1. In light of the recommendations adopted in the Declaration and Plan of Action of the World Conference on Human Rights, has the Government considered the possibility of reviewing its interpretative declaration to the Convention with a view to its withdrawal?

2. Please indicate whether steps have been undertaken to review national legislation and its compatibility with the provisions and principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

3. With regard to information provided in paragraph 6 of the report, please provide further information on existing or foreseen mechanisms to coordinate the activities between all Ministries involved in children's issues as well as between the local and central authorities.

4. Please provide information whether indicators have been developed and disaggregated data collected concerning the status of all children, including the most vulnerable groups. What difficulties were encountered in the collection and use of these data and indicators for the design of policies and programmes for the effective implementation of the Convention?

5. Please provide further details on existing or foreseen mechanisms, both at central and local levels, for the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention. What consideration has been given by the Government to the establishment of an Ombudsperson for children's rights or similar independent monitoring body?

6. Please provide further information on the ways in which the present institutional arrangements relate to non-governmental organizations in the country.

7. With regard to information provided in paragraph 19 of the report, please indicate what further measures have been taken, or are planned, to train professional groups such as: judges, lawyers, law enforcement officials, army officials, civil servants including at the local level, personnel working in institutions or other places of detention for children, health personnel and social workers, about the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, please indicate what measures have been taken to raise the awareness of Government officials, legislators, non-governmental organizations and the mass media, as well as children themselves.

8. Please explain if the Convention has been translated into the main minority languages?

9. What proportion of the national budget is devoted to social expenditure, i.e. health and education, for children at central, regional and local levels? Please provide additional information on the implementation of article 4 of the Convention in regard to the allocation "to the maximum extent of (...) available resources" for the rights of the child.

10. What measures have been taken by the Government to reduce the impact of economic transition and structural adjustment policies on children, especially those belonging to the most disadvantaged groups? What targets have been identified and established to monitor these effects? What is being done to protect the most vulnerable groups?

11. Please provide more details about the process of preparing the report, including the extent to which the non-governmental organizations were involved.

12. Please provide further information on the minimum legal age to give testimony before a court.

13. With regard to information provided in paragraphs 35 and 36 of the report, please explain how the authorities ensure that the legislation relating to minimum age for employment and the prohibition of harmful work is being applied in practice. Please also provide additional information on the existing or foreseen mechanisms to supervise compliance with the Labour Code and the existing penalties in case of violation of the law. Please further indicate whether the State party is considering ratifying ILO Convention No.138 on minimum age for admission to work.

14. Please indicate to what extent the provisions of article 2 of the Convention are covered in national legislation with regard to all possible grounds for discrimination spelled out in that article.

15. Please indicate whether any recent measures have been taken to prevent and combat discrimination against refugee children and children belonging to minorities, as well as disparities affecting children living in rural areas, in terms of access to education, health care and other social services.

16. Please specify if the Government is planning to launch information campaigns to prevent and combat discriminatory and xenophobic attitudes against minority groups.

17. In light of article 2 of the Convention, please explain what measures the Government of the Czech Republic have taken to prevent children with disabilities from being victims of any form of discrimination.

18. Please provide further information on the ways the principle of the "best interests of the child" (art. 3)is reflected in legislation, or actions undertaken by social welfare institutions, courts of law and administrative authorities. Please also provide some examples of implementation of this principle by courts and/or administrative bodies.

19. With regard to information provided in paragraphs 54 to 62 of the report, please explain the measures undertaken by the authorities to implement concretely existing legal provisions that integrate the principle of the "respect for the views of the child" (art. 12). What measures have been taken to further sensitize professional groups and public opinion to the need to encourage children's participatory rights?

20. In the light of article 7 of the Convention, and taking into account the specific situation of a number of institutionalized Roma children, please indicate whether the State party is considering acceding to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961) and the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954).

21. Please explain in details how in situations of adoptions, the principle of the best interests of the child (art. 3) applies to the child's "right to know (...) his or her parents" (art. 7).

22. Please explain what recent measures have been taken by the State Party to ensure that children are protected from any kind of harmful information, including violence and pornography.

24. Please provide information on the occurrence of ill-treatment of children. Have specific programmes for the prevention of ill-treatment of children, and for the treatment, psychological recovery and social reintegration of abused children been developed at the central and local levels? What resources have been allocated to such purpose? What specific legal provisions exist to protect children from being ill-treated in their homes or boarding institutions? Are there complaints procedures which can be used by children themselves against such abuses? Have any cases of ill-treatment of children been submitted to the national courts?

25. Have any cases been reported of children who have been the victims of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment? If so, please provide information on such cases. Please further indicate the measures taken and resources committed for implementing the provisions of articles 37 (a) and 39 of the Convention.

26. Please specify if corporal punishment in school and outside school is prohibited by the law.

27. Please indicate to what extent the State Party takes responsibility for parental education and if there are other family counselling services.

