COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD EXAMINES REPORT OF HONDURAS

The Committee on the Rights of the Child today reviewed the third periodic report of Honduras on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Introducing the report, Doris García De Zúñiga, Executive Director of the Honduran Institute for Children and the Family, said that the National Poverty Reduction Strategy set 11 goals, eight of which involved children, which were linked to the Millennium Development Goals. Among the goals defined were doubling the rate of basic education for children aged five; increasing access to first and second stages of basic education; ensuring that 50 per cent of the labour force had completed secondary education; reducing by 20 per cent malnutrition rates for those under five; and increasing access to sanitation and potable water to 95 per cent.

In preliminary concluding remarks, Rosa María Ortiz, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report of Honduras, said there did not appear to be the political will in Honduras to establish the full range of measures needed and the appropriate administrative structure to ensure that the benefits were felt by the children for whom they were intended. Children in Honduras were trapped without help from the State. The process of reforming the Institute for Children and the Family was dragging on too long. Honduran children needed coordinated, responsible care from their society. Levels of malnutrition, deaths from lack of vaccination, unsafe drinking water or extrajudicial killings were all problems that needed a response from the Government and from the region as a whole.

Other Experts raised a series of questions and asked for more information on a number of issues pertaining to, among other things, the discrepancy between the minimum age for criminal responsibility between boys and girls; dissemination of the Convention and programmes to raise awareness about its provisions; discrimination against children with disabilities, indigenous children, children living in rural areas, in particular remote areas, and girls; measures to address commercial sexual exploitation of children; and the apparent impunity enjoyed by government authorities for the murder of children.

The Committee will release its formal, written concluding observations and recommendations on the third periodic report of Honduras towards the end of its three-week session, which will conclude on 2 February.

The delegation of Honduras, which was headed by Health Minister Jenny Meza, also included Delmer Urbizo Panting, the Permanent Representative of Honduras to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other members of the Permanent Mission, the Vice Minister for Government and Justice, and representatives from the Supreme Court and the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Children.

As one of the 193 States parties to the Convention, Honduras 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 throughout the day to present the report and to answer questions raised by Committee Experts.

When the Committee next reconvenes on Monday, 22 January at 10 a.m., it will consider the second report of the Marshall Islands (CRC/C/93/Add.8).
Report of Honduras

The third periodic report of Honduras (CRC/C/HND/3) says that of particular importance on the legislative side in Honduras has been the adoption of a number of laws aiming to give effect to the rights of the child – notably, the National Registry of Persons Act, which eliminates all forms of discrimination against children on the basis of their parentage, and the Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities Act, which aims to eliminate discrimination against this population group. As regards programmatic and administrative measures, significant efforts have been made to formulate programmes and increase the allocation of resources for ensuring the realization of children’s rights, particularly in areas defined as high priority areas in the National Plan of Action for Human Development, Children and Youth, 1990-2000. With regard to coordination at the national level, attention should be drawn to the establishment of a range of intersectoral committees with the aim of taking practical measures to address issues such as child labour, the sexual and commercial exploitation of children, child abuse, pre-school education, and the prevention of drug addiction. At the local level, steps were taken to include goals for the advancement of children’s rights in municipal development plans. Also, the introduction of municipal children’s advocates’ offices was a significant step, since, despite resource constraints, they have been doing important work in publicizing and defending the rights of children.

Considerable progress has been made in the field of health, with a steady decrease in infant mortality, a reduction in maternal mortality, increased availability of professional childbirth care, an increase in breastfeeding and an extensive and successful immunization programme.
In the field of education, alternative approaches aimed at increasing educational availability at the different levels have been developed, and the ongoing reform of the educational system will result in a substantial improvement in the quality of education available to the children of Honduras. Notwithstanding the progress made, there is no denying that the country still faces major challenges - notably, the lack of a national policy regarding children that has been agreed upon and approved by all stakeholders; the absence of a comprehensive child protection system and of a monitoring system that provides information on progress made in meeting the commitments undertaken with the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and, lastly, the existence of a significant number of children living in poverty or even extreme poverty.

