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Chad - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under Article 44 of the Convention: Second periodic reports of States Parties due in 1997 [2007] UNCRCSPR 36; CRC/C/TCD/2 (14 December 2007)

UNITED NATIONS		CRC
	Committee on the Rights of the Child	Distr. GENERAL CRC/C/TCD/2* 14 December 2007 ENGLISH Original: FRENCH

COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES
UNDER ARTICLE 44 OF THE CONVENTION

Second periodic reports of States Parties due in 1997

CHAD^{[*], [**]} ***

[7 June 2007]

CONTENTS

Paragraphs Page

LIST OF ACRONYMS 5

BASIC INFORMATION ON CHAD 7

INTRODUCTION 1 – 13 13

1. GENERAL MEASURES OF APPLICATION (arts. 4, 42 and 44,
   para. 6) 14 − 44 14
2. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD (art.1) 45 – 55 20
3. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 56 – 87 21
   1. Non-discrimination (art. 2) 56 – 67 21
   2. Best interests of the child (art. 3, para. 1) 68 – 71 22
   100. The right to life, survival and development (art. 6) 72 – 83 22
   4. Respect for the views of the child (art. 12) 84 – 87 24
4. CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS 88 – 123 24
   1. Name and nationality (art. 7) 88 – 92 24
   2. Preservation of identity (art. 8) 25
   100. Freedom of expression (art. 13) 93 – 96 25
   4. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (art. 14) 97 – 100 26
   5. Freedom of association and peaceful assembly (art. 15) 101 – 106 26
   6. Protection of privacy (art. 16) 107 – 108 27
   7. Access to appropriate information (art.17) 109 – 116 27

H. The right not be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman

or degrading treatment (art. 37)........................................ 117 – 123 2
V. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE 124 – 151 29

1. Parental guidance (art. 5) 124 – 125 29
2. Parental responsibilities (art. 18) 126 29

100. Separation from parents (art. 9) 127 – 129 29

4. Family reunification (art. 10) 130 29
5. Recovery of maintenance for the child (art. 27) 131 – 134 29
6. Children deprived of a family environment (art. 20) 135 – 137 30
7. Adoption (art. 21) 138 – 141 30
8. Illicit transfer and non-return (art. 11) 142 – 144 30
9. Abuse and neglect (art. 19) 145 – 147 31
10. Physical and psychological recovery and
    social reintegration (art. 39) 148 – 151 31
11. Periodic review of placement (art. 25) 152 – 157 32

CONTENTS

Paragraphs Page

6. BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE 158 – 219 32
   1. Survival and development (art. 6, para. 2) 158 – 164 32
   2. Children with disabilities (art. 23) 165 – 173 33
   100. Health and health services (art. 24) 174 – 214 34
   4. Social security and child care services and

facilities (arts. 26 and 18, para. 3) 215 44

5. Standard of living (art. 27, paras.1-3) 216 – 219 45

7. EDUCATION, LEISURE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES ...... ... 220 – 231 45
   1. Education, including vocational training and
      guidance (art. 28) 220 – 223 45
   2. Aims of education (art. 29), including the quality

of education 224 – 226 51

100. Leisure, recreation and cultural activities
     (art. 31) 227 – 231 52
8. SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES 232 – 302 52
   1. Children in situations of emergency 232 – 253 52
      1. Refugee children (art. 22) 232 – 242 52
      2. Children in armed conflicts (art. 38) 243 – 253 54
   2. Children in conflict with the law 254 – 273 54
      1. The administration of juvenile justice (art. 40) 245 – 257 54
      2. Children deprived of their liberty, including any
         form of detention (art. 37, b, c and d) 258 – 270 55
      3. The sentencing of juveniles, in particular the
         prohibition of capital punishment and life
         imprisonment (art. 37 a) 271 – 272 58
      4. Physical and psychological recovery and social
         reintegration (art. 39) 273 58

C. Children in situations of exploitation 274 – 300 58

1. Economic exploitation, including child labour
   (art. 32) 274 – 280 58
2. Drug abuse (art. 33) 281 59
3. Sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (art. 34) 282 – 291 59
4. Other forms of exploitation (art. 36) 292 – 293 60
5. Sale, trafficking and abduction (art. 35) 294 – 300 61

4. Children belonging to a minority or an indigenous
   group (art. 30) 61

E. Children living or working in the street 301 – 302 61

CONTENTS

Tables

Tableau 1: Basic data on Chad

Tableau 2: Allocation of State budget

Tableau 3: Distribution by category of disability

Tableau 4: Budget of the Ministry of Public Health

Tableau 5: Revenue and expenditure of prefecture health offices

Tableau 6: Neonatal, postnatal, infant, child, and infant/child mortality rates

Tableau 7: Children suffering from malnutrition

Tableau 8: Under-fives exhibiting retarded growth

Tableau 9: State resources allocated to national education

Tableau 10: Gross attendance rates in the first and second cycles of general secondary education

Tableau 11: Retention and drop-out rates in primary education

Tableau 12: Internal performance rates in general secondary education

Tableau 13: Number of primary pupils per teacher

Tableau 14: Number of secondary students per qualified teacher

Tableau 15: Distribution of children deprived of liberty, by detention institution

Tableau 16: Distribution of children deprived of liberty, by place of detention

Tableau 17: Distribution of children deprived of liberty, by reason for arrest

Tableau 18: Distribution of children living or working in the street

Acronyms and Abbreviations

AFJT Chadian Association of Women Lawyers
IDB Islamic Development Bank
BEAC Bank of Central African States
CAEMC Central African Economic and Monetary Community
CELIAF Women’s Associations Liaison Unit
CCSRP College for monitoring and supervision of oil resources
CEN-SAD Community of Sahel-Saharan States
CNCJ National Youth Advisory Council
ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States
ECCAS Economic Community of Central African States
EDST Demographic and health survey of Chad
EIMT Multiple-indicator survey of Chad
ENASS National School for Social and Health Workers
EPI Expanded Programme on Immunization
FGM Female genital mutilation
FOSAP Population Activities Support Fund
GDP Gross domestic product
HDI Human development index
ILO International Labour Organization
INSEED National Institute of Statistics and Economic and Demographic Studies
IUSTA University Institute of Science and Technology at Abéché (Logone region)
MASF Ministry of Social Action and the Family
MAT Ministry of Internal Administration
MEN Ministry of National Education
NGO Non-governmental organization
PNLS National Programme to Combat HIV/AIDS
PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
UNDP United Nations Development Fund
UNFPA United Nations Population Fund
UNHCR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
WHO World Health Organization

Table 1. Basic data on Chad

Sources:

- Chad demographic and health survey (EDST), 2004
- Office for Coordination of Population Activities (DCAP) , Ministry of the Economy, the Plan and Cooperation: Chad population projection 2000-2050
- Ministry of Public Health (MSP): Health Statistics Yearbook, 2002
- General population and housing census, 1993 (RGPH)
- Ministry of National Education (MEN): Education statistics, 2003-2004
- UNAIDS: Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, 2004
- UNICEF: The State of the World’s Children, 2005
- Ministry of Internal Administration (MAT): Administrative abstract for October 2002 (Decree No. 415/419/PR/MAT/2002 of 17 October 2002
- UNDP: Human Development Report 2005
- UNAIDS/UNICEF/USAID: Children on the Brink 2004
- BEAC: Principal economic and financial indicators for Chad

INTRODUCTION

1. The realization of children’s rights is a process whose point of departure dates back to the adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereinafter referred to as “the Convention”). Kofi Annan has said: “Only as we move closer to realizing the rights of all children will countries move closer to their goals of development and peace.”^[1]

2. The States which have ratified this international legal instrument have thereby signalled their adherence to a code of obligations towards children. For those States which have placed children’s rights in the front rank of human rights objectives, compliance with article 44, paragraph 1, of the Convention, on reporting, is an imperative.

3. The present report is the response of the Government of Chad to the obligation of States parties to prepare a periodic report every five years. This report was drawn up in accordance with the new general guidelines adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child on 3 June 2005 (CRC/C/58/Rev.1); it covers the period 1999-2006.

4. Chad prepared its initial report in 1997 (CRC/C/3/Add.50). That report was considered by the Committee in 1999 at its 546th and 548th meetings, on 24 and 25 May 1999 (CRC/C/SR.546 and 548). The Committee’s concluding observations are dated 24 August 1999 (CRC/C/15/Add.107).

5. With a population of 9.273 millions in 2005 Chad remains one of the planet’s poorest countries. Its social and economic situation has deteriorated considerably. According to the Human Development Report 2005 of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Chad moved from 167th place out of 177 countries in 2000 to 173rd place in 2005.

6. However, it is pointed out in the country’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) that Chad is enormously rich in potential, especially in natural resources (water, cultivable land, livestock, minerals). The area of cultivable land is estimated at 2.2 million hectares and irrigable land at 5.6 million hectares. Renewable groundwater resources are estimated at almost 20 billions cubic metres a year, while the exploitable resources of the big aquifers are estimated at between 260 and 540 billion cubic metres. The subsoil abounds in minerals such as salt, natron, uranium, gold, diamonds, kaolin, etc., but the most important is the oil which is currently being extracted.

7. The abundance of these natural resources stands in contrast to the people’s standard of living. The PRSP states that Chad’s social and economic indicators are among the lowest in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Sixty-four per cent of the population lives below the poverty threshold; the rate of coverage of child vaccination remains extremely low. Only 11 per cent of children aged 12 to 23 months have received all the vaccinations of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI); a large part of the population lives with chronic food insecurity; 90 per cent of the housing remains vulnerable to bad weather; only 1 per cent of the population has access to electricity and 23 per cent to drinking water; less than 10 per cent of the population enjoys basic sanitation services.

8. The annual per capita income was $495 in 2005, compared with $193 in 2000. This increase is due mainly to the exploitation of oil. However, the oil revenues are not shared equitably, so that this figure does not automatically imply an improvement in the people’s standard of living.

