COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD EXAMINES REPORT OF BANGLADESH ON SALE OF CHILDREN, CHILD PROSTITUTION AND CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

The Committee on the Rights of the Child this afternoon reviewed the initial report of Bangladesh on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Introducing the report, Begum Rokeya Sultana, Secretary-in-Charge of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs of Bangladesh, said the sale of children and child pornography were not widespread in Bangladesh. There was a problem with underage girl victims of child prostitution and the Government was well aware of the situation. Remarkable progress had been achieved in putting the necessary framework in place to combat trafficking in women. A police monitoring cell at police headquarters in the capital had been established to collect information on human trafficking, especially in women and children. There was also an Inter-Ministerial Committee headed by the Ministry of Home Affairs to review progress on this issue that involved all stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations. At the field level, there were Committees headed by local administrators to monitor cases of women and children trafficking, repression, and acid throwing, among others.

In preliminary concluding observations, Lucy Smith, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report of Bangladesh, while acknowledging the efforts undertaken by the Government so far, saw that child prostitution and the sale of children were serious problems in Bangladesh and that child pornography was becoming a problem. Data collection was also a problem, and birth registration was a fundamental issue for Bangladesh. Awareness-raising was also seriously lacking with regard to the Optional Protocol. The establishment of a helpline and a children's ombudsman would really help the situation. The problem of stigma was a major obstacle to getting children to report crimes against them, but the Government had to be innovative in finding ways to get information about those crimes and in encouraging children to report them.

In additional preliminary observations, Agnes Akosua Aidoo, the Committee Expert serving as co-Rapporteur for the report of Bangladesh, said there was scope for Bangladesh to really take on the issues of the Optional Protocol very strongly, in a culturally sensitive way. If the issue of stigma was not attacked and attacked very firmly, victims were doubly victimized. In that connection, prevention should be a major focus, to prevent children from becoming victims in the first place.

Other Committee Experts raised questions and asked for further information related to, among other things, what was being done to address the dropout rate; how the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs coordinated its work with the other ministries; juvenile justice measures, including what rights to express their views children had in court; and statistics on disappeared children and measures to find and protect them. An Expert noted that, according to reports received, there were some 1.8 million children involved in sexual work in Bangladesh. There had also been reports that children involved in sexual work were treated as offenders, rather than victims, and that often they were held in prisons while their cases were being settled. She wanted to know how that problem was being addressed.


The Committee will release its formal, written concluding observations and recommendations on the report of Bangladesh towards the end of its three-week session, which will conclude on 8 June.

Also representing the delegation of Bangladesh were other representatives of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and representatives from the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

As one of the States parties to the Convention, Bangladesh is obliged to present periodic reports to the Committee on its efforts to comply with the provisions of the treaty. The delegation was on hand to present the report and to answer questions raised by Committee Experts.

When the Committee next reconvenes in public, on Friday, 8 June at 12.30 p.m., it is scheduled to adopt its annual report, to discuss its programme of work for future sessions and to present its concluding observations on the reports of Slovakia, the Maldives, Uruguay, Sudan, Monaco, Norway, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Guatemala, Ukraine and Bangladesh, which it considered during the present session.

Report of Bangladesh

The initial report of Bangladesh on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC/C/OPSC/BGD/1) says that, although Bangladesh adopted the National Plan of Action against Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children including Trafficking in 2002, the incidence of violence, including acid attacks, sexual abuse and exploitation of children, continues to plague the realization of the rights of the child. Sexual abuse and the exploitation of children and adolescent girls is a significant problem but remains largely hidden due to the stigma attached to the victims of such offences, and trafficking of children both within and across international borders is another serious concern. Children of sex workers, orphans and other ostracized groups of children are especially vulnerable. Moreover, the law only allows transmitting citizenship (natural) through the male line, which leads children to becoming completely invisible and therefore more vulnerable to exploitation. Also, contradictory and conflicting laws concerning the age of consent to sexual acts has led to further victimization of children (the age of sexual consent is 16). In addition, there are challenges confronting the education sector concerning the empowerment of girl children.