Presentation of Report

DORIS GARCÍA DE ZÚÑIGA, Executive Director of the Honduran Institute for Children and the Family, introducing the report, said that the delegation was looking forward to an open dialogue that would enable Honduras to better promote the rights of the child in their country. It was important to take account of the current review of international instruments and guidelines, such as the Millennium Development Goals, as commitments based on international and national standards, the National Poverty Reduction Strategy, as well as sectoral policies and themes were relevant to children at the national level.

The National Poverty Reduction Strategy set 11 goals, eight of which involved children. Those goals were in turn linked to the Millennium Development Goals. Among the goals defined were doubling the rate of basic education for children aged five; increasing access to first and second stages of basic education; ensuring that 50 per cent of the labour force had completed secondary education; reducing by 20 per cent malnutrition rates for those under five; and increasing access to sanitation and potable water to 95 per cent.

Under the current Government, Honduras had set itself the goal of going beyond the approaches used historically for achieving human development goals. They were exploring the development of a link between Government and society, empowering citizens to construct a democracy that fostered the wide participation of individuals.

Questions by Experts

JEAN ZERMATTEN, the Committee Expert serving as co-Rapporteur for the report of Honduras, welcomed the well-written and well-structured report of Honduras. He took note of the new national legislation affecting children, as well as a number of plans, bodies and campaigns that had been instituted. At the international level, the Committee welcomed the ratification by Honduras of ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour, in 2001; the two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2002; the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination; the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; the InterAmerican Convention on the Disappearance of Persons; and in 2006, the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers.

It should be noted that Honduras was facing certain obstacles to the effective implementation of the Children’s Convention, Mr. Zermatten said. As noted in the report, Honduras lacked a national policy regarding children, and there was no monitoring system to ensure the provisions of the Convention. Some 4 million Hondurans lived in poverty and 2 million lived in extreme poverty. Many children also suffered from the atmosphere of violence that prevailed in Honduras.

Mr. Zermatten wished to underscore two of the Committee’s recommendations to Honduras that had not been respected: better coordination of programmes and policies for children; and greater resources to be granted to the Honduran Institute for Children and the Family to undertake work for children. Continuing problems with birth registration, access to healthcare, street children, youth gangs, and a widespread lack of access to education also were of concern.

While Mr. Zermatten welcomed new legislation, such as the new code of criminal procedure, the act on HIV/AIDs, and legislation on persons with disabilities, there had been no consideration given to the compatibility of those laws with the Convention. It was high time that Honduran legislation was brought in line with the Convention, he felt.

Mr. Zermatten also regretted that Honduras still had not signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the InterAmerican Convention on the Prevention of Torture, and to date had not ratified the two Hague Conventions.

While Mr. Zermatten took note of the plan of action established in 2005 for providing opportunities to children, with its six priority areas, as well as a number of sectoral plans that had also been established, he was concerned that there was no information indicating what budgetary resources had been allocated to support those plans.

Regarding the definition of the child, Mr. Zermatten regretted a lack of clarification on the ages of minority. For example, what were the ages for consent to medical care, the age of sexual consent, for ending schooling and for entry into the army? It was known that Honduras used physical criteria to determine the age of majority, that is, puberty, which varied for girls and boys, a system the Committee had already urged Honduras to abandon.

Finally, Mr. Zermatten was very concerned about the rights of indigenous children, girls and street children, who were subject to discrimination and often faced obstacles to the full enjoyment of their rights.

ROSA MARÍA ORTIZ, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report of Honduras, noted that 50 per cent of the Honduran population was under 18, and the country suffered from one of the poorest economies in the Western Hemisphere. There was also a huge divide between rich and poor.

Among progress achieved were an increase in the rates of basic education, and a small decrease in child mortality. Ms. Ortiz was concerned, however, by the general lack of progress on children’s issues, despite the programmes Honduras had put in place to address them, as well as an apparent disregard of the Committee’s previous recommendations. In that connection, she reiterated a strong concern regarding the lack of coordination in the implementation of the Convention’s provisions.