9. The education system has widespread geographical and gender disparities in terms of access to school and the quality of the teaching and learning. The people’s standards of education remain very low, in particular among women. About 75 per cent of women in the 15-49 age group and 47 per cent of men in the 15-59 age group have never been to school. The gross rates of primary schooling are 75 and 51 per cent respectively for boys and girls (EDST-2004).

10. Where health is concerned, life expectancy at birth is 47 years for males and 50 years for females. The overall infant/child mortality rate remains very high at 191 per 1,000. The maternal mortality rate is estimated at 1,099 per 100,000 live births. Thirty-seven per cent of children aged under five years suffer from chronic malnutrition.

11. Chad is still grappling with a social and economic crisis marked by uprisings throughout the country and by strikes caused by irregular payment of wages. It is also having to cope with an influx of refugees both from Sudan (220,000) in the east of the country and from the Central African Republic (over 40,000) in the south.

12. In order to secure the people’s welfare the Government has undertaken a policy of sustainable human development which focuses the country’s development on the promotion of human rights. In a context of widespread poverty and extreme poverty, the Government intends to provide the whole population with access to basic social services.

13. The Government is working with its national and international partners to attain the Millennium Development Goals and improve the living conditions of the people of Chad.

1. GENERAL MEASURES OF APPLICATION
(arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6)

14. In response to the Committee’s concluding observations (CRC/C/15/Add107) the Government adopted a series of measures, some of which are currently being put into effect:

(a) The promulgation of Act No. 016/PR/99 containing the Water Code and regulating the management of and exploitation of surface-water resources. This Act applies to the water resources found around the perimeter of the country’s territory and specifies the uses of water resources. Article 23, for example, contains a list of the activities prohibited in the perimeter protection zone, such as the dumping of wastes, including excrement, and the excessive pumping of water. Article 35 provides for the rational use of water in the light of the needs of other users and environmental considerations.

(b) The promulgation, on 15 April 2002, of Act No. 06/PR/2002 on the promotion of reproductive health. This Act provides for the freedom of responsible and sensible choice to marry, or not to marry, and to start a family, as well as for the right to information and education. It specifies the right of access to the necessary means of contraception in knowledge of the advantages, risks and effectiveness of all methods of regulating births, the right not to suffer torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of the body in general and the reproductive organs in particular. It prohibits all forms of violence such as female genital mutilation, early marriage, domestic violence, and sexual violence against the human person.

15. It must be pointed out, however, that this Act is difficult to apply in terms of the general legal principle that the criminal law must be interpreted strictly. In Act No. 06 the Legislature merely prohibited female genital mutilation, early marriage, domestic violence and sexual violence against the human person without specifying the applicable penalties.

16. This shortcoming will be corrected in the draft text revising some of the provisions of the Criminal Code for the benefit of children; this text regards these acts as reprehensible and stipulates very specific penalties for them.

17. In order to make the registration of civil status obligatory and bring the civil registry offices closer to the communities, a revised version of Ordinance No. 03/INT of 2 June 1961, regulating civil status in the national territory, was approved in 2003, and the National Assembly is in the process of adopting it.

18. A study on the harmonization of the national legislation with the Convention and the African Charter of the Rights and Welfare of the African Child was initiated in 2001 with UNICEF support. It facilitated the identification of the legal gaps and the places where some of the national legislation was not consistent with the ratified instruments on children’s rights and the drafting or revision of such legislation to bring it into line. It must be stressed that the ratification of the African Charter in 2000 marked a new departure, making it possible to address the specific problems of African children which are not covered by the Convention.

19. On the topic of ratification, Chad has also ratified other international legal instruments on the protection of children:

- The Optional Protocols on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on the involvement of children in armed conflict (28 August 2002);

- ILO Convention No. 182 concerning the worst forms of child labour (August 2002);

- ILO Convention No. 138 concerning the minimum age for admission to employment (August 2002);

- The judicial assistance agreements of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CAEMC) and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD)

20. The Criminal Code, revised in 2002 but not yet promulgated, addresses the suppression of attacks on the physical and moral integrity of women and children, in particular trafficking in children, sexual harassment, paedophilia, and incest.

21. The decree giving effect to the Labour Code, which regulates child labour, was approved in 2004.

22. A draft code on the protection of children is being prepared under the Chad-UNICEF programme of cooperation for 2006-2010. Studies were completed on child domestic labour in N’Djamena and on the situation of mouhadjirin children (children entrusted to marabouts (religious teachers) to study the Koran) in 2005 and 2006 respectively. The National Plan of Action to Combat the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children was launched in 2005.

23. But the efforts to promote the Convention are constrained by the powerful influence of customs and traditions and by difficulties with the adoption and application of the new instruments which have been drafted.

24. Some progress has been made, with the support of partners, in the collection and centralized processing of data. A multiple-indicator survey (EIMT) and a demographic and health survey were conducted in 2000 and 2004 respectively, providing data disaggregated by sex, region and social stratum in the areas of health, fertility, female genital mutilation, disabilities, maternal and infant mortality, AIDS, and a number of aspects of protection, including the prevention of child labour and the right to be registered at birth.

25. Where monitoring arrangements are concerned, the Ministry of Social Action and the Family (MASF), by virtue of the mission assigned to it, is responsible for the design, coordination and monitoring of the Government’s social policies. It plays a crucial role in the social advancement and protection of vulnerable groups in general and of children in particular.

26. The Ministry coordinates all activities for the benefit of children. It carries out this mission through the Department for Children created for this purpose in 1994. However, in the light of the mission goals and owing to the multisectoral nature of the protection of children, a partnership system bringing in other sectors, both on the governmental side and from civil society, has been developed in order to ensure coordination of the work.

27. A plan to set up a committee to monitor the application of the Convention was submitted to the Prime Minister, but nothing has come of it yet.

28. In an effort to promote respect for human rights, a department with special responsibilities in this area was established in the Office of the Prime Minister and assigned the mission of defending fundamental rights. This department also receives complaints from citizens who have suffered abuse and violation of their rights.

Preparation of the present report

29. The process of preparing the present report began with a two-day information session on the new guidelines for drafting reports on the application of the Convention, led by an international consultant, a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

30. The participants were chosen in the light of the crosscutting nature of the issue of the protection of children and of the essential need for the support of certain institutions in implementing the Convention, such as the Ministry of Finance for all matters of financial resources and the Ministry of the Economy, the Plan and Cooperation through the National Institute of Statistics and Economic and Demographic Studies (INSEED) for data collection and matters of international cooperation.

31. Following this two-day session, a working group set about collecting data for the compilation of all the materials for the report.

32. The Technical Committee devoted three days to exchanges with 14 NGOs and two days to exchanges with 13 youth associations working for children. These meetings produced a balance sheet of the Government's achievements for children, which indicated that the efforts will have to be continued, in particular to develop the health and school infrastructure and build up capacities in the social and health fields.

33. The NGOs have given emphasis to dissemination of the Convention, legal and judicial assistance for children, assistance with the social reintegration of vulnerable groups, capacity building for specialized personnel, and the introduction of formal arrangements for coordinating and monitoring the application of the Convention.

34. Next, a four-day workshop was convened to review and complete the draft report approved at a national workshop held on 24 and 25 July 2006 in N’Djamena. This workshop was attended by all the persons and bodies involved in implementing the Convention.

35. The Government has not, however, lost sight of the Committee’s concerns about the insufficiency of the financial and human resources assigned to promote the exercise of all the rights set out in the Convention. It has thus given priority to the sectors regarded as essential in its fight against poverty (public health, social and family action, education, and infrastructure). The budgetary allocations for these sectors are automatically increased by 20 per cent a year, and the public works investment budget accounts for almost 20 per cent of total appropriations under the budget. Between 1998 and 2002 the share of the priority sectors in the (projected) disbursement credits allocated to non-personnel operating costs increased considerably, from 34 per cent in 1994 to 41 per cent in 2001 and 49 per cent in 2002.

Table 2. State budget allocations (CFAF 1,000s)

Sources: General State Budget, financial years 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

36. It should be pointed out that Chad has been an oil-producing country since 2003.

37. The Oil Revenue Management Act established a College to monitor and supervise oil resources (CCSRP) made up of representatives of the Government, the National Assembly, the judicial system and civil society.

38. Several training courses were organized for the purposes of publicizing the Convention for:

- 46 labour judges and inspectors in 2002;

- 50 social workers in 1999;

- 190 opinion leaders in 1999;

- 30 leaders of defence associations and 95 marabouts in 2003 and 2004;

- 50 members of social mobilization cells in the intervention zones of the
Chad-UNICEF programme of cooperation in 2005;

- 3 instructors on the rights and protection of children at risk of trafficking in 2005;

- 21 trainers of trainers on the Convention deployed in the country’s six big towns in 2005;

- 200 social workers specializing in psycho-social support in 2003-2005.

39. In addition to these training courses, there are regular awareness-raising campaigns and radio broadcasts aimed at the grass roots on problems affecting children’s rights.

Cooperation with civil society, including youth groups

40. The new arrangements for cooperation between the public authorities and civil society prospered under the process of democratization of the country launched more than a decade ago, which enabled civil society increasingly to assert itself as an important and indispensable player in sustainable human development. Civil society is often represented or consulted with regard to the action taken by the Government to improve the people’s well-being. In 2005 there were 367 youth associations and 508 associations for the defence of human rights.

41. Civil society is deeply involved, for example, in the preparation of a draft code on the person and the family and of a national good governance strategy and it is represented in the CCSRP.

42. The Government also turns to young people as partners in the search for solutions to their problems. Youth associations are involved in the implementation of a number of youth programmes, in particular the programmes on HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, and the integration of young people in society, with the support of partners such as the Conference of Ministers of Youth and Sport of the French-speaking Countries (CONFEJES), the World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the International Francophone Organization.

43. Various programmes and projects have been implemented, including:

- The National Programme to Combat HIV/AIDS (PNLS);

- The Population Activities Support Fund (FOSAP);

- The project “Population and the fight against AIDS” (PPLS);

- The ongoing formulation of the national policy for orphans and children rendered vulnerable by HIV/AIDS;

- Programmes on health/nutrition, education for all, protection of children, and HIV/AIDS, as well as on policies, communication and partnerships, as part of the Chad-UNICEF programme of cooperation;

- The National Plan of Action to Combat the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children;

- The policy for the integrated development of young children;

- The national civil status strategy.

