Summary Records - CRC - Uruguay - CRC/C/SR.325 (1996)

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GENERAL

CRC/C/SR.325
2 October 1996

Original: ENGLISH

Summary record of the 325th meeting : Uruguay. 02/10/96.

CRC/C/SR.325. (Summary Record)

Convention Abbreviation: CRC

COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Thirteenth session

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 325th MEETING

Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva,
on Monday, 30 September 1996, at 10 a.m.

Chairperson: Mrs. BELEMBAOGO

CONTENTS

CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS OF STATES PARTIES (continued)

Initial report of Uruguay

The meeting was called to order at 10.15 a.m.

CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS OF STATES PARTIES (agenda item 4) (continued)

Initial report of Uruguay (CRC/C/3/Add.37; HRI/CORE/1/Add.9; CRC/C/Q/URU.1)

1. At the invitation of the Chairperson, Mr. Bonasso, Mrs. Izquierdo, Mrs. Fernández, Mrs. Rivero and Mrs. Dupuy (Uruguay) took places at the Committee table.

2. Mrs. RIVERO (Uruguay) said that the members of her country's delegation were directly involved at the national level in all areas relating to children and would be able to give detailed replies to any questions the members of the Committee might have about the initial report (CRC/C/3/Add.37).

3. Traditionally, Uruguay accorded special protection to children, as the adoption of the Children's Code as long ago as 1934 showed. The best interests of the child were borne in mind in matters of legislation, administration and the law and, more recently, the Government had placed special emphasis on the coordination of social policies designed to remedy the situation of children in particularly difficult circumstances. The Committee's suggestions would be of real value in the further pursuit of that undertaking.

4. Mr. BONASSO (Uruguay), introducing his country's initial report, said that, since the return of democracy to Uruguay in 1984, substantial advances had been made in many aspects of the rights of the child, as exemplified by Uruguay's ratification of the Convention and its participation in the World Summit for Children convened by UNICEF. In other areas, however, work was only just beginning.

5. The demographic structure of Uruguay differed considerably from that of other countries of the region, resembling to some extent that of the developed countries, where a low birth rate meant that, instead of a pyramid with a large young population at the base, the configuration was more that of a square with roughly similar numbers of adults and children. The effect on the situation of children and young people was significant, especially with regard to budgetary allocations. The weight of the adult population, where decision-making power lay, influenced the budget for social expenditure on children. Children had no lobby, no right to vote, no opportunity to participate on terms of equality in fundamental decision-making. The process of sensitizing the population to children's rights in that regard was only just beginning. Fortunately, since the restoration of democracy, the country had had the benefit of international cooperation, both technical and financial, through its association with UNICEF. UNICEF's leadership had been very valuable in terms of creating social awareness and mobilizing capacity to act. Its cooperation had had a multiplier effect in both the public and the private sectors.

6. The country's attention had had to be drawn to the fact that conditions among some sectors of the population, once used to a considerable degree of State protection, had started to deteriorate and that it was important to intervene before it was too late, in education in particular. At one time, Uruguay had been renowned for its very low illiteracy rate, barely 1 per cent. As far as early education was concerned, however, coverage had never been adequate. UNICEF had started an early childhood development programme which paid integrated attention to women, children and the family and affected a sector in which there had been no advances since compulsory education had been extended from six to nine years, making the first, second and third years of secondary education obligatory. The programme of preschool education proposed and created by UNICEF had been supported by it for several years. In the 1995 national budget, however, the State with strong support from the private sector, had formally assumed responsibility for the programme. Such support was important in a country where the non-governmental sector had been less strong than in other countries of the region.

7. Family life deteriorated when basic needs could not be satisfied. Children starting primary school showed signs of poor nutrition and lack of stimulus that could be remedied only by a strong preschool programme. A better level of care was needed for the age group most at risk. At the same time, worrying drop-out rates in secondary schools and increasing numbers of class repetitions were signs that adolescents were another group at risk. Uruguay's demographic structure, the tradition of strong State intervention and the weakness of the NGO sector all combined to make it less able to meet the needs of children and adolescents.

