1. To make the State party report widely available, plans are being made to distribute it to the different governmental and non-governmental agencies working in the field.

2. In 1993 the Directorate-General for Human Rights took measures to make the Convention known to children in rural areas and to indigenous groups, through the children's and young people's election campaign: "You too can play an active part"; the target groups were Guarani-speaking children in the upper cycle of primary education and young people at the basic education level throughout the Republic.

3. The teacher-training programme sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Worship includes training modules in human rights and education for democracy. The Teacher-Training Department has introduced a two-year training course for teachers in regional centres throughout the Republic.

The Curriculum Department has made provision for including education about the Convention in its primary education activities by introducing a course called education for democracy, which is subtended by the principles set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

4. Non-governmental organizations working in the field are involved in monitoring the implementation of the Convention by participating actively in respect of education, application of the law and prevention in general.

5. In view of the fact that the National Constitution, adopted in 1992, incorporates the general principles of the Convention and that amendments have been made to the Penal Code in order to include the recommendations contained in the Convention, its provisions are frequently invoked in court.

M/CRC/C (Future)

GE.94-18958 (E)

7. The following national institutions are responsible for coordinating and monitoring the implementation of measures to protect and promote the rights of the child: the Directorate-General for Human Rights, the Directorate-General for the Protection of Juveniles, the Family Department of the Metropolitan Police, the Mother and Child Department of the Ministry of Health, as well as the departments for children's issues in the governorates and municipalities, the children's judge for correctional cases and the new Crime Policy Department of the office of the Attorney-General, through its unit for the care of victims of ill-treatment and sexual abuse.

8. Through the country's Social Development Plan, more resources have been allocated to central institutions such as the Ministry of Education, which has created 1,000 additional teacher's posts to increase educational coverage. The Ministry of Health has also increased its vaccination coverage and prevention of contagious diseases to a considerable degree.

10. According to the Juvenile Code, child is understood to mean a human being below the age of 20 years. The Civil Code establishes age limits for sexual consent of 16 years for men and 14 for women.

11. The Government is not planning to take steps to raise the minimum age of marriage for minors, but is planning to lower the age of majority to 18 years and to raise the age of criminal liability to 16 years.

12. The educational reform has adopted principles of non-discrimination on grounds of sex, for which practical provision is made in the first stage of implementation of the reform, through the curriculum taught in the first primary cycle and in recent approved first and second grade textbook materials.

13. By decision of the Advisory Council on Educational Reform, the Guarani language has been added as a subject in all primary and secondary cycle grades. Teachers in rural areas are required to give classes in the Guarani language. Supporting texts have also been prepared to put bilingual education into effect.

15. In judicial, administrative and other proceedings it is considered to be more desirable to take into account the "best interests of the child" in cases of "de facto family placement" and adoption.

16. Through amendments to the Juvenile Code, the Government plans to adopt measures to guarantee respect for the views of the child in all matters affecting the child.

17. Children's and criminal judges are adopting stricter measures to ensure the consideration of complaints of sexual abuse, in conjunction with the Victims, Care Unit of the Office of the Attorney-General.

18. The Directorate-General for Human Rights, through the children's and young people's election campaigns to promote the Convention, has enabled 750,000 primary-school children and 186,000 secondary-school children to participate at national level.

By introducing the Class Council, a deliberative body, and the Class Representative, the Ministry of Education guarantees participation by children and adolescents in school decision-making. The establishment of the Secondary Students' Centre, although a cultural body, also guarantees pupil participation.

The Secondary School organization Movement (MOS) and the Secondary Students' Federation (FES) form a participatory union structure working in the general interests of the students.

19.

20.

21. Measures taken to ensure the implementation of article 8 of the Convention: in order for a person to be entered in the Civil Register, the biological parents must submit a birth certificate and be present at the registration; if the certificate is lost, at least two witnesses having attained majority age must be present to guarantee that the child has been born into the family in question.

22. Corporal punishment is not allowed in schools or other institutions for children; if it occurs it is punishable by law.