Civil society needed to be drawn into efforts to improve the situation of children. Ms. Ortiz requested further information about the involvement of civil society organizations and asked if they had any input in drafting the present periodic report.

Ms. Ortiz asked for more information about the role of local governments and family councils. In her view, Honduras appeared to be still engaged in the search for actors who would be responsible for children’s rights.

Finally, Ms. Ortiz pointed to the need to train officials involved with children in human rights matters and in the provisions of the Convention.

Other Experts raised a series of questions and asked for more information on a number of issues pertaining to, among other things, the discrepancy between the minimum age for criminal responsibility between boys (12) and girls (14); dissemination of the Convention and programmes to raise awareness about its provisions; discrimination against children with disabilities, indigenous children, children living in rural areas, in particular remote areas, and girls; and measures to address commercial sexual exploitation of children.

An Expert was concerned about the apparent impunity enjoyed by government authorities for the murder of children. The authorities appeared to justify the murder of young people by pointing to the existence of violent youth gangs (maras). In that connection, studies seemed to indicate that there were only 10,000 members of such gangs, far fewer than the number the Government had suggested (30,000). He asked for further information on this issue.

Response by the Delegation

DORIS GARCÍA DE ZÚÑIGA, Executive Director of the Honduran Institute for Children and the Family, responding to these questions and others, said that, in 2006, the Institute for Children and the Family had worked actively to review the experiences of the national Institute over the past few years, and had discovered a wide gap between its legal mandate and its existing activities. Regarding the lack of a national children’s policy, a proposed amendment to the Institute’s articles of incorporation spelled out that the Institute bore the primary responsibility for coordinating national policy on children. There was currently a bill before Parliament requesting further funds for the Institute to carry out all of those activities.

In terms of international cooperation, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had been engaged in the reform of the Institute, as well as on a programme to combat HIV/AIDS. In cooperation with the Government of Spain, several municipalities were working on child protection mechanisms, including in San Pedro Sula. The International Organization for Migration was working with Honduras on the issue of child migrants in the west of the country, where some 20 children seeking a better life elsewhere returned to Honduras every day. A committee had been organized to help those children including representatives of local municipalities, state prosecutors, the office on migrant policy and other local bodies.

Another member of the delegation, responding on the issue of the killings of minors, said that as of June 2002, the Commission for the Protection of the Moral and Physical Integrity of Young People had been established, and under it, in the same year, the Special Unit for Investigation of the Deaths of Minors. That investigative unit, however, had been set up by executive decree, without having had any specific budget allocated to it. Currently, there were a number of investigating units throughout the country in problem areas, but those units faced severe financial constraints that hampered investigations. The unit was intended to investigate all cases of execution-style killings, specifically, rather than all violent deaths of children in general.

Of the 1,202 cases of child murders assigned to the unit, almost 80 per cent were still under investigation. Of cases of murder assigned to prosecutors, 13 per cent had been attributed to the authorities, 49 per cent involved youth gangs (maras), and 38 per cent involved private individuals. None of the cases involving State agents, however, had shown that that agent was acting on the orders of a superior officer; thus it could not be said that there was a State policy to exterminate youth, the delegation said. The Commission was currently lobbying the Government for earmarked budget funds for its activities, and it was hoped that the budget would be approved for 2007/08.

Further Questions by Experts

During the second round of questions, Experts asked further questions on topics including, among others, detention conditions for minors, including whether minors could be held in solitary confinement; educational opportunities for children with disabilities; efforts to improve access to health care, in particular in rural areas where some 70 per cent of the population were cut off from health services; programmes to combat malnutrition; dropping vaccination rates; adolescent health measures, in particular given high rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases; substance abuse, including smoking and alcohol abuse; and the apparent ineffectiveness of the Special Law on HIV/AIDS, enacted in 1999, given the continual rise in HIV/AIDS infection rates.

On education, Experts asked whether plans for bilingual education for indigenous groups had been implemented; what measures existed to decrease the high drop-out rate in primary education; and what was being done to address grave discrepancies in enrolment between rural and urban areas. More information was also requested on teacher training. Noting that fewer boys attended school than girls, an Expert was concerned that this was an indication that those boys were working. Given the lack of funds to implement the Government’s plan to combat child labour, what assistance was being provided by the ILO International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour, in particular in rural areas?