8. In the last five years however, progress had been made in several areas. The executive, legislative and judicial branches had made progress in incorporating the new philosophy contained in the Convention into their procedures. The administrative body traditionally concerned with the protection of children, the Children's Council, had seen its title changed by law in 1988 to the "National Minors' Institute". From the point of view of independence, that was a great advance. From being a department of the Ministry of Education and Culture, it had become a decentralized service with considerable decision-making autonomy and its own budget. In one sense, however, the change was a pity, since the original Children's Council had arisen out of the pioneering 1934 Children's Code. There was a movement afoot to propose to Parliament that the Institute's name should be changed again and that it should be called the "National Children's Institute".

9. At the same time, the Government had decided to set up a commission to reform the 1934 Children's Code. A draft prepared by the Commission had been referred to Parliament in 1994, but had not been dealt with. Elections had been held in November of that year and a new Government had been inaugurated. A new reform commission had been set up, which had produced a new draft Code for children and adolescents, a copy of which he could produce if required, and that new draft had recently been submitted to the Executive. He hoped that, after some of its aspects had been studied by more technical bodies, the draft would go to Parliament for definitive adoption into law. In drafting the proposed new Code, the Commission had had the support of experts from UNICEF, and that meant that a very significant effort had been made to systematize national legislation and bring it into line with the spirit of the Convention. Also in cooperation with UNICEF, arrangements had been made to ensure that the spirit of the Convention became part of the training curriculum in the entire area of juvenile justice. Two other parliamentary commissions, the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on Education and Culture, had been involved in the work on the new draft Code and, as the head of the National Minors' Institute, he had been invited to appear before them. The Institute had also been invited to provide information and participate in the discussions on the national budget.

10. The CHAIRPERSON invited the members of the Committee to take up the section of the list of issues (CRC/C/Q/URU/1) entitled "General measures of implementation".

11. Mrs. SARDENBERG said that the purpose of the dialogue with the delegation was to obtain a clearer picture of the situation in Uruguay with regard to the implementation of the Convention. She welcomed Uruguay's determination to give priority to putting the Convention into effect. The installation of the new Government offered new possibilities of investigation and dialogue and the adoption of new measures.

12. As far as the report itself was concerned, she regretted Uruguay's failure to follow the general reporting guidelines. Grouping the articles as suggested in the guidelines could give a more global and dynamic view of the overall situation. She hoped that the dialogue would provide a more complete picture than the fragmentary article-by-article approach taken in the report. There were nevertheless some positive aspects: notice had been given of the intention to make improvements in certain areas where the need for greater efforts by the Government was recognized. On the whole, however, the report tended to focus on legislation rather than actual data. It said little about problems actually being dealt with by the Government and gave the impression of a lack of action in certain areas.

13. It had been suggested that one problem was that, because of the demographic structure of Uruguay, there was no lobby for children. The weakening of civil society after years of dictatorship was a difficulty common to many countries in Latin America. In that connection, she asked what role the Government envisaged for cooperation with NGOs in work to implement the Convention. She had the impression that they were not widely consulted. Were other sectors of society, professional organizations, teachers, police and social workers given an opportunity to participate in the formulation of public policies for children? If not, what did the Government intend to do in order to incorporate them and bring the new ideas embodied in the Convention into effect. What body would be the focal point for children and who in fact had the last word in decisions relating to them? She understood very well that the proposed change in the name of the National Minors' Institute was important. The term "minor" tended to be associated with problems with the law, conveying an image of the child as a threat to society. A National Children's Institute promised a much more positive focus for Government policy.

14. Mrs. SANTOS PAIS said there were positive factors in Uruguay's situation which should facilitate the implementation of the Convention. A number of treaties ratified by Uruguay had been incorporated into domestic law and could thus be directly applied. Cases involving human rights violations could be tried by the civil courts and remedies such as habeas corpus and amparo were provided for. The setting up of a commission to revise the Children's Code was to be commended, although she regretted that the new draft Code had not yet become law and urged that it should be adopted as quickly as possible. She welcomed the efforts currently being made to establish an ombudsman to deal with complaints from adults and children alike and would be glad to hear of progress achieved in that regard.

15. On the other hand, she regretted that the report had not followed the Committee's guidelines in that it had not been prepared on the basis of an integrated approach to the rights of the child and did not reflect the actual daily life of children in the country. The guidelines were important because they could help States assess their policies in respect of children, and make changes where needed. She also regretted that the report was for the most part merely descriptive and made no attempt to evaluate the actual situation.

