerbaijan was aware of the problems, and had implemented many different measures to resolve situations including on displaced children and street children. It was on the right track, although there were various things that should be increased or speeded up, and details on this would be in the concluding observations. Changes of attitude were important, and this had been recognised, although it was clear that some changes were still lacking, for example with regards to corporal punishment and other forms of discipline. A law was insufficient in this regard. A number of efforts and programmes were underway, and the State's approach was a good one, but further time was required, in particular with regards to the perception and use of institutionalisation, as the Committee preferred and recommended family reunification, although it recognised this was not always possible. The Committee looked forward to the follow-up to its concluding observations. * *** * This press release is not an official record and is provided for public information only.
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