Tajikistan

The report from Tajikistan shows that much has been done in recent years to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, for example regarding free education. Many areas of the report are also covered with valid information, so that a good overview of the implementation is given. In the near future, however, work still needs to be done to address the fact that many children live in a stressed food security situation and the health system suffers from a lack of knowledge among health workers and poor infrastructure.

While welcoming the lowering of the age for parental consent from 18 to 16 for adolescents to freely access information on reproductive health and confidential quality services, and guaranteeing adolescents access to sexual education in educational institutions, the Committee is concerned that the law is not enforced and that, particularly, access to contraception remains difficult for adolescent girls. Therefore, the Committee recommends that the State party reinforce its Youth-Friendly Health Services program, ensuring that it promotes access to information and services for girls and boys to reduce adolescent pregnancies and increases access to contraceptives, particularly in rural areas.

The Committee is seriously concerned about the insufficient protection of children with disabilities from discrimination, particularly the shortage of reliable data, which hinders the delivery and evaluation of services for children with disabilities. Furthermore, the Committee is seriously concerned about the continued limited physical accessibility of public institutions, transportation, housing and education. There is also limited availability of State-funded early detection and diagnosis of disability and rehabilitation services, insufficient social welfare allowance and services provided to children with disabilities with high needs and their families that do not sufficiently encourage, and provide support for families to keep their children at home, resulting in a disproportionate number of children with disabilities continuing to live in institutions. The Committee is further concerned about the absence of a comprehensive approach to the needs of children with disabilities and their families, and particularly to the needs of adolescent girls with disabilities.

While welcoming the health sector reform undertaken by the State party and the significant reduction in the child and infant mortality rate, the Committee is nevertheless concerned that health service delivery is weakened by the poor infrastructure and equipment with hospital buildings frequently lacking water, sanitation and electricity. Also, the knowledge and skills of health workers are poor, noting that the rate of neonatal mortality is linked to the poor quality of care at births. The Committee is further concerned that early infant deaths are mostly preventable, are exacerbated in rural areas and are underreported. Additionally, the Committee is concerned that the routine immunization system is weakened by gaps in surveillance, coverage monitoring and reporting, vaccine stock management and sustainable immunization financing.
To guarantee every child the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, the Committee recommends that Tajikistan promptly take the necessary measures to increase the budget allocated to the health care system with a view to ensuring adequate access to primary health care services to all children, with particular attention to children in rural areas and from low-income families.

In view of the shortage of qualified mental health service providers to meet the psychosocial needs of children and adolescents in the State party, the Committee recommends that the State party increase the number of available psychological counselling services and social workers in schools and communities and ensure that all professionals working with children are adequately trained to identify and address early suicidal tendencies and mental health problems.

Noting the increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters experienced in the State party due to climate change and the resulting human and property losses as well as damages to the socio-economic and cultural infrastructure, the Committee urges the State party to adopt a child-focused approach to coping with and adapting to climate change. Furthermore, the Committee urges the State party to include children in the development of its National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (2016-2030), with special attention to children with disabilities and girls, taking note of target 13.5 of the Sustainable Development Goals on promoting mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management.

While welcoming the adoption of the new Labour Code in 2016, which defines the minimum age for employment as 15 years and contains provisions protecting the rights of children aged 15 to 18 years in the workplace, the Committee is seriously concerned that reportedly approximately a quarter of all children aged between 5 and 17 from families facing social and economic hardships are engaged in economic activity. The Committee urges the State party to reinforce the capacity of the ministerial Child Labour Monitoring Unit and the local level child monitoring committees established to identify children engaged in the worst forms of child labour and ensure their removal, rehabilitation and reintegration through the provision of appropriate social services, paying particular attention to the increasing number of children engaged in the informal sector, including in unpaid household services.

The Committee is, among other things, seriously concerned that there is a limited understanding about the effective prevention of children coming into conflict with the law, especially when children commit status offences, with an inappropriate emphasis on ‘crackdowns`.
Also, children are deprived of their liberty at the Special School, Special Vocational School and Boys Colony in Dushanbe, on the basis that their parents could not care for them. The Committee is further concerned that the capacity-building of judges, prosecutors and the police on child rights and juvenile justice is ad hoc and lacks sustainable funding and that there is an absence of non-judicial measures applied to children in conflict with the law.

The Committee is concerned that a significant proportion of the rural population, including children, live in a stressed food security situation, have inadequate food consumption, and that many citizens do not have enough money to buy basic food products.

Concluding observations on the third to fifth periodic report released on 29 September 2017.
More information about education in Tajikistan: https://mfa.tj and Early education in Tajikistan