44. Violations of children’s rights are being reported in increasing numbers to the competent legal bodies. It is nevertheless true that some such violations do not receive punishment proportionate to the gravity of the acts in question, not through negligence but because of the legal void faced by the courts. The Criminal Code was revised and approved in 2005, but the revised version has not yet been promulgated.

II. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD (art. 1)

45. A draft code on the person and the family prepared in 1999 raises the minimum age of marriage to 18 years for boys and 17 years for girls.

46. Where consent is concerned, Act No. 06/PR/2002 on the promotion of reproductive health establishes the freedom to marry, or not to marry, and to start a family, as well as the right to information and education. It also establishes the right of access to the necessary means of contraception in the knowledge of the advantages, risks and effectiveness of all methods of regulating births.

47. Despite the fixing of a minimum legal age, early marriage remains very widespread in Chad. In practice, 50 per cent of women aged 25 to 49 have contracted a union by the age of 15.9 years (EDST-II, 2004), a situation virtually unchanged since 1996-1997.

48. Moreover, 71 per cent of girls marry before age 18 (65 per cent in urban areas and 74 per cent in rural areas). At age 17, 42 per cent of young women already have a child or are pregnant for the first time.

49. The Electoral Code fixes the right to vote at 18 years.

50. The minimum age for admission to employment (14 years) is rarely respected. The endemic poverty in which parents live prompts them to send their children to the labour market very young, exposing them to the worst forms of work; the commonest are the use of children as livestock-herders or domestic servants; in the latter case they are often subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation.

51. A survey on child labour in the informal sector (UNICEF, 1998) estimated the proportion of child workers aged 6 to 18 at 19 per cent, including 5 per cent aged 6 to 9 working at least four hours a day. Three out of four children (75 per cent) had worked, as had 18 per cent aged 0 to 12 and 28 per cent aged 13 to 14.

52. According to EDST-2004, 43 per cent of children aged 5 to 7 work in the home, with 13 per cent of them spending over four hours at such work.

53. UNICEF and other development partners have supported the implementation of a project to combat the use of children as herders and the National Plan of Action to Combat the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children.

54. The age of criminal responsibility is 13 years in Chad.

55. The age of recruitment into the army is fixed at 18 years (Ordinance No. 001 of 16 January 1991).

III. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
A. Non-discrimination (art. 2)

56. The principle of non-discrimination is established in articles 13 and 14 of the Constitution of Chad.

57. Pursuant to article 13 Chadians of both sexes have the same rights and duties. They are equal before the law.

58. Article 14 provides that all Chadians are equal before the law without distinction as to origin, race, sex, colour, religion or social or political position. The State has a duty to attend to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and to ensure that their rights are protected in all areas of private and public life.

59. However, discrimination between boys and girls persists in practice in education.

60. There are wide disparities in attendance rates between boys and girls. In the 6-15 age group the rate of school attendance by boys is 57 per cent, against only 38 per cent by girls. This gap widens with age and the level of study. In the 16-20 age group 50 per cent of boys are in education, against only 17 per cent of girls.

61. Accordingly, despite the efforts to improve the attendance rate of girls and narrow the gap between girls and boys, the gap persists.

62. The reasons for the low rate of attendance by girls can be classified as:

(a) Socio-cultural: early marriage, domestic work, reluctance of parents to send their daughters to school, and poverty;

(b) Institutional: insecurity caused by the distance which must be travelled to school, and unsuitable infrastructure and equipment.

63. Discrimination is sometimes legitimized by the law. To give just a few examples, article 277 of the Criminal Code implicitly fixes the age of marriage at 13 years, for it prohibits only customary marriage before that age. Furthermore, rape is implicitly allowed, for article 289, paragraph 2, of the Criminal Code provides that if a kidnapped or abducted minor marries her abductor, he may be prosecuted only on the basis of an application by persons having the legal capacity to request annulment and he may not be convicted until after such annulment. The persons having the legal capacity to request the annulment of the marriage are often co-perpetrators or accomplices in the abduction of the girl or in marriage by abduction.

64. In addition, the application of customary law by the courts in civil cases gives rise to a real problem of the protection of the rights of women and children, in particular the right of inheritance, and encourages discrimination between the children of a marriage. Articles 70 et seq. of Ordinance No. 6-67 on reform of the judicial system, partially abrogated by Act No. 04/PR/99, provide inter alia that “when the parties are of different legal status, the succession shall be governed by the custom of the deceased”. The fact is that according to most such customs a woman does not inherit from her deceased husband or inherits only one quarter of the goods left (Islamic law). Girls inherit only one half of the share inherited by boys.

65. Ordinance No. 03/INT of 2 June 1961, which regulates civil status, does not provide for the civil registration of children born to refugee parents. This legal gap is being filled by a bill providing for the civil registration of all children born in the national territory.

66. The Criminal Code and Ordinance No.03/INT/61 have been revised and a draft code on the person and the family has been prepared in order to remedy such violations of rights (both instruments are awaiting promulgation), and measures of awareness raising and social mobilization have been introduced at the grass-roots level with a view to initiating a change of behaviour.

67. Chad’s legislation accords the same legal status to children born of a marriage and to children born out of wedlock if they are acknowledged.

B. Best interests of the child (art. 3)

68. Further to the information given on this subject in the initial report, the courts attend to the higher interests of the child under the protection provisions of the law. Special attention is given to juvenile offenders under Act No. 07/PR/99 of 6 April 1999 on the procedure for prosecuting and the trying offences committed by children aged 13 to 18 under special arrangements which give priority to measures of assistance and supervision.

69. The Criminal Code addresses the suppression of certain acts of violence against children and women, in particular acts of violence against pregnant women, sexual harassment, incest, paedophilia, prostitution, and trafficking in children.

70. Visits by rural children to towns and the terms of their admission to cinemas and bars are regulated by Decree No. 100/PR/AFSOC of 18 June 1963.

71. Adoption is subject to regulation and is regarded as a measure for securing a child’s well-being by finding him or her a family. Enquiries are made to verify that the capacity and the moral standing of the adoptive family will enable it to take proper care of the child to be adopted.

C. The right to life, survival and development (art. 6)

72. In addition to the legislation guaranteeing the right to life, the Government has adopted strategies and programmes on children’s survival and development. These are:

- The Strategy for Promoting Children’s Survival and Development (SASDE), which is to be a national strategy;

- The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI);

- The Programme to Combat Diarrhoea and Acute Respiratory Infections;

- The Programme to Combat Malnutrition and Micronutrient Deficits, including the promotion of breastfeeding.

73. A policy for the integrated development of young children was also prepared and approved in 2005, setting the goal of ensuring by 2015 that 100 per cent of children aged 0 to 8 years have had their birth registered, enjoy protection against violence, exploitation and discrimination, and are in good health and developing harmoniously in physical, cognitive, socio-affective and psychological terms. To this end, a project on the education of parents was carried out under the Chad-UNICEF programme of cooperation for 2006-2010.

74. In addition, a programme to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child was introduced in the health services throughout the country. The aims are to:

(a) Promote diagnosis in women attending for voluntary antenatal checks;

(b) Provide treatment for seropositive women;

(c) Provide treatment for and monitor children born to seropositive mothers;

(d) Ensure the proper nutrition of mother and child.

75. Despite the introduction of these programmes, the infant mortality and malnutrition rates remain high. The findings of EDST-2004 show that, for every 1,000 live births, 102 children die before their first birthday. The overall risk of a child’s dying before its fifth birthday is 191 per 1,000.

76. According to the multiple-indicator survey (EIMT), the infant and child mortality rates are 105 and 194 per 1,000 respectively.

77. The nutritional situation remains critical for under-fives. Forty-one per cent of children living with their mother (against 40 per cent in 1996-1997) suffer from moderate chronic malnutrition and almost one child in five (23 per cent against 20 per cent in 1996-1997) suffers from severe chronic malnutrition.

78. Births must be declared within a time limit of two months, by the mother or father, an ascendant or other close relative, or any person who was present at the birth, at the civil registry office in whose jurisdiction the birth took place (Ordinance No. 03, art. 9).

79. Despite the legislation, the rate of civil registration of births is declining slightly. Only one child in 10 (10 per cent) has been declared, 6 per cent of them within the three months following the birth, while on the basis of EIMT-2000 (INSEED, 2001) it was estimated that one in four of the births of children aged under five years had been registered. The proportion of declared births increases with the age of the child, from 8 per cent for age 0-2 years to 11 per cent for age 5-9 years. The older the child, the more likely is his or her birth to be registered “late”, usually when school attendance begins.

80. Declarations of acknowledgement of a child must be made by the mother in person. They are receivable only at the time of registration of the child and may be recorded only on the birth certificate.

81. Declarations of death must be made within a time limit of two months, by the surviving spouse, an ascendant or other close relative of the deceased, or any person who was present at the death, at the civil registry office in whose jurisdiction the death occurred. (Ordinance No. 3, art. 12).

82. In order to help to increase the registration of civil status, draft legislation on the modernization of the registration arrangements and on support for strengthening these arrangements in Chad has been produced with backing from UNDP and the European Union.

83. UNICEF has also been supporting since 2002 the Government’s efforts to improve the rate of civil registration of births.

D. Respect for the views of the child (art. 12)

84. Children having attained a certain degree of maturity have the right to express their views before the courts on certain matters concerning them, in particular adoption and the award of custody. Such views are assessed exclusively by the judge, guided by the best interests of the child.

85. Respect for children’s views is increasing as a result of their involvement in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes concerning children. Furthermore, the opportunities for children to express their views have been increased by the establishment of the Children’s Parliament and the formation of children’s associations, where they can say freely what they think.

86. However, a child is not regarded as a subject of law, and a child’s opinion is not required in the family context on matters concerning him or her. The parents and/or legal representatives often decide in a child’s place.

87. In order to correct this situation, measures have been introduced to raise awareness of the Convention on the part of parents and communities, with a view to changing their behaviour.

