MOROCCO

Follow-Up - Reporting

          Action by State Party

CRC CRC/C/15/RESP/Add.211 (2004)

Comments and replies of the Government of Morocco to the concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child

[24 March 2004]

1. At the conclusion of its consideration of the second periodic report of the Kingdom of Morocco (CRC/C/93/Add.3) on 6 June 2003, the Committee on the Rights of the Child made two observations (CRC/C/15/Add.211, paras. 56 and 57) concerning special protection measures (children affected by armed conflicts).

2. The Government of the Kingdom of Morocco has the honour to transmit to the Committee on the Rights of the Child detailed information concerning the education and health of children in the Moroccan Sahara, which shows that the satisfaction of economic, social and cultural rights in that part of Morocco is above the national average.

I. RIGHT TO EDUCATION

A. School enrolment

3. The Saharan provinces (the regions of Ouad Dahab-Lagouira and Laâyoune-Boujdour) registered a growth in pupil enrolment at all levels of education, including pre-school education. During the school year 2003/04, enrolment increased as follows:

•          Pre-school education: from 10,276 to 10,832 children;

•          Primary education: from 43,472 to 43,827 children;

•          Secondary education: from 15,492 to 16,427 children;

•          Vocational education: from 7,137 to 7,875 children.

4. The number of children enrolled in schools in these regions rose from 76,377 pupils in 2002/03 to 78,967 pupils in 2003/04, thus registering an increase of 3.4 per cent in school enrolment in the southern provinces as compared with 0.3 per cent at the national level.

B. Indicators

5. In the region of Ouad Dahab-Lagouira, the figures are as follows:

•          The school enrolment ratio of children aged 6 reached 105.7 per cent;

•          The school enrolment ratio of children between the ages of 6 and 11 reached 101.2 per cent;

•          The school enrolment ratio of children between the ages of 12 and 14 reached 103 per cent;

•          The school enrolment ratio of children between the ages of 15 to 17 reached 76 per cent.

The school enrolment ratios exceeding 100 per cent can be explained by the fact that the number of children enrolled in schools goes beyond the category of age, owing to the mobility of the inhabitants of this region.

6. In the region of Laâyoune-Boujdour, the figures are as follows:

•          The school enrolment ratio of children aged 6 reached 92.2 per cent;

•          The school enrolment ratio of children between the ages of 6 and 11 reached 94.4 per cent;

•          The school enrolment ratio of children between the ages of 12 and 14 reached 79.4 per cent;

•          The school enrolment ratio of children between the ages of 15 and 17 reached 63.8 per cent.

7. The national figures are as follows:

•          The school enrolment ratio of children aged 6 reached 89.3 per cent;

•          The school enrolment ratio of children between the ages of 6 and 11 reached 92.11 per cent;

•          The school enrolment ratio of children between the ages of 12 and 14 reached 68.4 per cent;

•          The school enrolment ratio of children between the ages of 15 and 17 reached 42.7 per cent.

C. School capacity

8. The joint efforts of the Ministry of National Education and Youth, the various components of civil society and the local authorities have made it possible to increase school capacity and the number of classrooms, which rose from 1,207 in 2002/03 to 1,279 in 2003/04. There was a 6 per cent increase in these regions as compared with the national average, which is 1.7 per cent.

II. RIGHT TO HEALTH

A. Maternal and newborn health

9. Various measures have been taken, including:

•          Equipment of the infrastructure of maternity centres;

•          Acquisition of ambulances specialized in child delivery and reanimation of newborns;

•          Equipment of mobile childbirth units in rural and urban areas;

•          Establishment of two new delivery rooms in Goulmime and Tantane;

•          Establishment of a gynaecology and obstetrics centre in Tata;

•          Provision of emergency medicines necessary for child delivery and reanimation;

•          Continuing training of health professionals working in hospitals; gynaecologists; midwives and obstetricians;

•          Training of provincial and regional health workers in the prevention of newborn and infant mortality;

•          Distribution of a gynaecology and obstetrics guide in the various provinces.

10. The following achievements may be cited:

(a) The proportion of medically assisted deliveries reached 100 per cent in the Dakhla-Ouad Dahab region, 80 per cent in the Laâyoune-Boujdour region and 50 per cent in the Guelmim-Smara region;

(b) Caesarian births accounted for 5 per cent of all deliveries.