16. The State party's written replies gave the impression that the Government's main concern was to define social policies in general rather than social policies for children in particular. She was not sure whether, if there was conflict between a convention and domestic law, which of the two would prevail. In discussions before other human rights treaty bodies, Uruguay had stated that the Children's Code was often ignored in practice; that was a point that needed to be discussed. She would also like to know why, if the Convention was now law in Uruguay, practices permitted under earlier legislation still prevailed, such as discrimination against children born out of wedlock.

17. If children were demographically in a minority in Uruguay, it should logically be easier to solve their problems, but studies had shown that the majority of children under 14 lived in poor areas and could not satisfy basic needs, while nearly 40 per cent of children below five years of age lived in the poorest areas. Why could not the budget be adjusted so that priority could be given to the least protected and least advantaged groups? Why was there no systematic policy for the training of teachers, social workers and police in their obligations under the Convention with a view to bringing about the necessary changes in attitude?

18. Mr. HAMMARBERG said that, according to the indicators, particularly those relating to education, Uruguay should be one of the best equipped countries in the world to ensure the protection of children. The literacy rate for women, for instance, was even higher than that for men and GNP was high. One difficulty was that the ratio of those in work to those receiving benefits was not ideal so that a number of special measures were required to ensure that the budget was funded. More important, however, was the growing gap between the upper and middle classes and the poor, which, because the birth rate among the poor was high, created difficulties for a welfare State which had funding problems.

19. One approach was to invest more in measures of support, such as education and social welfare, for the population in general and another was to target the poorest groups specifically. The latter approach ran the risk of creating a "charity" society, with a humiliating relationship between benefactor and recipient and also had the disadvantage that a bureaucracy would have to be created to administer it.

20. As had been pointed out in the Committee's guidelines, States should not view the Convention one dimensionally, article by article, but as a whole. It was important to ensure that the voice of the younger generation could be heard in matters affecting children, since it seemed that political and administrative decisions in Uruguay tended to be taken by older men and that women and young people had very little influence. Since Uruguay did not have a very active non-governmental community, there was need for some kind of official monitoring system of an independent nature, such as an ombudsman. The approach should have been to collect data not only on children in general, but also on groups of children suffering from specific problems, such as street children, as well as on the various factors relating to their situation so that the whole issue could be studied in depth. He did not see much evidence of that approach in the report.

21. Mrs. BADRAN said the report contained very little in the way of analysis or explanation. It would be interesting to know, for instance, why, when all the indicators showed that Uruguay's situation was economically and socially sound, it was the better educated rather than the more disadvantaged young people who were emigrating. It appeared from the figures given in the report that, while, on the one hand, women enjoyed excellent educational and health services, on the other, their general status was low and they were not regarded as equal to men. The rate of immunization against tetanus was very low for women, whereas the general immunization rate for children was very high. In rural areas, the figures for access to water supplies were very low, while those for access to sanitation were high, and that seemed to be a reversal of the usual situation. She wondered whether the figures quoted were reliable; perhaps the system of monitoring was at fault and needed to be reviewed.

22. Mrs. EUFEMIO, noting that the report had been drafted by the Human Rights Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asked what body had been responsible for carrying out the monitoring and evaluation on which it was based? The risk that the existence of a large population of elderly persons might mean that children were given lower priority should surely be taken into account by those responsible for the allocation of budgetary resources. Although children could not vote, it was to be hoped that their welfare would be of concern to decision makers.

23. As had already been pointed out, most of the indicators used in the report related to health, education and social security; she would have liked to see others included, such as family environment. There also seemed to be a lack of coordination in the way the statistics had been assembled and they did not seem to bear any relation to the various areas covered by the provisions of the Convention.

24. It had been stated that more than 50 per cent of central Government spending went on education, health and social security. She wondered how that compared with the spending of local authorities in those areas and how regional disparities were overcome in the allocation of budgetary resources. Lastly, she would appreciate clarification concerning the process whereby programmes were defined on the basis of indicators.

25. Mrs. KARP said she too was confused by the apparent contradiction between Uruguay's positive indicators and its difficulties in solving the problems confronting it. A population of only 3 million could be defined as a positive indicator in the sense that the number of children to be provided for was not large, but there was nevertheless a marked discrepancy between Montevideo and rural areas in that regard.

26. It had been stated that the principle of the comprehensive protection of children had been enshrined in Uruguay's legislation for many years and that, as a result, it was natural that it should ratify the Convention. However, the Convention introduced a new concept, namely, that the child had its own rights and was entitled to participate in decisions affecting it; there was thus a need for a change in the way the child was perceived.