28. Please indicate if legal provisions on allowances are providing for the full support and upbringing of children. In addition, please indicate what possibilities there are for the single parent living with a child to get financial support from the State if the ex-spouse is evading the payment of maintenance.

29. With regard to information provided in paragraph 102 of the report, please explain how the principles of the "best interests of the child" and the "respect for the views of the child" (arts. 2 and 3) are taken into account in the authorities' decisions related to separation of the child from his/her parents. In this regard, please indicate how the provisions of articles 9 paragraph 3 (the right of the child to maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents) and 18 (common responsibilities of both parents for the upbringing and development of the child) are implemented.

30. Please provide information on the guarantees in place to ensure the periodic review of placement of children in institutions, in the light of articles 3 and 25 of the Convention. Please also indicate whether improvements have been made in the material assistance given to children in State institutions /boarding schools/juvenile detention centers and their standard of living. What arrangements are in place to monitor such institutions and their conditions? Are there any plans to establish a minimum standard which all institutions must reach? Furthermore, please specify if any measures are taken for alternative solutions to institutionalization of children.

31. With reference to information provided in paragraphs 123 and 124 of the report, please further explain the reason for which "adoption (...) is the best form of alternative care". Are the authorities giving preference to national or intercountry adoptions? Please also give further information on the existing legal national framework to protect the rights of the child in intercountry adoptions, as laid out in article 21 of the Convention. Finally, please provide additional information on the legal status of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption with regard to the Czech Republic.

32. Has any comprehensive study been undertaken on the occurrence of sexual abuse within the family?

33. With reference to information provided in paragraphs 157 to 171 of the report, please provide up-dated information on concrete results of the recent measures taken and laws adopted to provide full protection to children with disabilities in the light of article 23 of the Convention. Please also specify what are the major remaining obstacles to promote and protect those rights.

34. With regard to the current period of economic transition which the Czech Republic is experiencing, please specify if any study has been undertaken to understand the impact of this trend on the quality and accessibility of health care services for children. In this connection, please provide information on new emerging health-related problems such as substance abuse, in particular alcohol consumption, and suicide.

35. Please explain if the school curricula has been reviewed since the establishment of the Czech Republic. Please also specify if measures have been taken by the authorities to include human rights education, especially the rights of the child, with special emphasis on education for peace and tolerance, in the school curricula.

36. Please provide information on the recent emergence of private schools in the State Party and mechanisms to monitor them. Please further provide information on the existing policies and practice with regard to pre-school education.

37. Please specify if measures have been taken or are foreseen to train school managers and teachers on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

38. Please provide information on the measures undertaken by the authorities to encourage and facilitate access to education by children belonging to the Roma minority.

39. Please indicate whether children may be taught in minority languages.

40. Please provide further information on the situation of unaccompanied refugee minors. In light of the provisions and principles of the Convention, what type of assistance and support does the authorities provide them upon their arrival in the Czech Republic?

41. Please provide further information, in the light of articles 37, 40 and 39 of the Convention (see paras. 232 to 243), in particular on:

a) the use of arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child as a measure of last resort and for the shortest period of time;

b) the possibility to have a prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as for challenging the legality of the deprivation of liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and of having a prompt decision thereon;

c) the right of the child alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the child's sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the child's respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account the child's age and the desirability of promoting the child's reintegration and the child's assuming a constructive role in society;

d) alternative measures to institutional care made available to deal with such children in a manner appropriate to their well-being; and

e) the establishment of laws and procedures specifically applicable to children alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed the penal law, in the light of article 40, para. 3 of the Convention.

f) measures to ensure that every child concerned is duly informed about such guarantees.

42. With regard to the situation of children in prison, please provide additional information (see para. 240 to 243), in particular, on the following issues:

- the type of institutions that exist for the custody of young law offenders and what specific rules there are for their treatment;

- the opportunities for the contact with families;

- the way the conditions in such institutions are monitored;

- the guarantees to ensure the periodic review of placement;

- the complaint procedures in cases of ill-treatment;

- the education and health facilities in these institutions.

43. With reference to information provided in paragraph 242 of the report, please give some examples of "exceptional cases" where "juveniles may be placed in one cell with adult suspects". In what ways is the principle of the best interests of the child (art. 3) applied in those situations?

44. Please provide up-dated information on the concrete measures undertaken by the authorities to combat the sale and use of alcohol and drugs by children and to assist in their physical and psychological recovery.

45. Please provide further information on measures recently undertaken to combat sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, including prostitution, pornography and incest. In this regard, please indicate whether the State party is taking into account the recommendations formulated in the Agenda for Action adopted at the Stockholm World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.

46. Please explain whether specific measures have been taken to guarantee adequate health and educational opportunities for children belonging to the Roma minority.