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18 January 2001
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CRC
26th session
18 January 2001
Morning
Shortage of Professionals Caused by Immigration
to South Africa, Delegation Says
The Committee on the Rights of the Child this morning started its examination of an initial report of Lesotho with a Government delegation saying that the country faced a shortage of professional personnel because of the brain-drain and immigration to South Africa.
Introducing the report, L. F. Maema, Attorney-General of Lesotho, spoke about the political crisis of 1998 that resulted in the destruction of Lesotho's economic sector through massive looting, burning and general destruction of major industrial sectors. As a result, gross domestic product (GDP) had declined by 5.5 per cent. He said that during the political crisis, some children had taken an active role in the spread of acts of terror; in sporadic incidents, some of those children were fatally shot.
Mr. Maema said that in order to promote poverty reduction strategies, the Government of Lesotho had adopted an interim poverty reduction strategy paper which had been submitted to the World Bank. The aim of the strategy was to establish the severity and causes of poverty, and then design and implement policies that efficiently bring sustainable improvements in the livelihoods of the poor and the vulnerable, especially children, he said.
During the discussion, Committee members said, among other things, that Lesotho had not ratified International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, ILO Convention No. 182 on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, and the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. The Experts asked if the Government was planning to ratify them.
The discussion focused on the main topics of the general measures of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; definition of the child; general principles; civil rights and freedoms; family environment and alternative care; basic health and welfare; education, leisure and cultural activities, and special protection.
In addition to Mr. Maema, Lesotho's delegation was made up of Pontso Lebotsa, Chief Legal Officer, and Tebello Mohlabane, Director of Probation, both at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights; Limakatso Chisepo, Director of Social Welfare, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare; and N. Liphapang, Researcher, Law Reform Commission, Ministry of Law and Constitutional Affairs.
Lesotho is among the 191 States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and as such it is obliged to present periodic reports to the Committee for its consideration of the country's compliance with the provisions of the treaty.
The Committee will conclude its public examination of the report of Lesotho when it reconvenes at 3 p.m. this afternoon.
Initial Report of Lesotho
The report (document CRC/C/11/Add. 20) enumerates the measures taken by the Government to comply with the provisions of the Convention on an article-by-article basis. It notes that many laws that protect children are already in place; however, inconsistencies and contradictions between various proclamations and statutes exist; consequently, there is a need to harmonize such laws and eliminate the contradictions that undermine those laws that are already in line with the Convention; and it is hoped that the newly initiated Law Reform Commission will address such issues. The long-term problem lies in changing attitudes, behavioural norms and customs so that people are sensitized to the need to respect children's rights.
Lesotho has declared "Health for all by the year 2000" as the cornerstone of its national health policy, the reports says. Despite interventions in this field, the infant and child mortality remains high; diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection and malnutrition are the main causes of infant-child morbidity and mortality.
Because of Lesotho's dual legal system, matters of child adoption, divorce, inheritance and custody are governed by customary law, the report says. The Roman-Dutch law also covers these areas and this causes considerable problems in determining the law to be applied in cases of adoption, child custody, succession and inheritance.
The report remarks that in Lesotho, various pieces of legislation, including the Age of Majority Ordinance of 1829, the Children's Protection Act of 1980 and the Labour Code of 1992, define children by different age limits. The law further prescribes different ages regarding the definition of a child. The age of majority is 21 years of age; however, a man remains a minor until he marries, even if he is 30; and if a man marries earlier than 21 years, he achieves majority status. In general, criminal responsible is fixed at 7 years.
Girl children under 15 years are often hired as domestic workers, the report says; work can start as early as 5 a.m. and continue until very late at night; girls employed under such conditions have very little time to rest and sleep and were without decent bedding; child domestic workers are regularly lonely and depressed due to their working conditions; they are exploited in terms of earnings; and there is no legislation protecting their rights in Lesotho. In the same manner, 10.3 per cent of boys between 6 and 15 years are full-time herdboys and a third of these were under 10 years of age. These children did not attend school; and severe storms in the mountains kill several herdboys each year.
Presentation of Report of Lesotho
L. F. MAEMA, Attorney-General of Lesotho, spoke about the political crisis of 1998 that resulted in the destruction of Lesotho's economic sector through massive looting, burning and general destruction of major industrial sectors. As a result, gross domestic product (GDP) had declined by 5.5 per cent. During the political crisis, some children took an active role in the spread of acts of terror in support of the crisis. In sporadic incidents, some of those children were fatally shot.
The migrant labour retrenchment in the South African mines had also meant a sudden loss of household income and increased household poverty that had dramatically affected the welfare of children, Mr. Maema went on to say. Two major droughts that took place in 1992 and 1998 had been characterized by cases of typhoid and diarrhoea. Acute cases of malnutrition were treated with food supplementation.
