The United Nations (UN) Rights of the Child Committee has restated its call for the abolishment of corporal punishment in Guyana.
A parliamentary committee is set to begin consultations on the abolishment of corporal punishment which was one of the recommendations coming out of Guyana’s appearance before the UN Human Rights Council during the first cycle of the Universal Periodic Review in 2010.
A government delegation last month also appeared before the UN Rights of the Child Committee in Geneva, Switzerland and in concluding observations on Guyana’s submissions, the Committee said that it welcomes Guyana’s Child Care and Development Services Act 2011 which prohibits corporal punishment in institutional residences. However, the Committee expressed regret that notwithstanding its previous recommendation to expressly prohibit corporal punishment by law in the family and schools, corporal punishment remains lawful and prevalent in these contexts.
It recommended that Guyana take all appropriate measures to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, particularly in the domestic and school contexts. Furthermore, it recommended that Guyana strengthen and expand awareness-raising and education programmes and campaigns, in order to promote positive and alternative forms of discipline and respect for children’s rights, with the involvement of children, while raising awareness about the adverse consequences of corporal punishment on children.
In terms of education, the Committee noted as positive Guyana’s Education Strategic Plan 2008-2013 and the 2011 School Retention and Child Labour Prevention Pro-gramme and welcomed the achievement of almost universal primary education and the present focus on secondary enrolment.
However, it also expressed concern at the low quality of education and shortage of trained teachers; the high rates of student withdrawal from schooling, particularly in the transition between primary and secondary schools as well as from the latter; as well as the significant disparities along regional, socioeconomic, ethnic and gender lines at the secondary level of education.
The committee recommended that Guyana allocate adequate human, technical and financial resources for improving teacher training and the quality of education and assess the underlying reasons for failure to complete schooling, and on that basis undertake measures to ensure that children complete their schooling, including concrete action to review school curricula to make them relevant to the pupils’ lives. It also urged Guyana to undertake targeted measures for improving the accessibility of education in rural and hinterland areas and for children with special needs.
Human rights
education
Meantime, the Committee also expressed concern that the general level of awareness and working knowledge of the Convention is inadequate among professionals working with or for children. “The Committee recommends that the State party ensure that all professional groups working for and with children, in particular law enforcement officials, social workers and personnel working in childcare institutions, are adequately and systematically trained. In this regard, the Committee recommends that human rights education be included in the official curriculum at all levels of education and in training activities,” the report said.
The Committee said that it shares Guyana’s concern on the serious social problems and negative implications for child rights resulting from the widespread phenomenon of absentee or transient fathers and welcomes Guyana´s programmes for single parents and parenting skills aimed at facilitating positive family environments for children.
However, it expressed concern that given the deeply rooted social and cultural factors influencing fathers to neglect their parental responsibilities or do so only on a limited basis, Guyana provided no information on studies that would help better understand the situation in order to plan appropriate policies and programmes. Furthermore, the Committee is concerned that the social support and assistance provided to children in these situations as well as to children left behind by migrant parents is inadequate.
It recommended that Guyana undertake or support studies and research aimed at understanding the root causes, nature and extent of the widespread phenomenon of absentee and transient parents and the consequences on child rights by collaborating with Caribbean-based academic centres and projects dealing with the subject, and ensure that results are reflected in relevant public policies and programmes.
Guyana was also urged to support public awareness-raising programmes and campaigns aimed at men and boys to exercise responsible parenthood as well as to continue to strengthen its support to families in situations of vulnerability, in particular single-parent families through systematic, long-term policies and programmes to ensure access to social services and sustainable income opportunities.
Child maintenance
The Committee also urged Guyana to undertake measures to ensure effective recovery of child maintenance pursuant to article 27 of the Convention and consider ratifying the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions Relating to Maintenance Obligations, the Convention on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations, and the Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children.
The Committee, meantime, welcomed the enactment of the Minimum Operational Standards and Regulations for Children‘s Homes but expressed concern that there are increasing numbers of children, particularly those from single-parent families, being placed in institutional care. It expressed concern that “there are no safeguards and procedures for ensuring that institutional care is genuinely used as a measure of last resort” and the alternative family and community-based options for children deprived of a family environment or children with special protection needs are inadequate in scope and quality.
Concern was also expressed that there are insufficient efforts being made to reunite children in institutional care with their biological families, resulting in many of these children remaining in institutions until the age of 18 years; and that the Visiting Committees monitoring the institutions do not adequately ensure the quality of care provided and the protection of children from violence and abuse at such facilities.
The Committee urged Guyana to support and facilitate family-based care for children wherever possible, particularly for children in single parent families; ensure adequate safeguards and clear needs-based and best interests of the child criteria for determining whether a child should be placed in institutional care; and improve the availability and quality of alternative family- and community-based options for children deprived of a family environment or children with special protection needs.
Guyana was also urged to facilitate contact between the child and her/his biological family to encourage and support reunification when it is in the best interests of the child; and ensure that the Childcare Protection Agency and Visiting Committees are provided with adequate human, technical and financial resources to conduct thorough and periodic review of placements of children with foster parents or in institutions; and monitor the quality of care therein, including by providing accessible channels for reporting, monitoring and remedying maltreatment of children.
As it related to children with disabilities, the Committee welcomed the adoption of the 2010 Persons with Disabilities Act and the implementation of the National Commission on Disability Strategic Plan for 2008 – 2011. However, the Committee is concerned that there is a lack of detailed and disaggregated data hindering the State party formulating and taking effective measures to address the needs of children with disabilities and societal discrimination against children with disabilities remains widespread.
The committee also expressed concern that accessible health treatment and rehabilitation services for children with disabilities are extremely limited in the hinterland and inclusive education and training of teachers for its provision remains severely limited, particularly for children with sensory, cognitive, and/or mental impairments, which leads to the majority of children with disabilities staying at home, resulting in isolation, stigmatisation and compromised access to employment opportunities and social services.
The committee urged Guyana to ensure conformity of its legislation, policies and practices with articles 23 and 27 of the Convention with the aim of effectively addressing the needs of children with disabilities in a non-discriminatory manner. Furthermore, the Committee recommended that Guyana undertake measures for compiling and analysing data that is disaggregated by age, gender, ethnicity, geographic location and socio-economic background on children with disabilities with a view to using such data to inform the formulation of policy and measures for meeting their needs.
Disabilities
It also urged Guyana to undertake long-term awareness-raising programmes in order to combat negative societal attitudes prevailing against children with disabilities as well as allocate adequate human, technical and financial resources for ensuring the availability of health and rehabilitation services for children with disabilities, and in doing so prioritise addressing the situation in the hinterland.
The Committee also urged Guyana to ensure that children with disabilities effectively enjoy their right to education, and provide for their inclusion in the mainstream education system to the greatest extent possible, including by developing a disability education action plan to specifically identify current inadequacies in resources, and to establish clear objectives with concrete timelines for the implementation of measures to address the educational needs of children with disabilities; and in doing so, pay particular attention to increasing capacity for children with hearing impairments and autism; and, consider ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which it signed in April 2007.
Meantime, the Committee noted as positive the progress resulting from Guyana’s National Strategic Plans for HIV/AIDS and increased allocation of funding for HIV/AIDS. However, it expressed concern that the awareness and knowledge about HIV remains low among Amerindian and socio-economically disadvantaged persons as well as in the rural and interior regions of Guyana. Furthermore, the Committee is concerned at the significant increase in HIV cases for persons between 15 and 19 years of age.