IV. CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
A. Name and nationality (art. 7)

88. In order to correct the defects in the present civil-registration arrangements regulated by Ordinance No. 03/INT of 2 June 1961, the Government has prepared, in the context of the draft legislation on modernization of the registration arrangements, a national strategy paper on such registration, one of the aims of which is to raise people’s awareness of the importance of civil registration, together with a bill on the civil-registration arrangements which, if it is promulgated, will constitute a response to the Committee’s concerns about the registration of births. The new arrangements will include the compulsory registration of births in both the sedentary and the nomadic population, with the possibility of introducing mobile offices for the nomads. In addition, the time limit for registration of births has been reduced. It will be one month instead of two for the sedentary population and two months instead of four for nomadic population.

89. The key elements of identity, namely surnames and forenames, date and place of birth, sex, names of the child’s father and mother or of the person acknowledging the child, are recorded at the time of civil registration.

90. In addition, campaigns have been carried out to raise the awareness of opinion leaders and the grass roots of the importance of registering children at birth, and training courses have been held for social workers and health workers.

91. District and other local authorities and village chiefs and the civil-registration offices in the intervention zones of the Chad-UNICEF programme of cooperation have been provided with ledgers for recording declarations of birth, and the offices have been equipped to issue birth certificates.

92. All children have a right to acquire a nationality in accordance with the Nationality Code, which provides for the granting of nationality to legitimate and natural children born in Chad without any other nationality, to children born in Chad of unknown parents, and to children born in Chad of foreign parents.

B. Preservation of identity (art. 8)
(See CRC/C/3/Add.50, paras. 72-77)

C. Freedom of expression (art. 13)

93. The principle affirmed in article 27 of the Constitution remains in place. This is confirmed by the establishment of the Children’s Parliament on a permanent footing by Decree No. 634/PR/MASF of 31 December 2000, with the aims of:

- Awareness-raising;

- Mobilization;

- Putting across to children, parents, public authorities and other entities the facts of the situation of children.

94. The Parliament serves as a space for expression and debate with a view to creating a spirit of solidarity and cohesion among them.

95. In addition, the Ministry of Communication and Culture has introduced programming arrangements giving ample opportunities for children to participate in radio and television broadcasts.

96. This freedom of expression, however, is not enjoyed to the full by all children. In rural areas the weight of tradition and custom obstructs the full exercise of this right.

D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (art. 14)

97. Like the freedom of expression, the freedom of thought, conscience and religion is guaranteed by article 27 of the Constitution.

98. Under the programme “Advocacy and promotion of rights” the Ministry of Communication and Culture has held several workshops on the rights of the child for traditional and religious leaders.

99. The provisions of the Convention concerning the freedom of thought, conscience and religion have aroused lively debate, especially with religious leaders, on the fundamental principles of a secular State. Some parents do not allow their children to choose a religion other than the parents’ own.

100. The same attitudes are also found in the case of marriage, even though Act No. 06/PR/02 of 15 April 2002 on the promotion of reproductive health accords to all persons the right to marry or not to marry.

E. Freedom of association and peaceful assembly (art. 15)

101. Freedom of association and peaceful assembly is a principle of the Constitution. It is regulated by the following national instruments:

- Ordinance No. 27/INT/SUR of 12 July 1962 and Decree No. 165 of 23 August 1962 regulating associations;

- Ordinance No. 45 of 27 October 1962 regulating meetings.

102. New associations have been created to tackle the increasing violence in schools; they are doing remarkable work on the ground, assisted by NGOs owing to the limited resources of the State bodies. Attention may be drawn inter alia to:

- The Committee for Peace in Schools;

- The children peace ambassadors.

103. In addition, persons deeply concerned with children’s problems have joined together in associations for the promotion, protection and defence of children’s rights. These associations include:

- The Chadian Association of Volunteers for Training Schoolgirls;

- The Chadian Forum of Women Teachers and the Union of Women for Peace.

104. These two associations have children’s cells in schools.

105. The Chad Association of Women Lawyers is pursuing its mission of providing legal and judicial assistance to women and children.

106. In 2005 the country had 367 youth associations and 508 associations for the defence of human rights.

F. Protection of privacy (art. 16)

107. With reference to the legal provisions protecting children’s privacy described in the initial report, Act No. 07/PR/99 of 6 April 1999, containing the procedure for prosecuting and trying offences committed by children aged 13 to18, reinforced this protection by prohibiting any reporting of a trial involving a minor.

108. In addition, with a view to avoiding stigmatization of children who suffer sexual abuse or exploitation, the medical and psycho-social care which they receive is provided confidentially and with the victim’s consent.

G. Access to appropriate information (art. 17)

109. Access to information is guaranteed by article 27 of the Constitution.

110. The programming of Chad Television (TVT) and Chad National Radio (RNT) gives ample opportunities for children to participate in broadcasts.

111. On the first Sunday of December every year a Children’s Radio and Television Day is held by RNT and TVT. Throughout this Day children act as the lead presenters of programmes on children’s topics.

112. Children are involved in the formulation and review of projects under the Chad-UNICEF programme of cooperation.

113. From to time child parliamentarians make representations to the country’s highest authorities on issues related to the situation of children in Chad.

114. According to EDST-2004, the younger generation has greater media access than adults.

115. However, such access is generally very limited: more than three quarters of women (76 per cent) and a smaller proportion of men (42 per cent) have no access. Compared with EDST-I there is a clear improvement in the case of men and stagnation, even a slight decline, in the case of women (women - 76 per cent, against 75 per cent in EDST-I; men - 42 per cent, against 56 per cent in EDST-I). Radio remains the most widely used of the media.

116. Twenty-two per cent of women and 56 per cent of men say that they listen to the radio at least once a week.

H. The right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment (art. 37)

117. The right to life is a principle which applies equally to children. It is given effect in Act No. 07/PR/99 of 6 April 1999 containing the procedure for prosecuting and trying offences committed by children aged 13-18; the Act protects a child’s dignity and personality even when the child has perpetrated an offence. It prohibits the imposition of the death penalty on minors and stipulates that imprisonment shall be ordered only as a measure of last resort.

118. The Act reduced the maximum period during which children may be held in police custody from 48 to 10 hours.

119. Act No. 06/PR/2002 on the promotion of reproductive health establishes the right to be protected against the infliction of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment on the human person in general and on the reproductive organs in particular. It prohibits all forms of violence, including female genital mutilation, early marriage, domestic violence, and sexual violence against the human person.

120. All child offenders also receive legal assistance. However, in practice the right to a defence counsel remains precarious owing to the concentration of lawyers in the capital and their lack of interest in commissions by judges to defend minors who are being prosecuted. It must also be stressed that this legal assistance is restricted to criminal cases, contrary to the spirit of the law, which is not restrictive in this way.

121. Despite the protection provided by the legislation, violence is the common fate of most children in need of special measures of protection. Given the legitimacy of tradition, it is a commonplace to see children beaten for sometimes minor misbehaviour by their parents, guardians or employers in the home, in care institutions for children, especially the mouhadjirin, in schools and in detention centres, as well as in the street. Violence is also inflicted by children on each other and on adults, especially teachers.

122. In order to tackle this problem, associations for the defence of human rights, children peace ambassadors and students’ councils have carried out awareness-raising campaigns in the schools, and the topic “education in peace” has been incorporated in the curriculum.

123. In addition, under the programme for the protection of children the Government is carrying out advocacy and awareness-raising activities at the grass roots in order to change people’s behaviour.

V. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE
A. Parental guidance (art. 5)

124. The Government is continuing its efforts to provide education for parents throughout the country. The Policy for the Integrated Development of Young Chadian Children (DIJET), for example, puts the emphasis on the education of parents and the expansion of prevention facilities such as nurseries, kindergartens and social centres. These facilities are backed by private initiatives.

125. A total of 77 community nurseries has been established, including 49 in the refugee camps and 28 in other parts of the country.

B. Parental responsibilities (art. 18)

126. The acts constituting abandonment of the family referred to in article 295 of the Criminal Code have been extended as part of the revision of certain provisions of the Code for the benefit of children. For example, not only will refusal to comply with a maintenance order made by a court constitute abandonment of the family but this same interpretation will also be put on absence from the family without news for at least a month. The amounts of the penalties have also been increased.

C. Separation from parents (art. 9)

127. The family is the ideal setting for bringing up children. The situation remains unchanged since the initial report.

128. In the event of removal of a child from the family environment, the law provides court procedures to ensure that due account is taken of the child’s best interests and that his or her opinion is sought as well. The parent to whom custody is not awarded still has the right to visit and to be visited by the child.

129. An order for award of custody is not final. It may be reviewed whenever the child’s best interests so require.

D. Family reunification (art. 10)

130. Chad’s legislation addresses the question of family reunification in peacetime and in periods of emergency. In practice, a child’s entry into Chad for reunification is subject only to the normal entry formalities.

E. Recovery of maintenance for the child (art. 27)

131. Since this is such a vital matter, applications for maintenance are always processed under an emergency procedure.

132. In practice, problems with the recovery of maintenance are rarely brought before the criminal courts pursuant to article 295 of the Criminal Code.

133. Furthermore, the problem of the recovery of maintenance when the claimant and the person from whom the maintenance is due live in different countries is an acute one, for Chad has not ratified the Convention concerning the recognition and enforcement of decisions relating to maintenance obligations towards children or the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption.

134. The number of applications for maintenance has increased in the last three years owing to the many campaigns to make women more aware of their rights; these campaigns are conducted by women’s associations, notably the Chadian Association of Women’s Lawyers (AFJT).

F. Children deprived of a family environment (art. 20)

135. The Government has not formulated an appropriate strategy for the placement and care of children.

136. The only facility is the Koundoul centre established by the State, which currently houses about 60 street children and children in moral danger. But this facility is not open to girls since the design of the centre in 1962 did not take girls into account. However, there are some private institutions supporting the State in the care of these children.

137 These care facilities do not operate properly owing to a shortage of qualified staff and the absence of standards of protection. In order to address these concerns, the Chad-UNICEF programme of cooperation was planning to work on the drafting of such standards in 2006.