27. She noted from paragraphs 65 and 66 of the report that Uruguay had already spent some three years drafting a new Children's Code, but that it had not yet become law. What were the obstacles that prevented Parliament from approving the text of the new Code? Could the delegation give some examples of the kind of changes in social policies and programmes that were likely to be made in the future and what would be the status of those new policies and programmes? How was the new perception of the rights of the child being given practical effect and could the delegation cite cases in which children had been encouraged to seek remedies in the courts for violations of those rights? In practice, were children able to bring cases to court on their own and did they know enough about their rights to take part in their implementation? Had the Convention been sent to every school in the country and had any study been made on the success achieved in publicizing it, both in rural areas and in cities?

28. Lastly, she would like to know more about the content of the new strategy on children now being prepared in consultation with UNICEF and whether the Government had begun to implement it.

29. Miss MASON said that she too had been concerned by the lack of data in the report, although that had been corrected to some extent by the written replies to the questions in the list of issues. She would welcome information on the procedures employed in Uruguay for the collection and dissemination of data relating to the situation of children. Like other members of the Committee, she thought it unfortunate that the draft Children's Code had not yet been made law and hoped that news of its promulgation would soon reach the Committee. The references to that Code in the report had also been somewhat confusing, some implying that it was already in force and others that it was still a set of proposals.

30. Although the situation of children in Uruguay was generally positive, the fact that the child population was relatively small could lead to problems affecting children being overlooked and to a tendency to apply solutions applicable to adults to children, such as the reference in the report to enactment of a law permitting incarceration of children with adults.

31. How widespread was awareness of the concept of human rights among the general population in Uruguay? Had there been any general discussion at grass-roots level of the innovative principles introduced by the Convention, such as the right of children to participate and express their views? Which children's rights were of most concern to Uruguayans in general? To what extent were children themselves involved in such discussions and in the activities of the various institutions established to defend the rights of the child?

32. Mrs. IZQUIERDO (Uruguay) said that the Department of Human Rights, which she headed within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had been the focal point for the preparation of the report. It had been assisted in that task by the Non-governmental Committee to Monitor the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was composed of representatives of non-governmental organizations working with children in need. Public institutions had also been consulted to obtain the information required to draft the report. The report therefore represented a consensus of national views on the subject. Uruguay at the time had had a number of reports for a number of international treaty bodies concerned with human rights in arrears; the present report had been the first to be prepared in overcoming that backlog, and that might explain why it did not follow the guidelines fully. The Committee's comments would be taken into account in the preparation of future reports.

33. Mr. BONASSO (Uruguay), referring to the comment that the report had concentrated too much on legal aspects, had failed to give many examples of actual practice and was somewhat compartmentalized, said that his delegation would be happy to provide the Committee with any further information it required. The delegation had a large number of background documents that the Committee might find useful and would willingly make them available.

34. The direct participation of children in Uruguay in the discussion of their rights was not as extensive as it should be, perhaps for cultural reasons. The rights of the child was not a subject that had not yet had a very general overall impact on Uruguayan society. More work was required in that area. However, a campaign had been organized in 1995 in which children had been encouraged to write letters on the subject to the President; the contents of those letters had been analysed and the results published. A similar campaign in 1996 involved letters from children to the Parliament in relation to a bill in preparation. Various programmes involving both the public and the private sectors were under way which included direct participation by children. However, such action could and should be extended.

35. Mrs. FERNANDEZ (Uruguay) said there were two broad areas in which work was in progress on increasing understanding of children's rights in Uruguay. First, efforts were being made to give wide publicity to the subject, often with the assistance of UNICEF. An information campaign had been run on television and in other media, documentary material had been prepared and posters drawing attention to children's rights had been put up in schools throughout the country. Studies and surveys were currently being carried out with UNICEF's assistance to determine the degree of understanding of human rights that existed in Uruguay. Secondly, training courses had been arranged to promote understanding of the Convention. Such courses had, for example, been provided for judges concerned with the implementation of the Convention. Courses for journalists were also in preparation. Studies had been carried out on various issues relating to children in general and on more specific topics such as child prostitution, children in particularly difficult circumstances, children at work and child abuse. The information gathered by such studies was appearing in both general and specialized publications for audiences such as schools and local authorities.