Increasing poverty in Honduras – both in absolute terms and with regard to a widening inequality of resource distribution – had disastrous implications for children’s rights, an Expert remarked. In that connection, he wondered whether children had been consulted in drafting the national Poverty Reduction Strategy, and whether an independent monitoring body for that instrument was in place. Another Expert asked for more information on programmes to provide social safety nets for households headed by single working mothers.

Given that the Anti-Gang Act was often wrongly applied by the police – with a huge gap between the number of arrests and detentions as compared with those who were convicted – an Expert wondered if the Supreme Court had any intention of reviewing the constitutionality of that law. Also, what social rehabilitation programmes existed for ex-gang members?

Response by the Delegation

Responding to these questions and others, the delegation said that, on the issue of training for juvenile justice officials, since the establishment of the Code on Children and Adolescents, the Institute for Children and the Family had intensively trained the police, prosecutors and judges in joint sessions on its provisions, and it continued to host such trainings.

It was true that there were not enough children’s courts or children’s judges, the delegation agreed. There were now 48 children’s judges.

The problem of child labour was linked to that of poverty, the delegation observed. In many cases the money the children brought in was necessary for the survival of the child and its family. What was important was that the Government remained vigilant in its guardianship role with regard to child labour, ensuring that minors were not involved in working night shifts or become involved in prostitution or mining. The ILO had made a major contribution in that respect. Training sessions had been organized with regard to the ILO Conventions to which Honduras was a party, in particular for labour inspectors.

With regard to the Anti-Gang Act, the delegation said that through regional commissions work had been done in the schools and in the press to encourage preventive policies. Admittedly, it was not enough. Looking at the conviction rate, the number was actually considerable. Efforts were being made to train the police, and the number of round ups and those being held under this law had been reduced, owing to the efforts of prosecutors. Regarding the constitutionality of the Act, the delegation observed that it was not actually an Act, though that was what they called it. It was just an amendment to section 332 of the Criminal Code. There had been an appeals case on the grounds that amended section 332 was unconstitutional, but unfortunately it had not been able to be taken up because of a technicality. It was to be hoped that another appeal would be brought that had no such defect, as it was true that the amendment should be reviewed.

Concerning migrant children, the delegation said that the Government was very aware of this problem. In 2006, 2,612 children were deported from the United States, Mexico and Guatemala back to Honduras. Those children were taken in by one of the three returnee holding centres in the country. The holding centres received returnees and provided them with food and documentation to allow for their reintegration. The children were either returned to their homes and their parents, if they could be located, or were transferred to the custody of the National Institute for Children and the Family. An agreement had just been made with the national training institute to arrange for such children to learn skills that would enable them to find work.

There were bilateral and multilateral agreements with countries of destination for migrants, including Guatemala, the delegation added. There was an agreement with Mexico on methods for the safe return of migrants. Urgent measures were being undertaken to try and keep young people from migrating for economic reasons, and 50 per cent of the budget of the poverty reduction programmes went to such initiatives. The maras training centres had a strategic role to play in helping to reintegrate young people. There was a budget to help young people set up their own businesses.

Child mortality was decreasing, the delegation affirmed. In 2005 the figures were 29.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, whereas there were 31.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2003. Initial figures for 2006 showed a further decrease, to 23 per 1,000. In that connection, the Government had been working to increase the number of hospital births and to decrease the incidence of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

A solidarity network programme had been established to increase access to health care, with mobile clinics, each servicing some 80 families, providing immunization, micronutrients and health checks for pregnant women.

There had been an increase in teen pregnancies, and teenage mothers accounted for some 30 per cent of all deliveries, the delegation said. To address that, among other things, the Institute for Children and the Family was working with the Ministry of Education to provide sexual and reproductive health courses in schools.

With regard to the increase in the HIV/AIDS infection rate despite the existence of HIV/AIDS prevention programmes, the delegation pointed out that without sufficient funds, those programmes could not be effective, and that was sadly the case.