G. Adoption (art. 21)

138. For national adoption the legal basis is the Civil Code, but concerns persist in the case of international adoption, for Chad has still not ratified the 1993 Hague Convention.

139. This legal lacuna makes it impossible to monitor children adopted by foreigners and it exposes such children to the risks of exploitation in a context of increasing trafficking in children.

140. The N’Djamena court of first instance granted three adoptions to foreign couples in 2005 and a further eight from January to June 2006.

141. The adoption procedure is rarely respected in practice. The traditional method of adoption to which the Committee drew attention is unfortunately expanding as a result of the increasing numbers of orphans and children rendered vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, who are taken in by families without any legal proceedings.

H. Illicit transfer and non-return (art. 11)

142. The bill revising the Criminal Code increases the amounts of the penalties which may be imposed on persons who kidnap or abduct children.

143. Since the increased trafficking in children is a transboundary problem, Chad began to tackle this scourge at the regional level, where the efforts resulted in the signature, on 6 July 2006 at Abuja, of a multilateral agreement on regional cooperation and a joint ECOWAS/ECCAS plan of action to combat trafficking in persons, in particular women and children.

144. A national project to combat the exploitation of child workers as herders, which has been identified as a form of trafficking in children, has been implemented in the regions affected by this problem.

I. Abuse and neglect (art. 19)

145. Chad’s criminal legislation condemns all forms of violence against the person, and when such violence is inflicted on a minor the courts automatically deem that circumstance to be aggravating. Other forms of violence against children, such as trafficking in children, torture, maltreatment and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment are being addressed in the revision of the Criminal Code.

146. In application of ILO Convention No. 182 concerning the worst forms of child labour, the Government and its development partners established a project on the prevention of child labour and the protection of children in the workplace as a means of combating the worst forms of child labour, which seem to occur in peculiar ways in Chad.

147. A network has been established to combat this problem and rescue the child victims in the affected regions. In 2004 and 2005 a total of 386 child herders were rescued and restored to their families.

J. Physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration (art. 39)

148. In partnership with NGOs and with UNICEF support, the Government is working to ensure the physical and psychological recovery of children in need of special protection. For example, in the case of the education and social reintegration of such children in the care of NGOs, the care facilities were furnished with school supplies and equipment in the period 2002-2004, enabling 1,450 such children to exercise their right to education: 1,163 of them were provided with school necessities and 105 were placed in vocational training workshops, with their fees paid and tool kits provided. It should be noted that 97 of these children have returned to their families.

149. In addition, 70 Koranic teachers received training in the rights of the child in 2004 in order to ensure the quality of the education and respect for the rights of the children known as mouhadjirin who are looked after by marabouts.

150. The persons in charge of the care facilities for children in need of special care, including children victims of exploitation, have received training in psycho-social support to help the children recover from their trauma.

151. It should be noted, however, that the action does not measure up to the scale of the problem, and efforts will be continued to provide adequate care of a large number of the children in need of special protection.

K. Periodic review of placement (art. 25)

152. There are two kinds of placement: administrative and judicial.

153. Administrative placement for a period of two years may be ordered by the Director for Children of the Ministry of Social Action and the Family in the light of a report on the investigations carried out by the social workers making the proposal.

154. Such placements are monitored by means of periodic observation reports. In the absence of specialized teachers, this task is entrusted to the centre’s social workers.

155. The reports provide information on both the social behaviour and the adaptation of the child. Social behaviour is the decisive factor in the decisions taken on the child, in particular the possibility of attending secondary school away from the centre.

156. If it is established that the child frequently runs away, the social considerations take precedence over the continuation of schooling.

157. Judicial placement may be ordered by a juvenile judge pursuant to Act No. 07/PR/99 of 6 April 1999 containing the procedure for prosecuting and trying offences committed by children aged 13-18, which gives priority to educational measures over a sentence of imprisonment, which is a measure of last resort.

VI. BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
A. Survival and development (art. 6, para. 2)

158. The Government has introduced the Strategy for Promoting Children’s Survival and Development (SASDE) in three districts in the form of the national programmes to combat diarrhoea and acute respiratory diseases, the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), and the programmes on health and nutrition, promotion of breastfeeding, integrated treatment of childhood diseases (PCIME), and the fight against malaria.

159. The SASDE is designed to reduce infant mortality and mortality among under-fives by targeting the chief causes of death and using a combination of effective health measures, with special attention given to the most vulnerable and marginalized groups.

160. The key measures are the EPI-Plus, the PCIME-Plus, and the CPN-Plus. They are implemented at three levels: care in the family and the community; the mobile strategy; and clinical treatment in the health centres.

161. The implementation of the SASDE has produced the following results:

(a) Significant increases in the three districts between 21001 and 2003 in the EPI health indicators, in particular with regard to DPT3 and vitamin A: from 42 to 103 per cent in Béré; from 43 to 97 per cent in Gounou-Gaya; and from 56 to 65 per cent in Kélo, according to the routine administrative data.

(b) The rates are 71.41 per cent in Béré and 69.7 per cent in Kélo. The national DPT3 coverage was 47 per cent in 2002.

162. In view of these positive results the SASDE is being extended as a national strategy for the survival and development of Chad’s children.

163. The Policy for the Integrated Development of Young Chadian Children (DIJET), which was formulated and approved in 2005, has the following goals: by 2015, 100 per cent of children aged 0 to 8 years to be registered, protected against violence, exploitation and discrimination, in good health, and developing harmoniously in physical, cognitive, socio-affective and psychological terms.

164. In addition, a programme to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child has been introduced in health-care facilities throughout the country. The aims are to:

- Promote diagnosis in women attending for voluntary antenatal checks;

- Provide treatment for seropositive women;

- Provide treatment and monitoring for children of seropositive mothers;

- Provide nutritional support for the mother and child.

B. Children with disabilities (art. 23)

165. A total of 5.3 of the population has at least one disability. Vision (2.3 per cent) and motor (1.6 per cent) problems are commoner than hearing (1.2 per cent) and speech or language (0.5 per cent) problems.

166. Disabilities at birth fall into the following categories:

Table 3. Distribution by category of disability

167. Very few children aged 0 to 4 years have disabilities (1.6 per cent).

1. Children with disabilities whose parents receive special material or other assistance (no disaggregated data)

2. Children living in specialized institutions, especially institutions for the mentally ill, or away from their family, for example in a foster family (no disaggregated data)

168. A special centre, the Resource Centre for Blind Young People, houses and cares for 53 children with vision disabilities.

169. A project is under way to construct a building for the care of mentally ill persons at the N’Djamena General Hospital.

3. Children attending normal schools

170. With a view to preventing and combating discrimination against children with disabilities Order No. 136/PR/MCFAS/94 of 6 June 1994 grants them free enrolment in the public schools or a reduction of the enrolment fees in private schools.

4. Children attending special schools

171. There are schools for the blind in N’Djamena, Moundou, Doba and Sarh.

172. An Office for the Social Integration of Disabled Persons was created to address their specific needs and a national plan of action is being drafted.

173. The action taken by the Government is reinforced by NGOs working for persons with disabilities by providing vocational training (sewing, knitting, tanning) and by monitoring them in the family.

C. Health and health services (art. 24)

174. The overall objective of Chad’s national health policy is to “guarantee the population access to quality basic services”.

175. In 2003 the country had:

- 18 regional health offices;

- 56 health districts, of which 49 were operational and seven non-operational;

- 862 health zones, representing a rate of health coverage of 73.4 per cent.

176. There is little information about the private sector and the health units of the armed forces, but the personnel of the public health services consists of:

- 301 doctors;

- 1,608 qualified nurses;

- 203 midwives.

177. Where material resources are concerned, only the six hospitals covering the 56 districts have a capacity equal to or higher than one bed for every 1,000 inhabitants.

178. Funding for the services comes from three sources: the State, development partners, and the people through grass-roots participation.

Resources of the State

179. Table 4 shows the evolution of the forecast budget of the Ministry of Public Health over the period 2002-2006.

Table 4. Budget of the Ministry of Public Health (CFAF 1,000s)

Sources: General State Budget, financial years 2002 to 2006.

180. The European Union has invested 18 billion, followed by the World Bank (5.5 billion), the World Health Organization (2.8 billion), and Switzerland and FAC (1 billion each). The Islamic Development Bank contributed 943 million for the construction of a health school and 20 health centres in Biltine region.

Grass-roots participation

181. Table 5 shows the total revenue and expenditure for grass-roots participation of the prefecture health offices and the percentage of this revenue allocated to the purchase of medicines (medicine costs/total revenue (mc/tr)).

Table 5. Revenue and expenditure of prefecture health offices (CFAF 1,000s)

Source: DSIS, 2003.

a/. Other revenue: total revenue less sale of medicines.

b/ Other expenditure: fixed costs plus (variable costs less purchase of medicines).

182. Pursuant to Order No. 363/MSP/SGDGAS/DPML/2003 of 2 November 2003 on harmonization of the tariffs for certificates and medicines in regional supply pharmacies, the revenue from the sale of pharmaceutical products in hospitals and health centres must provide 75 per cent of the cost of replacing these products in order to safeguard the supply to the health facilities:

183. A number of national programmes have also been introduced:

- National Programme to Combat AIDS (PNLS);

- National Programme to Combat Blindness;

- National Programme to Combat Tuberculosis;

- National Programme to Combat Trypanosomiasis;

- National Programme to Combat Diarrhoea and Acute Respiratory Infections;

- National Reproductive Health Programme;

- Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI);

- Health/Nutrition Programme;

- National Programme to Promote Breastfeeding;

- National Programme on Integrated Treatment of Childhood Diseases (PCIME);

- National Programme to Combat Malaria.

184. Although the introduction of these programmes was supposed to make an effective contribution to improving the people’s health and well-being, the health indicators have failed to advance owing to the persistence of a number of epidemic diseases such as measles, meningitis and cholera and the limited access to basic social services, a situation borne out by the indicators discussed in the following paragraphs.

