Luxembourg

Luxembourg has no problems relating to children’s rights in the health sector. In order to fully implement the convention, Luxembourg needs to do more in the area of participation. All in all, Luxembourg has a good situation for children and young people. The concluding observations do not deal with specific points, but rather recommend how improvement of existing measures can look like.

The Committee welcomes the measures taken by the State party during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide support to families with children with disabilities. But the Committee is concerned that girls with disabilities remain at high risk of multiple forms of discrimination, and of being victims of gender-based violence, including domestic violence and sexual exploitation, which are difficult for them to report. In general, Children with disabilities are not asked to express themselves directly in matters that concern them, and often their parents are not consulted either.
The Committee recommends to take immediate measures to ensure that children with disabilities have access to health care and reasonable accommodation in all settings, including at school and in leisure centres.

The Committee recommends that Luxembourg takes measures to train health professionals, and engage them, especially in high schools.

The Committee recommends that the State party evaluate the implementation of the National Suicide Prevention Plan and develop a new plan that will take into account the results of such evaluation. In doing so, the State party should ensure the provision of adequate human, technical and financial resources for parents and professionals working with or for children to address the issue of suicide and its related root causes.

The Committee is concerned that children above the age of 16 can be referred for trial by ordinary courts and child protection legislation does not differentiate between child victims of offences and children in conflict with the law. On top of that, it is still permit that a child is detained in an adult penitentiary centre.

To improve the situation, the Committee recommends to ensure that all children below the age of 18 years are treated within the child justice system by specialized judge, and that the State party take measures to separate protection measures aimed at child victims or children at risk of becoming victims of offences and measures aimed at children in conflict with the law.

The distinction between children of married and unmarried parents continues to exist, regardless of new legislations. Also, children are sometimes placed in foster families abroad, creating difficulties for some of them to stay in contact with their biological families.
Furthermore, the Committee welcomes the measures taken by replacing the guaranteed minimum income scheme, the reform of parental leave and changes in benefits and other measures taken to combat poverty, including affordable meals for children in secondary school and free meals for asylum-seeking children. Concerned that the child poverty rate remains higher than that of the general population and continues to grow, the Committee recommends to take targeted measures and provide adequate financial support and free and accessible services without discrimination. In addition to that, the State party should ensure that the legislation provides clear procedures for managing and storing data regarding children’s origins. Furthermore, the Committee recommends that the State party institutionalize a children’s Parliament as a regular event and ensure that it is provided with a meaningful mandate.