On education, the delegation said that 2006 had witnessed serious confrontations between teachers and the Government. That had led to a shorter than usual school year, which one Expert had asked about, but every effort had been made to make up for the lost days as much as possible. As part of the settlement reached, the teachers had agreed to work on a nationwide literacy campaign. This year, 2007, had been declared the national education year. Programmes for indigenous ethnic groups had been carried out to ensure respect for their cultural identity, including educational programmes.

To improve school attendance, a voucher, a sort of aid package, was now given to parents whose children stayed in school without cutting classes, the delegation said. With regard to increasing access to education, a teacher training college had recently opened centres in remote areas, via video link on the weekends. The Ministry of Education had also been providing education broadcasts over the radio.

On domestic violence, which was the main reason behind the street children phenomenon, the Government had enacted the Law against Domestic Violence. That Law provided for the setting up of courts to review such cases, and courts had been established in a number of major cities. While it had been said that Honduran society was not one which people were wont to bring complaints to the authorities, in particular about family matters, following the training that was being provided there were complaints beginning to be lodged and work was being undertaken. In the absence of a special domestic violence court, of course the local courts could hear such complaints, the delegation noted.

In terms of social reintegration, the delegation said there were two rehabilitation centres for boys and one for girls for some 189 children in total. The Institute for Children and the Family was working to improve guidelines for those centres, the living conditions, and the training received in them.

There were two State centres for children with disabilities. One project for children with disabilities was the school voucher system, already mentioned. There was also a Telethon Institution to assist people with disabilities that now received government funding.

On the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children, the delegation said that was a very tricky issue, above all as far as the police were concerned. The police had to be trained to view the children as victims, rather than suspects. The prosecutor’s office, the courts and judges had been involved in investigations of massage parlours and brothels to find out if children were being employed. Following the Second World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, held in Yokohama in 2001, Honduras had drawn up a national child protection plan against commercial sexual exploitation, which it was hoped would be implemented in 2007. A bill for the funding of that programme was currently pending in congress.

Regarding monitoring of children in institutions, there were gaps in the system, the delegation observed; the Institute for Children and the Family was just an executive agency for services, and traditionally those were not always so well run. The Institute had only four national centres for children at risk, and the centres did not have trained staff.

Concerning provisions for single mother heads of households, the State was simply not in a position to address that situation, the delegation said.

Adoption regulations in force in Honduras dated back to 1958, the delegation said. There was a draft bill on adoption, and it was hoped that it would be acted on in 2007.


Preliminary Concluding Remarks

ROSA MARÍA ORTIZ, the Committee Expert serving as Rapporteur for the report of Honduras, said that it was helpful if a country had a beneficial image of the adolescent, conveying through the media the feelings of adolescents when they were treated properly and the impact on society when they were treated in a harmful way. It was important for children to find their rightful place in Honduran society, where they were accepted rather than rejected. The case of migrant children was a particular concern, and as remittances were an important source of income, it could be guessed that efforts were not being made to hinder such migration, but to assist it.

During the session, the Committee had endeavoured to see to what extent the new programmes and legislation put in place in Honduras could work, Ms. Ortiz said. But they lacked an element in that process: that was how the State could ensure implementation of the measures it did establish. There did not appear to be the political will to establish the full range of measures needed and the appropriate administrative structure to ensure that the benefits were felt by the children for whom they were intended. Children in Honduras were trapped without help from the State. The process of reforming the Institute for Children and the Family was dragging on too long, and children were the ones who suffered as a result.

Regarding the Poverty Reduction Strategy, while the delegation had said that most of the programmes targeted children, in Ms. Ortiz's opinion, it appeared from the presentation today that children were not marked out to receive the benefits of that strategy.


Ms. Ortiz stressed the priority need for trained and well equipped professionals to deal with children's issues in Honduras. Honduran children needed coordinated, responsible care from their society. Levels of malnutrition, deaths from lack of vaccination, unsafe drinking water or extrajudicial killings were all problems that needed a response from the Government and from the region as a whole.

For use of the information media; not an official record

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