With regard to legislation, the Suppression of Violence Against Women and Children Act, 2000, as amended in 2003, defines a child as a person under the age of 16 years. According to the Act, any person who buys or sells any child for any unlawful or immoral purpose shall be punishable by death or rigorous imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to a fine. The law also provides life imprisonment or rigorous imprisonment for the kidnapping of children. Further, if any person who cuts or impairs the hand, leg, eye or any organs of a child, with the intention to sale, shall be punishable by death or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to a fine. In terms of protection, the Department of Social Services provides assistance for the children who are victims or accused of an offence. The Department of Women Affairs operates safe homes in different areas in the country. Centres across the country are offering psycho-social counselling, legal aid, recreation, basic education/life skills training and medical treatment as well rehabilitation and reintegration. Besides these, several national non-governmental organizations provide various services for children in need of protection from abuse, exploitation and trafficking, including residential safe homes for children victims of commercial sexual exploitation and abuse. Many non-governmental organizations are also involved in raising awareness on child sexual abuse/exploitation, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, and drugs and substance abuse.

In terms of implementing the Optional Protocol, Bangladesh has developed the National Plan of Action against Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children, including Trafficking, in 2002, and implementation and monitoring committees have been established to ensure coordination and monitoring of the Plan of Action. A poverty reduction strategy paper is about to be approved; and an Inter-Ministerial committee has been established for the protection of children in conflict with the law.


Presentation of Report

BEGUM ROKEYA SULTANA, Secretary-in-Charge, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs of Bangladesh, said that, despite Bangladesh's scarce human and financial resources, it was trying its best to ensure an enabling environment for the enjoyment of children's rights. Poverty, deprivation and underdevelopment were at the root of denial of many rights, including the rights of the child. However, some progress had been made in the area of poverty reduction over the past two decades. Access to primary education had increased steadily. The enrolment rate had also improved. That had happened owing to an increase in the Government's budgetary allocation for education.

On regional arrangements, within the context of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, Bangladesh had ratified the Convention on Prevention and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children, the Convention on Child Welfare, and the Convention on Regional Arrangements for the Promotion of Child Welfare in South Asia. All of those initiatives would have a positive impact on the overall realization of the rights of the child and would reinforce national endeavours.

Coming to the Optional Protocol, the sale of children and child pornography were not widespread in Bangladesh. There had been hardly any cases of the sale of children, despite widespread poverty in society. Child pornography was also extremely rare, thanks to the social stigma attached to it and the religious taboo. It might grow as a phenomenon in future, given the ever-increasing growth of Internet use. For the moment, however, Bangladesh was more concerned about the pressing issues, such as child prostitution, Ms. Sultana stressed.

There was a problem with underage girl victims of child prostitution, Ms. Sultana said. The Government was well aware of the situation. Remarkable progress had been achieved in putting the necessary framework in place to combat trafficking in women. A police monitoring cell at police headquarters in the capital had been established to collect information regarding human trafficking, especially trafficking in women and children. There was also an Inter-ministerial Committee headed by the Ministry of Home Affairs to review progress on this issue that involved all stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations. At the field level, there were Committees headed by local administrators to monitor cases of women and children trafficking, repression, and acid throwing, among others. Those Committees sent monthly reports to the Ministry.

Ms. Sultana noted that the Government had also amended some laws and enacted new laws to protect children against criminal acts. The Birth and Death Registration Act 2004, the Mines Acts of 2004, and the Court Wards Act of 2004, had all been revised to bring them in conformity with the Convention. In addition, owing to incidents related to acid throwing, especially on girls and young women, the Acid Crime Prevention Act 2002 and the Acid Control Act 2002 had been promulgated.

Questions by Experts

LUCY SMITH, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report of Bangladesh, said it was clear that there was a high incidence of sale of children in Bangladesh for sexual exploitation, as well as for child jockeys and domestic work. It was also a country of transit for the sale of children for sexual exploitation. In its written answers, the Government had provided some statistics on the number of recorded cases of child prostitution, and the number of convictions for that crime, but there had been no data on the number of children actually sold, involved in child prostitution or child pornography. Were there any estimates the delegation could provide as regarded the number of children involved in those crimes?

The lack of data in Bangladesh was general, and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography there was a total lack of data collection. One of the reasons for a lack of data was the stigma attached to the crimes, and there was apparently no incentive for the child victims to report them. What was the Government doing to address that situation, and to get children to report? Ms. Smith understood there had been plans for a hotline for child victims, but that it had been put on the shelf. Was there any update on that situation?

Regarding budget allocation, Ms. Smith said that, in recent years, the budget for children, in particular for education, had been quite good. Would more resources be allocated in future budgets? In particular, would Bangladesh consider a human rights dimension in its future budgeting for children?