Mr. Maema said the Government had launched a policy framework on HIV/AIDS prevention, control and management. The national AIDS strategic plan concerned services for children advocates, provision of community based care, foster homes, hospice homes, and supportive legislation for affected children, among others.
In 1999, the Government of Lesotho had announced the policy of free primary education starting 2000, Mr. Maema continued to state. The introduction of the policy was motivated by the constitutional provision that required free primary education for all.
Major budgetary allocations for children's welfare had been made to the ministries of health and social welfare and education, Mr. Maema said. The drought relief supplementary feeding programme had also been funded for procuring food supplements, and undertaking other tasks. The law enforcement agencies that dealt with juvenile justice did not have a separate budget allocation for juvenile offenders. With the budget on the administration of justice, juvenile offenders’ recurrent budget was part of the entire budget of all the prison inmates.
In order to promote poverty reduction strategies, the Government of Lesotho had adopted an interim poverty reduction strategy paper which was submitted to the World Bank, the Attorney-General said. The measure was aimed at establishing the severity and causes of poverty and then designing and implementing policies that efficiently brought sustainable improvements in the livelihoods of the poor and the vulnerable, especially children.
In conclusion, Mr. Maema stressed that the promotion and protection of children's rights in Lesotho required technical assistance from the donors and specialized agencies of the United Nations.
Discussion
The discussion focused on implementation measures; definition of the child; general principles, and civil rights and freedoms. Reference was made on occasion to written replies supplied by the Government of Lesotho to questions prepared by the Committee in advance, and Committee members queried the delegation on a number of issues.
An Expert said the status of the Convention was not self-executory and it was not incorporated in the domestic legislation of Lesotho. The judicial system allowed the practice of corporal punishment, which was in contradiction with the provisions of Convention. How did the Government coordinate the Roman-Dutch and customary laws which were in use at present? Who was the "boss" for the coordination of the different activities and policies, including the monitoring of the implementation of the rights of the child? The monitoring of the implementation should be handled by an independent body.
As the age of majority was fixed at 21 years, an Expert asked if that meant that persons of 19 or 20 years were still under parental authority. Could the father beat a boy of 20 without any problem of self-defence on the part of the boy?
Lesotho had not ratified International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No.138 on the Minimum Age for Employment, ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour and the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, an Expert said. Did Lesotho intend to ratify those conventions soon?
There was no legislation prohibiting discrimination against children with disabilities, remarked an Expert. That category of children were not easily integrated in schools except for the few whose parents were well placed in the society.
The delegation of Lesotho, responding to questions from Committee members, said, among other things, that there was a rising pattern of AIDS diseases in the country affecting 14 to 15 per cent of the population. Acknowledging the gravity of the disease, the Government had suggested the allocation of at least 2 per cent of its national budget to the prevention of AIDS.
The brain-drain of professionals and their migration to South Africa had been felt in Lesotho, the delegation said. Only few professionals in the field of psychology and psychiatry remained at home to take care of children who needed their assistance. Many Lesotho citizens who used to work in South African mines had now returned home, inflating the unemployment situation in the country.
The law commission had made great developments in drafting a statutory bill that affected both women and children and protected their welfare, the delegation said. Among the initiatives of the commission, the sexual offences bill of 2000 attempted to remove gender discrimination in the definition of sexual offences and protected children from sexual exploitation by imposing penalties.
There were conflicting views on the practice of corporal punishment, the delegation said. Some people held the view that corporal punishment was essential to disciplinary upbringing of their children while others were against its use. The handing down of sentences by courts in the form of corporal punishments against juvenile offenders had continued. However, the way it was used had been changed from whipping to canning.
Asked if data collection was systematically done, the delegation said almost all departments in the Government had data collection and analysis mechanisms on a whole range of indicators that were routinely compiled. However, routine data by the Government tended to be incomplete and inaccurate.
Young people were at greater risk of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections because they tended to be more sexually active and had more sexual partners over a period of time, the delegation said. They lacked access to adequate health information and education inside and outside schools.
There was no specific body to receive children's complaints, the delegation said. The human rights commission which was envisaged to be established had not yet been made operational because of red-tape delays involved in its set up.
On the question concerning street children and teenage pregnancy, the delegation said that a policy was being drafted on the issue. The draft was expected to be made public in a couple of weeks.
Committee members continued to query the delegation on issues such as birth registration, breast-feeding, female genital mutilation, the right of children's views to be heard, the effect on child of break-down of families, early marriages; police brutality against children, youth suicide rate, the situation in orphanages, equality of boys and girls inheritance, and child adoption, among other things.
One could not rear a child by inflicting physical injuries, an Expert commented, alluding to the practice of corporal punishment in Lesotho. The change from whipping to canning of a child did not change the injurious effect against the child.