B. Child health

1. National immunization programme

11. The principal objective of this programme is to reduce infant and child mortality and morbidity. The programme has three components:

•          Distribution of vaccines in all the southern regions;

•          Distribution of refrigeration equipment for the preservation of vaccines;

•          Distribution of fuel to the mobile units.

Table 1

Achievements of the national vaccination programme

2. National programme to combat malnutrition

12. The following measures have been taken:

•          Training of health professionals;

•          Distribution of posters and publications and guides dealing with ways of combating malnutrition;

•          Raising awareness of the benefits of using iodized salt;

•          Distribution of nutritional supplements (vitamins A and D, iron).

13. The programme has achieved the following:

•          60 per cent vitamin A coverage of children in the southern provinces;

•          75 per cent vitamin D coverage of children in the southern provinces;

•          42 per cent iodized salt coverage of the population of the southern provinces.

3. Programme for the integrated management of childhood illness

14. This programme, which constitutes a new approach by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund, focuses on the integrated management of childhood illness (diarrhoea; respiratory infections; meningitis; ear, nose and throat infections; measles; malnutrition; anaemia; and vaccination).

4. Breastfeeding programme

15. Health professionals at Hassan II hospital in Laâyoune have been trained to promote breastfeeding, which has earned Hassan II hospital the title of "baby-friendly hospital".

5. School health programme

16. Many measures have been taken to protect schoolchildren. The southern provinces in particular have been equipped with the medical and technical units necessary to ensure that schoolchildren receive appropriate health coverage through the creation of audio-visual units, vision-testing units and eyeglass units.

Table 2

Achievements of the school health programme

CRC CRC/C/15/RESP/Add.211 (Part I) (2004)

Comments and replies of the Government of Morocco to the concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC/C/15/Add.211)

[26 July 2004]

Comments of the Ministry for Moroccans Abroad reporting to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation concerning paragraph 58 of document CRC/C/15/Add.211 (on the subject of child migrants)

1.         The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, referring to child migrants in paragraph 58 (pp. 13 and 14) of document CRC/C/15/Add.211 of 10 July 2003, provided its comments and recommendations on the steps that the Moroccan authorities ought to take to prevent the migration of unaccompanied children and to liaise with the Spanish Government to guarantee that child migrants are returned to their families or are placed in special institutions with a view to their protection and reintegration.

2.         In that regard, the Moroccan Ministry for Internal Affairs signed a memorandum of understanding with its Spanish counterpart on 23 December 2003, establishing a framework for joint cooperation aimed at repatriating unaccompanied minors in accordance with conditions and procedures to be established by a special joint committee at a meeting scheduled for 17 March 2004.

3.         Under this agreement, each side committed itself to cooperating with the other in order to combat the phenomenon of clandestine migration of minors and to facilitate the repatriation of unaccompanied minors present in the territory of the other side, according to the best interests of the children concerned. The parties also agreed to create the necessary conditions for the reintegration of children into their families or society.

4.         To that end, the following terms were agreed:

            (a)       Children are to be handed over to the authorities of their country of origin whenever they are caught in the act of migrating illegally. They must be returned to their families or placed in special centres for minors;

            (b)       Unaccompanied minors whose parents claim them are to be repatriated, as are abandoned children, after their circumstances have been reviewed. Particular care will be taken with children who have disabilities, children who are ill and children who are dependent on drugs;

            (c)       Reception centres shall be created along the lines of the Spanish model to accommodate minors who are repatriated and provide them with appropriate care pending their social and vocational reintegration;

            (d)       A special joint committee shall review repatriation and reintegration schemes and shall make recommendations about these schemes to the Moroccan-Spanish Standing Committee.

5.         As a token of the Moroccan side's commitment to resolving the problem of child migration in the context of cooperation and the sharing of responsibility between the two countries, and pending the implementation of this agreement with the Spanish Government, the Ministry for Moroccans Abroad delegated to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation has sent a note on this subject to Morocco's diplomatic missions and consular offices in Spain, providing them with instructions on how to deal with assessments of the social and health status of Moroccan children whose repatriation has been requested by the Spanish side and on how to evaluate each child's chances of reintegrating successfully, taking account of his or her best interests.