With regard to the incorporation of the Optional Protocol in national legislation, there were many legal provisions in place in Bangladesh covering those crimes, but it was hard to get a real overview of those crimes. There was a law in place to punish the sale of children, the Suppression of Violence Against Women and Children Act, but it was apparently not part of the penal law. Perhaps it would be more visible there, Ms. Smith suggested. More importantly, that law did not cover children from 16 to 18 years of age. The fact that that law set the age of consent as 16 was certainly in conflict with the protections as set out in the Convention. Furthermore, the law on child pornography seemed to target only children's access to pornography, and not the more serious crime of children involved in pornography. It was also unclear to what extent child prostitution was prohibited, at least there was no strict definition. Were there any plans to reform legislation to make it more targeted and more in line with the crimes as they were set out in the Protocol?

Finally, in its written replies, Bangladesh provided numbers of child offenders. In that context, Ms. Smith said it was important to stress that the Protocol was not concerned with child offenders. It was concerned with child victims. Child victims, indeed, should not be treated as offenders and put in prisons until their situation could be cleared.

AGNES AKOSUA AIDOO, the Committee Expert serving as co-Rapporteur for the report of Bangladesh, while welcoming the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 2004, and the establishment of guidelines, as well as a monitoring Committee, for the implementation of that act, noted that the rate of birth registration was still extremely low in Bangladesh, 10 per cent according to the written replies. There was also the issue of registration of children of marriages between refugees and Bangladeshi nationals, in particular Bahari children. Given that situation, what was being done to accelerate birth registrations?

Ms. Aidoo wished for further information and clarification on dissemination and training on the Optional Protocol. As she understood it, very few officials were aware of the Optional Protocol and, indeed, very few law enforcement officials had human rights training. Were there plans to translate the Optional Protocol into Bangla? Also, what was being done to address the issue of stigma for child victims through training?

In terms of social and psychological assistance to child victims, Ms. Aidoo welcomed the information in the report that safe homes had been established by the Government, as well as by non-governmental organizations, and that there was a good programme for the repatriation and rehabilitation of child jockeys, as well as two one-stop crisis centres, and that two more were planned. However, she had the impression that most of that assistance was being provided by non-governmental organizations.

Finally, Ms. Aidoo wanted to know if there were any programmes to address boy-victims of the crimes set out in the Protocol, including rape, prostitution and sale for forced labour.

Other Experts raised a series of questions on a number of topics, including why international aid to Bangladesh was declining; what was being done to address the dropout rate; how the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs coordinated its work with the other ministries involved, such as the Ministry of the Interior, and also how it worked with the Committee on the implementation of the provisions of the Protocol; juvenile justice measures, including what rights to express their views children had in court; and statistics on disappeared children and measures to find and protect them. An Expert said that, according to reports received, there were some 1.8 million children involved in sexual work in Bangladesh. There had also been reports that children involved in sexual work were treated as offenders, rather than victims, and that often they were held in prisons while their cases were being settled. She wanted to know how that problem was being addressed.



Discussion

Responding to questions, the delegation insisted that the fact that, given the interim, caretaker Government, there was no Minister in place heading the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs did not impede the protection and promotion of the rights of children.

The Optional Protocol and, indeed, all official documents, would be translated into Bangla, the delegation confirmed.

Regarding birth registration, implementing the national legislation on birth registration was key to implementation of the Optional Protocol. The delegation did not know what the source had been of the figure of 1.8 million children being involved in sexual work in the country. Indeed, without a proper system of birth registration it was impossible to give proper estimates. That situation was made even more difficult given the fact that children often did not get enough to eat, stunting their growth, and subsequently making it difficult to tell their true age.

The Chairperson informed the delegation that that figure had come from the annual report of a national non-governmental organization.

The delegation responded that poverty was at the root of the problem, and in that connection, the Government was undertaking efforts to address poverty, and had drafted a poverty reduction strategy paper. An Expert rejoined that, in any poverty strategy, the rights of the child had to be taken into consideration. Indeed, birth registration had to be improved to help pull children out of poverty. Another Expert observed that the poverty reduction strategy paper should be an opportunity to address this issue of birth registration. The delegation explained that the poverty reduction strategy paper was already in place. In 2008 it would be revisited.

As to children's right to lodge a complaint against their families, the delegation confirmed that, of course, children, like anyone else had the right to lodge complaints. The Government was working to encourage children to do so. However, given the social stigma, of course, children did not want to make such complaints.