* *** *
26th session
18 January 2001
Morning
Shortage of Professionals Caused by Immigration
to South Africa, Delegation Says
The Committee on the Rights of the Child this morning started its examination of an initial report of Lesotho with a Government delegation saying that the country faced a shortage of professional personnel because of the brain-drain and immigration to South Africa.
Introducing the report, L. F. Maema, Attorney-General of Lesotho, spoke about the political crisis of 1998 that resulted in the destruction of Lesotho's economic sector through massive looting, burning and general destruction of major industrial sectors. As a result, gross domestic product (GDP) had declined by 5.5 per cent. He said that during the political crisis, some children had taken an active role in the spread of acts of terror; in sporadic incidents, some of those children were fatally shot.
Mr. Maema said that in order to promote poverty reduction strategies, the Government of Lesotho had adopted an interim poverty reduction strategy paper which had been submitted to the World Bank. The aim of the strategy was to establish the severity and causes of poverty, and then design and implement policies that efficiently bring sustainable improvements in the livelihoods of the poor and the vulnerable, especially children, he said.
During the discussion, Committee members said, among other things, that Lesotho had not ratified International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, ILO Convention No. 182 on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, and the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. The Experts asked if the Government was planning to ratify them.
The discussion focused on the main topics of the general measures of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; definition of the child; general principles; civil rights and freedoms; family environment and alternative care; basic health and welfare; education, leisure and cultural activities, and special protection.
In addition to Mr. Maema, Lesotho's delegation was made up of Pontso Lebotsa, Chief Legal Officer, and Tebello Mohlabane, Director of Probation, both at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights; Limakatso Chisepo, Director of Social Welfare, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare; and N. Liphapang, Researcher, Law Reform Commission, Ministry of Law and Constitutional Affairs.
Lesotho is among the 191 States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and as such it is obliged to present periodic reports to the Committee for its consideration of the country's compliance with the provisions of the treaty.
The Committee will conclude its public examination of the report of Lesotho when it reconvenes at 3 p.m. this afternoon.
Initial Report of Lesotho
The report (document CRC/C/11/Add. 20) enumerates the measures taken by the Government to comply with the provisions of the Convention on an article-by-article basis. It notes that many laws that protect children are already in place; however, inconsistencies and contradictions between various proclamations and statutes exist; consequently, there is a need to harmonize such laws and eliminate the contradictions that undermine those laws that are already in line with the Convention; and it is hoped that the newly initiated Law Reform Commission will address such issues. The long-term problem lies in changing attitudes, behavioural norms and customs so that people are sensitized to the need to respect children's rights.
Lesotho has declared "Health for all by the year 2000" as the cornerstone of its national health policy, the reports says. Despite interventions in this field, the infant and child mortality remains high; diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection and malnutrition are the main causes of infant-child morbidity and mortality.
Because of Lesotho's dual legal system, matters of child adoption, divorce, inheritance and custody are governed by customary law, the report says. The Roman-Dutch law also covers these areas and this causes considerable problems in determining the law to be applied in cases of adoption, child custody, succession and inheritance.
The report remarks that in Lesotho, various pieces of legislation, including the Age of Majority Ordinance of 1829, the Children's Protection Act of 1980 and the Labour Code of 1992, define children by different age limits. The law further prescribes different ages regarding the definition of a child. The age of majority is 21 years of age; however, a man remains a minor until he marries, even if he is 30; and if a man marries earlier than 21 years, he achieves majority status. In general, criminal responsible is fixed at 7 years.
Girl children under 15 years are often hired as domestic workers, the report says; work can start as early as 5 a.m. and continue until very late at night; girls employed under such conditions have very little time to rest and sleep and were without decent bedding; child domestic workers are regularly lonely and depressed due to their working conditions; they are exploited in terms of earnings; and there is no legislation protecting their rights in Lesotho. In the same manner, 10.3 per cent of boys between 6 and 15 years are full-time herdboys and a third of these were under 10 years of age. These children did not attend school; and severe storms in the mountains kill several herdboys each year.
Presentation of Report of Lesotho
L. F. MAEMA, Attorney-General of Lesotho, spoke about the political crisis of 1998 that resulted in the destruction of Lesotho's economic sector through massive looting, burning and general destruction of major industrial sectors. As a result, gross domestic product (GDP) had declined by 5.5 per cent. During the political crisis, some children took an active role in the spread of acts of terror in support of the crisis. In sporadic incidents, some of those children were fatally shot.
The migrant labour retrenchment in the South African mines had also meant a sudden loss of household income and increased household poverty that had dramatically affected the welfare of children, Mr. Maema went on to say. Two major droughts that took place in 1992 and 1998 had been characterized by cases of typhoid and diarrhoea. Acute cases of malnutrition were treated with food supplementation.