(a) Infant and under-five mortality rates

185. In the period 1999-2004, 102 children out of every 1,000 born alive died before their first birthday, and 99 out of every 1,000 children aged one year did not reach their fifth birthday. A total of 191 children out of every 1,000 born alive died before age five. In rural areas the mortality rate was 208 per 1,000, against 179 per 1,000 in urban areas. Table 6 shows the neonatal, postnatal, infant, child and infant/child mortality rates for the 10-year period preceding the survey broken down for a number of socio-demographic characteristics of the mother and child.

Table 6. Neonatal, postnatal, infant, child and infant/child mortality rates

Source: EDST-2003, pp. 215 and 218.
(b) Proportion of underweight children

186. Forty-one per cent of children aged under five exhibit retarded growth, almost half of them to a severe degree, and 14 per cent exhibit acute malnutrition.

187. Fifty-four per cent of children aged 24 to 35 months are too small for their age.

188. It should be noted that the incidence of weight deficit is particularly high (59 per cent) among children in BET, Kanem and Lac.

189. Tables 7 and 8 show the proportion of under-fives considered to be suffering from malnutrition according to the three anthropometric indicators of nutritional state (height for age, weight for height, and weight for age) and the proportion exhibiting retarded growth.

Table 7. Children suffering from malnutrition

NB.: Each indicator is expressed in terms of the number of units of standard deviation (SD) from the mean of the NCHS/CDC/WHO international reference population. The table shows the percentages below -3SD and below -2SD from the median of the reference population.

Source: EDST-2004, p. 201.

Table 8. Under-fives exhibiting retarded growth

Source: EDST-2004, pp. 202 and 203.

(c) Proportions of households lacking access to hygienic sanitation facilities and to drinking water

190. Thirty-six per cent of Chad’s households use safe water. In urban areas the proportion is 57 per cent, against 30 per cent in rural areas, where 15 per cent of households use unsafe water from a river or stream.

191. Seventy-four per cent of households have no lavatory. The figure is 88 per cent in rural areas.

(d) Proportion of children aged one year fully immunized against tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, poliomyelitis and measles

192. The national vaccination coverage is 11 per cent.

(e) Maternal mortality rate and chief causes of death

193. The maternal mortality rate was estimated at 1,099 deaths per 100,000 live births in the period 1997-2004, against 827 per 100,000 in the period 1989-1997. The chief causes are excessively early pregnancy, insufficient spacing of pregnancies, unattended confinements, and lack of antenatal checks.

(f) Proportion of pregnant women having access to antenatal and postnatal care

194. Recourse to antenatal checks varies widely in Chad according to the woman’s level of education. Pregnancy is monitored in the case of almost all women with secondary education or above (92 per cent). A little under one fifth of mothers-to-be (18 per cent) attend for at least four of the checks recommended by WHO. The first visit is made before the fourth month of pregnancy in only 17 per cent of cases.

195. Very few (8 per cent) of the births which do not take place in a health facility are followed by any postnatal checks. This failure to monitor mother and child is commoner in rural areas (93 per cent of births), especially when the mother has no education (94 per cent of births).

(g) Proportion of babies born in hospital

196. Over the last five years only 13 per cent of births took place in a health facility. Almost all rural women (93 per cent) and women with no education (91 per cent) give birth at home.

(h) Proportion of hospital personnel trained in childbirth care and techniques

197. The data on medical coverage show that Chad has four doctors for every 100,000 inhabitants and 11 midwives for every 100,000 women of childbearing age. These figures are lower than the WHO standards of one doctor for every 10,000 inhabitants and one midwife for every 5,000 women of childbearing age. On the other hand, the ratio of population to qualified nursing staff meets the WHO standard.

198. In recent years this shortage of qualified personnel has prompted a particular interest in training health workers in order to reduce the deficit.

199. In 2003, for example, 19 doctors and 39 paramedics received specialized training outside the country.

200. In 2003 the Medical Faculty had 316 students for the whole country, including 60 studying for doctorates. The University Institute of Science and Technology at Abéché (IUSTA) trained 25 senior technicians in pharmacy and medical laboratory analysis.

201. In order to ease the shortage of middle-level personnel, the National School for Social and Health Workers (ENASS) and the decentralized initial training bodies supplied the Ministry with 46 State-registered nurses, 21 midwives, 16 laboratory technicians, 159 health technicians, and 31 birth attendants, making a total of 273 qualified staff.

(i) Proportion of exclusive breastfeeding and duration of breastfeeding

202. Exclusive breastfeeding is almost non-existent. Only 2 per cent of children aged under six months are fed exclusively on their mother’s milk. Between six and nine months, 77 per cent of children are given food supplements in addition mother’s milk.

Disaggregated data

(a) Number and percentage of children infected by HIV/AIDS

203. The number of children aged 0-14 years living with HIV/AIDS is estimated at 18,000 (UNAIDS, 2003).

204. However, the number of AIDS orphans is estimated at 96,000 (UNAIDS, 2003). Data on AIDS orphans cared for in institutions are not available.

(b) Number and percentage of children affected by AIDS receiving medical treatment

205. No data are available on such children.

(c) Number and percentage of children living with parents, foster parents, in institutions, or in the street

206. Seven per cent of orphan children live in households, according to EDST-2004.

(d) Number of households where the children must take charge as a result of HIV/AIDS

207. No data available.

Disaggregated data

(a) Number of adolescents affected by early pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, mental health problems, drug addition or alcoholism

208. It is apparent from Chad’s Health Statistics Yearbook 2004 that the country’s women have their first pregnancy at an early age and that their fertility rate is very high from their early years: 194 births are recorded for every 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19. Girls aged 12 to 15 account for 15.3 per cent of the birth rate and for 13 per cent of the fertility rate.

209. It should also be noted that female genital mutilation is still very much present in Chad: an overall rate of 45 per cent (43 per cent in urban areas and 46 per cent in rural areas). Most girls undergo excision between the ages of five and 14 years in the regions where this practice is widespread.

(b) Number of programmes and services for preventing and treating health problems among adolescents

210. There is a national strategic framework and a three-year plan. This strategy is focused on prevention work among young people and, when they fall ill, on antiretroviral treatment and monitoring. The relevant health facilities are equipped to provide this treatment, but breakdowns occur from time to time.

211. There is a shortage of centres for voluntary examination and diagnosis, and people show little enthusiasm for the free diagnostic tests.

212. The National Reproductive Health Programme regards female genital mutilation as a priority area of its work. Projects on such problems as adolescent health, repair of fistulas, and the social reintegration of victims are being carried out. The prevention and treatment of female genital mutilation have been incorporated in the ENASS vocational training programmes.

213. Several women’s associations (CELIAF, CONACIAF-Chad, ASTBEF and AFJT) conduct awareness-raising campaigns among various population groups in an effort to eradicate this practice.

Tobacco

214. Chad has signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and awareness-raising activities are carried out, especially by associations seeking to combat drug addiction among young people, but much remains to be done to reduce the harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol on the country’s youth.

D. Social security and child-care services and facilities (arts. 26 and 18, para. 3)

215. See the initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.50, paras. 145-148).

E. Standard of living (art. 27, paras. 1-3)

216. Chad is still one of the poorest countries on the planet. Its situation has worsened considerably. According to the Human Development Report 2005, Chad moved from 167th place out of 177 countries in 2003 to 173rd place in 2005, with a human development index of 0.341. Sixty-four per cent of the population lives below the threshold of monetary poverty with incomes of one to two United States dollars a day.

217. The per capita GDP is $495 (BEAC, 2004), as compared with $193 in 2000.

218. Life expectancy at birth is 47 years for males and 50 years for females (EDST-2004).

219. A large part of the population lives with chronic food insecurity; 90 per cent of the housing remains vulnerable to bad weather, and only 1 per cent of the population has access to electricity and 23 per cent to safe drinking water; less than 10 per cent of the population has basic sanitation services.

VII. EDUCATION, LEISURE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
A. Education, including vocational training and guidance (art. 28)

220. Articles 35 and 36 of the Constitution of 31 March 1996 proclaim the right to education. It is stipulated that public education shall be secular and free and that the State shall create the conditions and institutions to provide and guarantee the education of children.

221. The fundamental goal of the education sector is to ensure the appropriate provision of education for all.

222. The following are the priority measures for the attainment of this goal, according to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper:

(a) Promotion of equality of access to education and schooling without discrimination on the basis of sex or physical disability;

(b) Enhancement of the efficiency and quality of the education system;

(c) Reinforcement of the capacity to plan, manage and steer the development of the education system;

(d) Adaptation of the profile of school leavers to the needs of the labour market by means of specific measures.

223. The following are the main projects and programmes which have been introduced:

- The project on eradication of illiteracy in Chad;

- The programme on support of bilingual education (PAEB I, II, III, IV and V);

- The classroom construction project;

- The project on development of bilingual primary education;

- The “Education” programme;

- The programme of technical education and vocational training;

- The project on support of Chad’s reforms in the education system.

224. Funding for the education system comes from the State, development partners, and parents’ associations.

Table 9. State resources allocated to national education

Sources: General State Budget, financial years 2002 to 2006.


Figure VII.1: Proportion of girl students by simple status, background and level

Table 10. Gross attendance rates (GAR) in the first and second cycles
of general secondary education (%)

Sources: Education statistics, 2002-2003.

1. Retention and drop-out rates for primary and secondary schools and
vocational training schools

Table 11. Primary retention and drop-out rates

Sources: Education statistics, 2002-2003.

Table 12. Internal performance rates in general secondary education (%)

Sources: Education statistics, 2002-2003.

2. Average numbers of pupils per teacher, with indication of any significant
disparity between regions and between rural and urban areas

221. In the school year 2003-2004 the country had 18,510 primary teachers, i.e. an average of one teacher for every 69 pupils.

Table 13. Number of primary pupils per teacher

Sources: Education statistics, 2002-2003.

Table 14. Number of secondary pupils per qualified teacher

Sources: Education statistics, 2002-2203.