36. Mr. BONASSO (Uruguay), replying to Mrs. Sardenberg's question on the degree of coordination between the various bodies responsible for children's welfare, said that the 1934 Children's Code and the act establishing the National Minors' Institute (INAME) had made provision for departmental committees to be set up in each of the 19 departments into which Uruguay was administratively divided. Such committees were composed of persons well qualified for work in children's affairs both by virtue of political posts held or as a consequence of work in humanitarian and moral spheres. Parliament had also adopted an act in 1995 to establish a commission with the task of providing support to children in hazardous circumstances, membership of which included representatives of various ministries and non-governmental bodies. The work of the commission was, in addition, decentralized down to the departmental level, although provision was also made for such components to work together to ensure that policies relating to children were both comprehensive and integrated. A further act had been adopted in 1996, establishing a commission to provide support for deprived children whose duties would include the collection of information and statistics relating to the implementation of children's welfare policies. Records and statistics were generally well kept in Uruguay and provided reliable information. The commission was at present endeavouring to identify children who fell outside the welfare benefit net with a view to focusing policy on such children. When policies were being drawn up by INAME, efforts were made to give a voice to all parties concerned by inviting representatives of the public and private sectors to state their case.

37. It was significant that 70 per cent of coverage of the child and adolescent population for which the INAME was responsible - some 20,000 persons - was provided through agreement with the non-governmental sector. Uruguay had thus moved on in the 10 years since the re-introduction of democracy from a situation in which all activities were covered by the State. In addition to the three major institutions concerned with child welfare - the Inter-American Institute for children (a specialized agency of OAS), the Specialized Education Centre and INAME - 494 bodies had been identified in Uruguay as involved in working with children. Although only 57 per cent of them had signed any agreement with INAME, there were good grounds for looking forward to the achievement of useful results in future.

38. One area in which Uruguay would need to improve its performance was in the provision of care for particularly deprived or physically or mentally disabled children. Government efforts in that sphere were limited, but it was hoped that the increasing involvement of the private sector would help to intensify efforts to improve their quality of life.

39. Mrs. IZQUIERDO (Uruguay), replying to Mrs. Santos Pais' question about possible conflict between domestic and international law, said that, under the Uruguayan Constitution, international treaties were subject to review by Parliament and, once approved, were considered to have the status of domestic law. However, they continued to be regarded as important international instruments and as such were not subject to any derogation.

40. Mention had been made of the conflict between Uruguayan legislation on child labour, in which the minimum age was 14 years, and ILO Convention No. 138 concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, which set the minimum age at 15. A bill currently before Parliament was designed to bring the domestic provisions into line with the international instrument without prejudice to the fact that, during school vacations, children aged 14 and above would be permitted to engage in paid employment under given circumstances and subject to certain conditions of supervision. UNICEF was currently helping Uruguay in the task of strengthening the legal process to ensure that domestic law was in keeping with international law in general.

41. Considerable attention was now being given to the Convention by the judiciary, which frequently referred to provisions of domestic law based on that instrument. For example, in cases where a minor had been charged with an offence, judicial rulings had ensured that the child was not subject to deprivation of liberty if that might place him at risk.

42. Mr. BONASSO (Uruguay) said that Uruguay was doing its utmost to guarantee the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary. The Convention on the Rights of the Child had full legal status in ordinary law and the Government was committed to preventing the implementation of national legislation which had become obsolete as a result of the Convention's ratification. There might be a few cases in which judges implemented laws with slight variations, but the Executive did not interfere in such matters.

43. The CHAIRPERSON requested the Uruguayan delegation to explain the reasons for the disparity between Uruguay's economic and social indicators and the actual situation of children. She also wished to know how the Government allocated budget resources for the promotion of the rights of the child.

44. Mr. BONASSO (Uruguay) said that a substantial amount had been allocated to education and to the National Minors' Institute in the most recent budget. The National Minors' Institute had received approximately 40 per cent more than in the previous year and public education accounted for 20 per cent of the country's GDP.

45. It was enough for only one indicator, such as drinking water, housing or education, to be missing for a population group to be regarded as having "unsatisfied basic needs". In some cases, moreover, that indicator could be confused with the "poverty line" indicator, which related to the earnings of households. In recent years, however, there had been a remarkable improvement in Uruguay in the category measuring the total number of households with unsatisfied basic needs. Thus, from 1984 to 1994, the proportion of households with children aged 14 and under with unsatisfied basic needs in Montevideo had dropped from 26.7 per cent to 17.3 per cent. In the rest of the country, during the same period, the number of such households had fallen from 42.1 per cent to 27.8 per cent.