On the helpline, that was a good idea, the delegation agreed. The project had been stopped owing to a technical problem with the phone lines. However, there were now two opinions about it, and it was hoped it was something that could be implemented in the future.

In terms of coordinating with other ministries, there had been no problems experienced by the Ministry of Women and the Family, the delegation asserted. The Inter-Ministerial Committee allowed for an easy forum for the ministries to get together, including with non-governmental organizations, to work on children's issues.

It was very difficult to evaluate the impact of training programmes, the delegation said. It was not really possible to say that, "as a result of this training, this was the outcome". But they did try and evaluate that impact and took lessons learned into consideration in elaborating future projects.

With regard to the conflicting ages in different legislation concerning children, a law commission was looking at revising the law to bring uniformity, the delegation said. The Rapporteur countered that the Optional Protocol had very specific requirements with regard to age (18 years) and wanted some reassurance that that would be the standard Bangladesh was looking to institute. The delegation said that it could not say what the law commission was contemplating, but they would respond to the Committee on this issue later in writing. The United Nations Children's Fund was also going to fund a big project: the juvenile justice round table, and had already held three meetings, to ensure that all stakeholders were able to provide input.

The real issue, Experts highlighted, was that children between 16 and 18 were unprotected with regard to the crimes set out in the Optional Protocol, and that it appeared that judges were not aware of the Protocol and so could not make rulings on that basis. The delegation responded that it did not think that judges could make decisions based on the Optional Protocol in any case, not until it was incorporated into national legislation.

Regarding the difficult area of how to change social attitudes, there were awareness-raising campaigns in place, and it was hoped that they would have an effect. Also, currently there was a very strong electronic media, both government and private stations, that were doing a good job. However, it was not to be expected that it would happen soon, the delegation observed.

On boy-child victims, the delegation frankly admitted that they had not been mentioned anywhere. That issue needed to be addressed, and in any programmes in future that issue would be included.

The camel jockeys programme was now at an end. The camel jockeys had been returned home, and it was no longer allowed to use child camel jockeys, the delegation said.

There was no data at the present on disappeared children. Perhaps police stations at the field level might be able to provide some information, which could be sent on to the Committee later. However, if a disappearance was not reported, there was no possibility of furnishing any information.

In that connection, an Expert asked about local initiatives, among communities and tribes, and what support was given to them. That was also an important source of information about the existence and disappearance of children, as well as for preventive work regarding the Protocol.

The delegation said that there were monthly meetings among the police and all the stakeholders of the local communities, where issues such as disappearances could be raised. At the tribal level, there were projects and programmes focused on them, in particular with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme.

In terms of the reservations to articles 14 and 21 to the Protocol, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs was seeking to have those withdrawn and the matter had been sent to the Religious Affairs Ministry, which was looking at what other Muslim countries had done.

Preliminary Concluding Observations

LUCY SMITH, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report of Bangladesh, in preliminary concluding observations, while acknowledging the efforts undertaken by the Government so far, saw that child prostitution and the sale of children were serious problems in Bangladesh and that child pornography was becoming a problem. There were also serious problems regarding the implementation of the Optional Protocol in national legislation. The provisions of the Optional Protocol were partly covered by the existing legislation, but those provisions were scattered and did not provide full protection.

Data collection was also a problem, Ms. Smith said. Birth registration was a fundamental issue for Bangladesh and one that it had to address.

Awareness-raising was also seriously lacking with regard to the Optional Protocol. Bangladesh had demonstrated that it had good cooperation with civil society and with the United Nations Children’s Fund, and it was to be hoped that it could work with them to increase awareness about the Protocol and its provisions. The establishment of a helpline and a children's ombudsman would really help the situation, Ms. Smith underscored. The problem of stigma was a major obstacle to getting children to report crimes against them, but the Government had to be innovative in finding ways to get information about those crimes and in encouraging children to report them.

In additional preliminary observations, AGNES AKOSUA AIDOO, the Committee Expert serving as co-Rapporteur for the report of Bangladesh, said Bangladesh had demonstrated the will to undertake actions to help children despite a lot of challenges they faced. There was scope for Bangladesh to really take on the issues of the Optional Protocol very strongly, and also birth registration, in a culturally sensitive way. If the issue of stigma was not attacked and attacked very firmly, victims were doubly victimized.

In that connection, Ms. Aidoo stressed that prevention should be a major focus, to prevent children from becoming victims in the first place.

For use of the information media; not an official record

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