23. The campaign for the prevention of abuse and ill-treatment mentioned in the report is supplemented by the action of the Victims, Care Unit of the Attorney-General's office. The media, through their children's programmes and educational supplements, have been informing children of the procedures for filing charges before the competent authorities.

Activities are currently being introduced at the governmental and non-governmental level, including physical and psychological rehabilitation and social reinsertion for child victims of ill-treatment or sexual abuse.

24. Investigations concerning charges of ill-treatment in detention centres are conducted by the Directorate of Prison Institutions and non-governmental organizations. The current administration of the Ministry of Justice has been promoting activities aimed at the further development of administrative procedures for the prevention of ill-treatment in detention centres.

25. The Social Welfare Directorate of the Ministry of Public Health is conducting preventive and promotional education programmes at the community level.

Through its Social Welfare Department, the Municipality of Asuncion has also prepared and conducted information programmes at the family level.

The various municipalities conduct educational programmes in their respective communities, aimed at the promotion of the family.

26. Given the major deficiencies on the part of the State mentioned in paragraph 113 of the report, there is a need for technical assistance in order to design appropriate programmes in the areas mentioned.

28. Programmes are being implemented for women, aimed at preventing or reducing the causes of abandonment of children, but these programmes have so far been inadequate.

29 and 31. With regard to article 21, the following additional measures have been adopted:

1. Registration, certification and supervision by the Directorate-General for the Protection of Juveniles of homes for the care of children who have been abandoned or are in the process of being adopted.

2. The Adoption and Family Placement Department of the Judiciary orders a study of the situation of the parents abandoning the child, the child's relatives and those seeking to adopt the child in order to provide appropriate counselling for decision-making.

3. Periodic visits and checking of the Homes for Abandoned Children by Juvenile Magistrates for Correctional Cases in order to ensure that they are operating in accordance with the law and to monitor their conditions of hygiene and the children's judicial status.

4. Plans are being made to give priority to national adoptions through

the Adoptive Parents' Register in the Adoptions Department of the Judiciary.

5. The Chamber of Deputies of the Supreme Court of Justice has been asked to provide a report on the status of intercountry and national adoptions from January 1992 to 15 July 1994.

30. Measures to supervise intercountry adoption:

1. The Supreme Court of Justice is requesting reports on intercountry adoption cases from the relevant courts.

2. The Directorate-General for the Protection of Juveniles allows adopted children to leave the country following delivery of the final ruling.

-3. The Identifications Department of the Metropolitan Police monitors and grants identity papers to children leaving the country for intercountry adoption once all requirements are fulfilled.

4. The Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Interior registers and monitors passports and exit by children adopted internationally. -The Government is considering ratifying the Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption.

31. See paragraph 29.

32. The ministry of Health provides decentralized health care through its regional health centres, which are conducting a programme for the improvement of pre-natal care that includes educational talks, immunization programmes and periodic examinations of pregnant women.

Oral rehydration training (TRO) is sponsored by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare during the summer months especially.

The Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare is providing increased immunization coverage and an ongoing nutritional programme through the health centres.

The Office of the First Lady, the Ministry of Health and the UNDP Human Development Programme are conducting a campaign for the prevention of goitre by distributing iodine in the schools.

The Human Development Programme, the PAEN and the Ministry of Education are conducting a programme for improving children's nutrition through milk distribution, tending of the school garden and talks on the use of the produce in children's nutrition.

33. The Programme to Prevent and Combat AIDS uses the media to conduct AIDS prevention programmes in health education institutes, communities and children's detention centres.

The Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare has made blood tests obligatory before transfusion; all activities in that connection are handled by the Ministry's blood bank.

Children and parents infected with HIV, the greatest incidence of which is found in young people from 23 to 35 years of age, are treated at the Lacimet hospital for contagious diseases.

35. The Government is taking measures to provide educational assistance for poor families:

(a) Increase in enrolment coverage.

(b) Lowering of education expenses by reducing the amount of school supplies that have to be purchased.

(c) Nutritional supplement - feeding the children.