46. There had also been improvements in respect of other indicators and the Government was working to guarantee the broadest possible access to education, particularly for four and five year-olds. In the public health sector, the level of immunizations was high, but, as certain studies had shown, there were parts of Montevideo, in particular, where the level was far below the national average.

47. Mr. HAMMARBERG said that the message of the Convention was of paramount importance, particularly with regard to the integration of its principles and the process of implementation in policies adopted by States parties. Professionals working with children should thoroughly understand the implications of the Convention and should therefore be encouraged to study it in order to determine its relevance to their jobs. The depth of the training of the Uruguayan judiciary was impressive and it was hoped that a similar approach would be taken in the case of other professions, such as social work.
48. Although the Convention did not specifically refer to the desirable degree of privatization in its implementation, the task of solving social problems should not be assigned disproportionately to non-governmental organizations. The activities the Government regarded as its responsibility should be clearly defined, thus allowing NGOs to deal with others that they were qualified to handle.

49. In comparison with many countries, Uruguay's expenditure on social welfare was rather high. However, the size of vulnerable groups was growing. He urged the Government to focus on those groups and to take prompt action to deal with their problems. To that end, the establishment of effective monitoring systems, the development of relations with NGOs based on mutual respect and closer attention to public attitudes would prove beneficial.

50. Mrs. SARDENBERG said that, when a country's report was compartmentalized, the Committee had the impression that the implementation of the Convention was also compartmentalized and it was difficult to see whether a unified policy on children existed. Although many initiatives had been taken by the Uruguayan Government, there appeared to be no clear strategy for the implementation of policy based on the Convention. NGOs had tremendous potential for encouraging more in-depth discussion of the new Children's Code. Their ideas would be based on their first-hand knowledge of issues relating to children and would serve as a valuable platform from which to bring pressure to bear on the Executive and the Legislative branches for the speedy adoption of the new Code.

51. Referring to the issue of coordination, she asked whether the National Minors' Institute had an executive mandate to formulate policy or whether it was chiefly a monitoring body. She also wished to know how the Government maintained coordination between the capital and the interior in order to ensure the equitable distribution of resources throughout the country.

52. Mrs. SANTOS PAIS said that Governments bore primary responsibility for speaking and acting on behalf of the most vulnerable groups in society. It was therefore important for them to identify the changes that had been brought about at the national level and to determine how society used the Convention as an instrument for social change. Through the Convention, the Government of Uruguay could create a movement in support of children and their rights. The

Convention on the Rights of the Child had been the first to make it a clear-cut obligation of States to increase public awareness of and provide training programmes on its content.

53. The participation of NGOs was an important element of civil society, but their involvement should not be interpreted as an excuse for non-intervention by the State. The Government should ensure coordination among the various bodies it established in order to promote the development of effective policies.

54. The value of the Convention at the domestic level could not be overstated. There was an obligation for States to bring domestic legislation in line with the Convention. She therefore hoped that Uruguay would soon adopt the draft Children's Code in order to provide the necessary normative framework for conveying the message on the rights of the child to the public.

55. The indicators seemed to place emphasis on the overall situation in Uruguay instead of providing information on the specific situation of vulnerable groups. Statistics should be disaggregated in order to provide a true picture of the situation and help eliminate disparities.

56. Mrs. KARP said that the Committee was most interested in the way the innovative approach of the Convention influenced changes in attitudes towards children. She asked about the focal points in the discussion on the Children's Code and what obstacles the Uruguayan Government was encountering in bringing it into force? She also wished to know whether the Government had considered introducing the teaching of the Convention into school curricula.

57. Mrs. BADRAN said that, although Uruguay's statistics and indicators reflected good averages, it was clear that there were groups of persons who did not enjoy the same rights as the majority of the population. Special attention on the part of professionals, particularly social workers, was essential. The mandate and methodology of social work were ideally suited to mobilizing people to exercise their rights. She requested information on the system of social work in Uruguay, training possibilities, the prestige social workers enjoyed and the types of institutions in which they practised.

The meeting rose at 1.05 p.m.