Mr. Maema said the Government had launched a policy framework on HIV/AIDS prevention, control and management. The national AIDS strategic plan concerned services for children advocates, provision of community based care, foster homes, hospice homes, and supportive legislation for affected children, among others.
In 1999, the Government of Lesotho had announced the policy of free primary education starting 2000, Mr. Maema continued to state. The introduction of the policy was motivated by the constitutional provision that required free primary education for all.
Major budgetary allocations for children's welfare had been made to the ministries of health and social welfare and education, Mr. Maema said. The drought relief supplementary feeding programme had also been funded for procuring food supplements, and undertaking other tasks. The law enforcement agencies that dealt with juvenile justice did not have a separate budget allocation for juvenile offenders. With the budget on the administration of justice, juvenile offenders’ recurrent budget was part of the entire budget of all the prison inmates.
In order to promote poverty reduction strategies, the Government of Lesotho had adopted an interim poverty reduction strategy paper which was submitted to the World Bank, the Attorney-General said. The measure was aimed at establishing the severity and causes of poverty and then designing and implementing policies that efficiently brought sustainable improvements in the livelihoods of the poor and the vulnerable, especially children.
In conclusion, Mr. Maema stressed that the promotion and protection of children's rights in Lesotho required technical assistance from the donors and specialized agencies of the United Nations.
Discussion
The discussion focused on implementation measures; definition of the child; general principles, and civil rights and freedoms. Reference was made on occasion to written replies supplied by the Government of Lesotho to questions prepared by the Committee in advance, and Committee members queried the delegation on a number of issues.
An Expert said the status of the Convention was not self-executory and it was not incorporated in the domestic legislation of Lesotho. The judicial system allowed the practice of corporal punishment, which was in contradiction with the provisions of Convention. How did the Government coordinate the Roman-Dutch and customary laws which were in use at present? Who was the "boss" for the coordination of the different activities and policies, including the monitoring of the implementation of the rights of the child? The monitoring of the implementation should be handled by an independent body.
As the age of majority was fixed at 21 years, an Expert asked if that meant that persons of 19 or 20 years were still under parental authority. Could the father beat a boy of 20 without any problem of self-defence on the part of the boy?
Lesotho had not ratified International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No.138 on the Minimum Age for Employment, ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour and the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, an Expert said. Did Lesotho intend to ratify those conventions soon?
There was no legislation prohibiting discrimination against children with disabilities, remarked an Expert. That category of children were not easily integrated in schools except for the few whose parents were well placed in the society.
The delegation of Lesotho, responding to questions from Committee members, said, among other things, that there was a rising pattern of AIDS diseases in the country affecting 14 to 15 per cent of the population. Acknowledging the gravity of the disease, the Government had suggested the allocation of at least 2 per cent of its national budget to the prevention of AIDS.
The brain-drain of professionals and their migration to South Africa had been felt in Lesotho, the delegation said. Only few professionals in the field of psychology and psychiatry remained at home to take care of children who needed their assistance. Many Lesotho citizens who used to work in South African mines had now returned home, inflating the unemployment situation in the country.
The law commission had made great developments in drafting a statutory bill that affected both women and children and protected their welfare, the delegation said. Among the initiatives of the commission, the sexual offences bill of 2000 attempted to remove gender discrimination in the definition of sexual offences and protected children from sexual exploitation by imposing penalties.
There were conflicting views on the practice of corporal punishment, the delegation said. Some people held the view that corporal punishment was essential to disciplinary upbringing of their children while others were against its use. The handing down of sentences by courts in the form of corporal punishments against juvenile offenders had continued. However, the way it was used had been changed from whipping to canning.
Asked if data collection was systematically done, the delegation said almost all departments in the Government had data collection and analysis mechanisms on a whole range of indicators that were routinely compiled. However, routine data by the Government tended to be incomplete and inaccurate.
Young people were at greater risk of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections because they tended to be more sexually active and had more sexual partners over a period of time, the delegation said. They lacked access to adequate health information and education inside and outside schools.
There was no specific body to receive children's complaints, the delegation said. The human rights commission which was envisaged to be established had not yet been made operational because of red-tape delays involved in its set up.
On the question concerning street children and teenage pregnancy, the delegation said that a policy was being drafted on the issue. The draft was expected to be made public in a couple of weeks.
Committee members continued to query the delegation on issues such as birth registration, breast-feeding, female genital mutilation, the right of children's views to be heard, the effect on child of break-down of families, early marriages; police brutality against children, youth suicide rate, the situation in orphanages, equality of boys and girls inheritance, and child adoption, among other things.
One could not rear a child by inflicting physical injuries, an Expert commented, alluding to the practice of corporal punishment in Lesotho. The change from whipping to canning of a child did not change the injurious effect against the child.
* *** *