3. Percentage of children in the informal education system

222. No data available.

4. Percentage of children in pre-school education

223. At the national level, 2.4 per cent of children receive pre-school education.

B. Aims of education (art. 29), including the quality of education

224. With a view to providing quality universal education by 2015, the Government and its partners adopted a 10-year programme to support the reform of the education system for the period 2004-2015; the aims are to secure a significant improvement in the retention rates in primary education, train community teachers, formulate innovative programmes to combat illiteracy, enhance the quality of learning, and increase substantially school attendance by girls. To this end the State committed itself to take the following key actions:

- To increase substantially the share of GDP allocated to education (at least 4 per cent by 2015);

- To allocate at least 50 per cent of the education budget to the development of basic education;

- To increase the operational budget of education by at least 20 per cent every year for the duration of the programme;

- To establish the National Curriculum Centre to formulate the national bilingual programmes, with the production of Chadian textbooks to be distributed free to all children by 2011.

225. By order No. 290/MEN of 25 November 2005 the Government upgraded the girls’ education unit to the status of division.

226. This division has the following mission:

- To design and formulate strategies and plans of action for improving and accelerating school attendance by girls and retaining them in school;

- To design and conduct activities relating to studies on and /or experience of the education of girls;

- To organize and promote information, social mobilization and advocacy activities for advancing the schooling of girls;

- To coordinate and promote the activities undertaken by the various players or under the auspices of technical partners with regard to girls’ education;

- To provide technical assistance for the managerial and technical services, and social and educational stakeholders and partners for the formulation of programmes and their implementation and evaluation;

- To produce periodic or more detailed ad hoc reports on the education of girls.

C. Leisure, recreation and cultural activities (art. 31)

227. With reference to article 31 of the Convention (right to rest, leisure, recreation and cultural activities), Ordinance No. 27/INT/SUR/62 of 28 July 1962 is still in force.

228. This ordinance deals with authorization freely to form associations. In partnership with the youth associations and movements, the Department of Youth and Sports established a youth platform known as the National Youth Advisory Council (CNCJ). The primary aim of this body is to enable young people to defend their moral and material well-being and to guarantee them equitable treatment. It also seeks to raise projects and proposals for legislation concerning aspects of young people’s lives, in particular in the area of leisure and cultural activities. And it endeavours to bring young people together in an appropriate framework for discussion of their aspirations.

229. Following the CNCJ example, another youth organization is working at the grass roots. It consists of youth representatives from local districts and areas. These are young boys and girls aged 12 to 17 (juniors) and young people aged 19 to 30 (seniors) elected by their fellows in balloting organized by CNCJ in conjunction with Coopération Française.

230. The task of these youth representatives is to lead social, cultural and sports activities in their local districts and areas and to represent young people in bodies which take decisions on construction in their localities.

231. The Youth Ministry and its development partners built and equipped a number of “Plateaux Omnisports” for the practice of sports close to the places where young people live, especially young people who do not attend school. In addition, the Government envisages opening more youth and cultural centres in the country’s big towns to facilitate the implementation of vocational training, employment, crafts, health, and sports and leisure programmes. A youth bill is passing through the adoption process.

VIII. SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES
A. Children in situations of emergency
1. Refugee children (art. 22)

232. Where legislation is concerned, Chad has ratified the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951, the New York Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees of 31 January 1967, the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), signed at Addis Ababa on 10 September 1969, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children seeking refugee status enjoy the protection and humanitarian assistance provided for in these ratified international legal instruments.

233. Chad established a National Refugee Commission (CNR) by a decree dated 31 December 1996. This decree created a sub-commission on eligibility responsible for awarding refugee status on an individual basis in accordance with article 1 of the Geneva and OAU refugee conventions.

234. Protection and humanitarian assistance are furnished to refugee children in the exercise of their civil rights and their economic, social and cultural rights.

235. Chad is having to cope with an influx of refugees as a result of the conflicts which broke out in 2003 in Darfur and the Central African Republic.

236. In 2005, the east of the country was sheltering 220,000 refugees from Darfur, 60 per cent of them aged under 18.

237. In the south, Chad is sheltering some 40,000 refugees from the Central African Republic. Some 5,500 refugees are estimated to be living in urban areas. They are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda, as well as from Sudan and the Central African Republic.

238. These refugees are cared for by the Government with the support of United Nations institutions and international refugee organizations.

239. In the case of unaccompanied children, arrangements for identification, care, monitoring, family search and family reunification have been put in place in order to protect them against sexual abuse and exploitation and recruitment in the camps and the host communities.

240. A memorandum of understanding was signed in 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross, UNHCR and UNICEF on the monitoring of separated or unaccompanied Sudanese children in Chad.

241. Totals of 437 separated and 104 unaccompanied Sudanese children have been identified and taken into care.

242. There are no specific data available on children in the south and in the urban areas.

243. It should be noted that “Djanjaweed” incursions and rebel attacks have caused the internal displacement of 115,677 persons in the regions of Wadi Fira (Department of Dar Tama), Ouaddai (Departments of Assongha and Dar Sila), and Salamat (Department of Bahr Azoum). This total is estimated to include 48,578 children of pre-school age and 34,817 of school age (Source: UNHCR/N’Dj., 31 January 2007).

244. Between 2004 and 2006 UNICEF, in partnership with UNHCR and NGOs, established an education system in the refugee camps both in the east and in the south of the country.

245. In 2005 there were approximately 75,000 children attending pre-school and primary school in the east of the country.

246. Some 360 classrooms have been built and 135 are under construction.

247. In the south of the country some 360 refugee children have been enrolled in secondary schools in the host communities of Maro and Goré. They also enjoy basic social services and sanitation services.

248. Social workers and humanitarian personnel have been trained in listening and counselling techniques and in humanitarian law and children’s rights in general. Recreational activities to help the children to overcome their trauma have also been developed.

2. Children in armed conflicts (art. 38), including physical
and psychological recovery and social reintegration (art. 39)

249. Chad ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict on 28 August 2002.

250. Although no figures are available, throughout the first half of 2006 cases of the recruitment of children were unfortunately recorded in the Sudanese refugee camps and in the east of Chad. Awareness-raising campaigns have been carried out by United Nations institutions and international NGOs in order to check this problem.

251. In the period 2004-2006 United Nations institutions, in particular UNICEF and UNHCR, in partnership with NGOs established an education system in the refugee camps both in the east and in the south of the country. There are about 75,000 children attending pre-school and primary school in the east. Some 360 classrooms have been built and 135 are under construction.

252. This education system established to help refugee children also benefits children affected by armed conflicts.

253. The figures given in paragraph 246 also relate to children affected by armed conflicts.

B. Children in conflict with the law
1. The administration of juvenile justice (art. 40)

254. Act No. 04/PR/98 of 7 August 1998 on the organization of the Judiciary and Act No. 07/PR/99 of 6 April 1999 on the procedure for prosecuting and trying offences committed by children aged 13 to 18 are the framework instruments for the administration of juvenile justice in Chad.

255. Act No. 04/PR/98 provides for the establishment of children’s divisions in the courts of first instance and Act No. 07/PR/99 sets out the procedures for prosecuting and trying minors.

256. Pursuant to Act No. 07/PR/99 minors may be held in custody for a maximum of 10 hours. This Act gives priority to educational measures and compulsory legal assistance and prohibits the press from publishing details of a minor’s identity. Hearings are held in judge’s chambers. The judge has the preferred option of ordering educational measures instead of a sentence of imprisonment, which is a measure of last resort.

257. When a criminal sentence is deemed necessary, it may not exceed one half of the minimum legal penalty.

2. Children deprived of their liberty, including any form of detention
(art. 37 (b), (c) and (d))

258. Deprivation of liberty may be imposed during a preliminary investigation. As pointed out in the preceding section, minors may be held in custody for a maximum of 10 hours and imprisonment is a measure of last resort. In practice, once referred to the Criminal Investigation Department and brought before a juvenile judge, accompanied children who have committed offences are entrusted to their families if the latter offer sufficient guarantees of representation.

259. Given the shortage of supervised institutions, unaccompanied children are kept in local prisons with adults in violation of the national and international instruments.

260. In order to improve the knowledge of the categories of child requiring special protection, which include children deprived of their liberty, and with a view to the proposal of targeted measures, in 2003 the Government carried out with UNICEF support a quantitative and qualitative study of children in need of special protection in seven of the country’s big towns.

261. The findings of this study are reported in the following paragraphs.

(a) Numbers of children aged under 18 arrested by the police for infringing the law (no disaggregated data)

Table 15. Distribution of children deprived of their liberty, by detention facility

Source: Study on children in need of special protection, UNICEF, 2003.

262. Where the detention of minors is concerned, Chad’s prisons do not comply with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules).

263. The figures given above are low for the following reasons: the police, gendarmerie and justice services apply the legislation giving priority to educational measures for minors only as well as may be expected, and the police and gendarmerie services do not encourage the detention of minors because there is insufficient room in their premises.

264. With regard to place of detention, the police and gendarmerie services place minors held in custody in units intended for adults (74.3 per cent); the smallest children sleep in the yard or in dilapidated or abandoned offices. Girls are housed in cramped quarters in company with women.

Table 16. Distribution of children deprived of their liberty, by place of detention

in police stations and gendarmerie posts

Source: Study on children in need of special protection, UNICEF, 2003.

(b) Percentages of cases in which legal or other assistance is provided (no disaggregated data)

(c) Numbers and percentages of persons aged under 18 found guilty of an offence by a court and sentenced to deprived of liberty

265. The chief reasons for the detention of children are theft of goods or money (43.3 per cent), murder or other serious crimes (25.7 per cent), physical attacks or beating or wounding (16.2 per cent), rape and attempted rape ( 6.8 per cent) and illegal possession of weapons of war (4.1 per cent).

Table 17. Distribution of children deprived of their liberty, by reason for arrest

Source: Study on children in need of special protection, UNICEF, 2003.

266. According to the police, gendarmerie and justice services, all these offences except for the first and third categories usually lead to prosecution and consideration by an examining magistrate, unless the offender is not criminally responsible for his act. As pointed out above, the police and gendarmerie services are more likely to keep offenders in custody while they investigate thefts and to release minors even if they sometimes require their parents to pay financial compensation when the offence is found to have been committed.

267. One of the reasons for the commission of offences (25.9 per cent) seems to be drinking and smoking and, to lesser extent, the use of soft drugs, amphetamines and solvents.