(d) Raising parents' awareness of the importance of completing school.

(e) School support for poor families through fund-raising activities by

the school cooperative association to cover needs.

36. The proposals of the Advisory Commission on Educational Reform have been incorporated into the basic primary cycle curriculum, and a financial assistance agreement has been concluded with the Inter-American Development Bank to put these proposals into effect.

Preparation, on the basis of an invitation to tender, of textbooks for the first primary cycle and for the training of teachers, in January and February 1994, in implementation of the proposals at national level.

37. Provision of nutritional supplements through milk distribution under the PAEN and use of the school garden.

Improvement of the education system.

Decentralization of education and adaptation of teaching to each region. Introduction of bilingual education and texts in the Guarani language. Training of teachers in the effective provision of bilingual education.

38. Since 1992 the Directorate-General for Human Rights has been implementing

its human rights education programme:

(a) In conjunction with non-governmental organizations, it has provided training in human rights awareness for 80 area supervisors in the Primary Department and 54 supervisors in the Secondary Department of the Ministry of Education and Worship.

(b) With support from UNICEF, it has conducted two campaigns for the promotion of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the formal education sector, under the titles "Children's election campaigns" for 1992 and the children's and youth election campaigns: "You too can play an active part" for 1993, under which 2,000 directors of teaching institutions, 8,000 primary teachers and 6,000 secondary teachers were trained and 750,000 primary school children and 186,000 secondary school children learned about their rights through participatory educational activity.

(c) The Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, the National Congress on Human Rights and Formal Education and the Curriculum Department of the Ministry of Education have jointly issued a handbook, "School curriculum and human rights" which provides a methodological problem-oriented curriculum design for the teaching of human rights. The handbook will enable teachers to incorporate human rights crosswise into the curriculum, which is one of the principles of the new curriculum design adopted by the Advisory Council on Reform.

For training in the use of the handbook, a four-month programme is being organized at the national level, in cooperation with the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights and the area supervisors of the Ministry of Education and worship.

The Directorate-General for Human Rights, the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights and the Interdisciplinary Educational Research Programme of Chile have prepared a four-day workshop for 35 Ministry of Education representatives from various regions of the country to implement action strategies.

(d) The Directorate-General for Human Rights has entrusted a specialized organization with preparing a handbook for the teaching of human rights at the secondary level and in mass education. Use of the manual will begin within a two-month period and will enable secondary school teachers to incorporate the subject of human rights into their daily teaching practice.

40. Paraguayan legislation provides protection against forced enlistment of children. The armed forces set the age of enlistment or enlistment with authorization from the parents or the guardianship magistrate at 17. The national Constitution in force provides for conscientious objection and there are citizens, associations that monitor the issue.

41. The adoption of the law establishing alternatives to preventive detention is intended to improve the situation in this regard. Despite this, it has not been fully possible to ensure that the judiciary and the police use detention and imprisonment strictly as a measure of last resort.

43. With reference to paragraph 145, the children being accommodated in institutions are not being detained or deprived of liberty, but are there as wards, or are being sheltered or held temporarily by the competent authority because of danger to their physical or moral health.

44. Children deprived of their liberty by the police are immediately transferred to police stations specialized in dealing with children and placed at the disposal of the competent juvenile magistrate, who decides what steps should be taken.

46. The State is in the process of amending the Juvenile Code, the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure to bring them into line with article 40, paragraphs (3) and (4), of the Convention.

47. Measures taken by the State at both the legislative and administrative or institutional levels take into account the United Nations standards adopted in the field of administration of juvenile justice systems.

48. The programme for victims that is having most impact is the one conducted by the Office of the Attorney-General, known as the Victims' Care Programme, which is coordinated with other programmes being conducted by other institutions.

49. The State acknowledges the inadequacy of the system for collecting data on the various irregular situations being experienced by children; there is a need for technical assistance in this regard.

50. There are measures in place such as the requirement of authorization by parents or guardians for domestic employment, but an effective system for guaranteeing the protection of children in domestic service is lacking.