(d) Numbers of persons aged under 18 participating in trial programmes of special rehabilitation

268. A new study of the situation of children deprived of liberty is being carried out with UNICEF support in order to determine appropriate action in the context of the administration of juvenile justice.

(e) Recidivism rate

269. Although no data are available, children deprived of liberty who have been convicted and detained in a prison tend to re-offend as a result of their contact with adult prisoners.

270. It should be noted that a project to provide a facility for housing minors is under way.

3. The sentencing of juveniles, in particular the prohibition of
capital punishment and life imprisonment (art. 37 (a))

271. The principle of the imposition of criminal sentences on minors finds its legal basis in Act No. 07/PR/99 of 6 April 1999. However, if a minor incurs the death penalty, this penalty is replaced by a sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment without possibility of remission. Sentences of life imprisonment are not imposed on minors.

272. Article 23 of the Act also stipulates that, if a custodial sentence is imposed on a child aged at least 13 but under 18, the juvenile courts may order one of the measures of supervision or re-education provided for in the Act.

4. Physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration (art. 39)

273. The Government’s action with regard to the physical and psychological recovery of detained children remains for the moment very limited owing to the lack of appropriate care facilities. A number of NGOs are supporting the Government with the education of children detained in prisons.

C. Children in situations of exploitation
1. Economic exploitation, including child labour (art. 32)

274. The national legislation takes into account some of the provisions of ILO Conventions Nos. 138 and 182, in particular the Constitution of 31 March 1996 (arts. 20, 32, 35 and 38) and Act No. 38 of 11 December 1996 containing the Labour Code (arts. 18, 52, 206, 208 and 210). Decree No. 55/PR/PM-MTJS-DTMPOPS of 8 February 1969 on child labour has just been revised to take account of the provisions of ILO Convention No. 182.

(a) Numbers and percentages, disaggregated by type of employment of children under the minimum age for admission to employment within the meaning of ILO Convention No. 138 concerning the minimum age for admission to employment and ILO Convention No. 182 concerning the worst forms of child labour.

275. The survey of child labour in the informal sector (UNICEF, 1998) estimated at 19 per cent the proportion of child workers aged six to 18, including 5 per cent aged six to nine, 18 per cent aged under 12, and 28 per cent aged 13 to 14.

276. The findings of EDST-2004 showed that 3.3 per cent of children aged five to 14 engage in paid work, while 23.3 per cent engage in unpaid work for a person other than a member of their household. A total of 73.9 per cent of children does domestic work such as cooking, fetching water and looking after babies for less than four hours a day, while 7.3 per cent spend more than four hours a day on such tasks.

277. Overall, 65.5 per cent of children are currently regarded as workers. The difference between boys and girls is very slight (66.5 per cent of boys and 64.6 per cent of girls). Children in rural areas are much more likely to work than urban children (69.5 against 52.3 per cent). This situation is a result of the traditional nature of rural jobs themselves (work connected with agriculture, herding animals at pasture, etc.), which do not require any particular qualifications.

278. Boys (58.5 per cent) are more numerous than girls ( 52 per cent) in the category of children doing work connected with agriculture, livestock-raising and commerce. Disaggregation by place of residence shows that 61.6 per cent of rural children work in agriculture or livestock-raising, compared with only 34.3 per cent of urban children.

279. Studies were also conducted in 2005 on the problem of child domestic workers in N’Djamena and of mouhadjirin in the refugee camps and the communities in the east of the country; these studies have made it possible to understand the problem better and target measures on these children.

(b) Numbers and percentages of these children having access to assistance with readaptation and reintegration, including free access to basic education and/or vocational training

280. The Government formulated and introduced in collaboration with NGOs a programme of family and socio-economic reintegration for children in need of special protection, including victims of the worst forms of child labour. Care facilities for these children have been established and furnished with school equipment and supplies. In the period 2002-2004 a total of 1,450 children were thus able to exercise their right to education: 1,163 were given places in school under the programme and provided with school necessities, while a further 105 were placed in vocational training workshops, with their fees paid and tool kits provided.

2. Drug abuse (art. 33)

281. The legal context remains unchanged from the one described in the initial report. There are no disaggregated data on the numbers of children using drugs and those receiving treatment and assistance and having access to rehabilitation services.

3. Sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (art. 34)

282. In accordance with the recommendations adopted at international meetings, including Stockholm (1996), Rabat (2001 and 2004) and Bamako (2202), Chad has prepared a national plan of action to combat sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.

283. The revision of some of the provisions of Criminal Code to improve the situation of children took into account the need to suppress sexual exploitation and sexual abuse by imposing stiffer penalties when the victims are minors.

284. The punishment of sexual exploitation is addressed in articles 271 to 277 of the Criminal Code. A bill amending and supplementing certain provisions of the Code is being processed in order to bring the Code into line with the Convention.

285. Rape is treated as sexual exploitation and addressed in article 28. The Code also covers: sexual harassment (arts. 36-38); paedophilia (arts. 42-44); soliciting (arts. 45 and 46); and the prostitution of minors and early marriage.

286. The project to combat sexual exploitation gives emphasis to raising young people’s awareness of the dangers of sexual exploitation, early marriage and endogamic marriage, and female genital mutilation; a national plan of action to combat the sexual exploitation of children was drafted, and approved in April 2005.

287. Among the initiatives taken by civil society, attention may be drawn to:

- Research on sexual harassment in schools and the exodus of girls (studies commissioned by CELIAF in 2005);

- Dissemination of the rights of the child, and counselling and legal assistance.

288. Although there are no national statistics, the qualitative and quantitative study of children in need of special protection, with the focus on victims of abuse, carried out in 2003 with UNICEF support in seven of the country’s towns facilitated a better understanding of the scope of the problem.

289. The study found that a total of 155 cases of sexual abuse had been recorded by the State and private services. The following are the categories of such abuse revealed by the official services: rape, which is the leading category with a rate of 71.4 per cent, followed by attempted rape (13.1 per cent), sexual harassment (9.7 per cent), fondling (1.7 per cent) and indecent assault (4 per cent).

290. The principal victims are girls (97 per cent), in particular street vendors, domestic servants and schoolgirls, but boys living in the street are also affected (4.5 per cent).

291. However, according to the study children are often abused in the family (42.2 per cent, in school (10.3 per cent) and in other locations such as the workplace, care centres, the street and the abuser’s home. Since the perpetrators of the abuse come from the victims’ own environment or for the most part have authority over them, almost one half (47 per cent) of the perpetrators escape any particular legal action.

4. Other forms of exploitation (art. 36)

292. The other forms of exploitation identified in Chad are female genital mutilation, early marriage, and the use of children to smuggle goods across borders, and the exploitation of children in guardianship. Once the bill revising the Criminal Code has been enacted, it will be possible to prosecute female genital mutilation and early marriage before the criminal courts. But the civil courts already hear cases of early marriage and may order their annulment.

293. As part of the fight against female genital mutilation, awareness-raising campaigns are carried out in conjunction with CONACIAF-Chad, and networks have been established in areas where this practice is common. The curricula for the training of doctors, nurses and social workers have incorporated the topic of female genital mutilation.

5. Sale, trafficking and abduction (art. 35)

294. Chad, long cited as a country where trafficking in children is unknown, is no longer free of this problem as a result of the emergence of the use of children as herders, which is regarded as a form of trafficking, and the cases of theft of children reported here and there.

295. The surveys of the use of children as herders (UNICEF, 1999 and 2001), i.e. the recruitment of rural children to guard livestock with the promise of payment in kind (beef, goat meat, etc.) were unable to quantify the number of victims but they did reveal the series of transactions which justify regarding the problem as the sale of children, as well as the violent treatment of these children.

296. In their efforts to tackle the economic exploitation of children, especially child herders, the Government and its partners have put the emphasis on advocacy, social mobilization, and “Communication to Change Conduct”. To this end they formulated an integrated communication plan on the use of children as herders, which addresses all the stakeholders; it was put into effect in 2002 with UNICEF support.

297. The activities carried out under this plan have led to the involvement of the administrative and religious authorities in the campaign. Positive results have been obtained, including the reduction of the problem in some areas and the rescue of child herders and their return to their families. A total of 264 children was rescued and returned in 2004 and 2005. In order to put these activities on a sustainable footing, a network to combat the use of child herders was established in March 2006 with UNICEF support.

298. In addition, in view of the cross-cutting nature of trafficking in children, a team of three trainers of Chadian trainers received instruction in Cameroon under the auspices of international cooperation in the rights and the protection of children victims of trafficking.

299. Chad also took part in the meeting of experts on the question of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children, which examined the regional plan of action and the agreement on multilateral cooperation to combat this problem.

300. The regional plan of action and the multilateral agreement were submitted for signature to the Ministerial Conference of the countries members of ECOWAS and ECCAS held on 6 and 7 July 2006 in Abuja. Chad attended the meeting and signed the documents.

D. Children belonging to a minority or an indigenous group (art. 30)
(see CRC/C/3/Add.50, para. 203)

E. Children living or working in the street

301. According to the report on the 2003 UNICEF study on children in need of special protection, 7,031 such children were identified in the seven towns surveyed. Table 18 sets out data by town.

Table 18. Distribution of children living or working in the street

Source: Study on children in need of special protection, UNICEF, 2003.

302. N’Djamena leads the way in numbers of street children over the other towns surveyed, accounting for half of the numbers recorded. It is followed by Kélo (15.7 per cent) and Sarh and Moundou (8.3 per cent each). The town least affected by this problem appears to be Doba (3.2 per cent). Bongor and Abéché account for 7.2 and 6.6 per cent respectively.

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^[*] Reissued for technical reasons.

^** For the initial report submitted by the Government of Chad, see CRC/C/3/Add.50; for

its consideration by the Committee, see CRC/C/SR.546 and 548; and for the Committee’s concluding observations, see CRC/C/15/Add.107.

^[**]* In accordance with the information transmitted to States parties regarding the processing of their reports, the present document was not formally edited before being sent to the United Nations translation services.

GE.07-45779 (EXT)
^[1] UNICEF: The State of the World’s Children 2005, Foreword, p. vii.