1. With reference to information provided in paragraph 5 of the report, please specify if the Children's Statute has been adopted.

2. With regard to information provided in paragraph 6 of the report, please indicate existing or foreseen mechanisms to coordinate the activities of Resistance Councils (Local Governments) among themselves as well as with those undertaken by the central authorities. Please also specify, the exact role played by the Vice-Chairperson of each Resistance Council in safeguarding the rights of children.

3. 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?

4. With regard to information provided in paragraph 11 of the report, please provide further details on existing or foreseen mechanisms, both at central and local levels, for the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention. Please also explain the institutional relationship between the National Council for Children (NCC) and the different Ministries involved in the implementation, coordination and monitoring of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Please provide more information about financial resources devoted to the NCC. Finally, what consideration has been given to the establishment of an Ombudsperson for children's rights or a similar independent monitoring body?

5. Please specify the percentage of the budget, both at central and local levels, that is allocated to children's programmes.

6. In light of article 4 of the Convention in regard "to the maximum extent of (...) available resources" for the rights of the child, please explain which safeguards exist to ensure that children are not adversely affected during the current difficult economic period. Please also indicate what proportion of international assistance is devoted to programmes for children.

7. With regard to information provided in paragraph 18 of the report, please specify if the Government of Uganda is considering ratification of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children.

8. What measures have been taken, or are planned, to train professional groups such as: judges, lawyers, law enforcement officials, army officials, Government officials including at the local level, personnel working in institutions or other places of detention for children, teachers, health personnel and social workers, about the Convention on the Rights of the Child?

9. In view of the high illiteracy rate in Uganda, what further measures are envisaged to disseminate the provisions and principles of the Convention through alternative communication methods? Has the Convention been translated into the major minority languages?

10. With regard to information provided in paragraphs 38 and 39 of the report, please provide information on specific measures taken to harmonise existing legislation defining the child (for the purposes of employment, marriage, criminal responsibility, etc.), with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

11. What attempts have been made to bring customary law in line with the principles and provisions of the Convention, including in terms of legal age for marriage?

12. Please provide information on the minimum legal age for legal and medical counselling without parental consent, sexual consent and to give testimony before the court.

13. With regard to article 2 of the Convention, please explain the measures undertaken by the authorities to prevent and combat traditionally discriminatory practices, in particular with respect to the girl child and to disabled children.

14. Please also provide additional information on the measures foreseen or undertaken to prevent and combat discrimination against child orphans, institutionalized children, children born out of wedlock, girls, children belonging to minorities, children living in rural areas, especially in terms of access to education, health care and other social services.

15. Please provide further information on the ways in which the principles of the "best interests of the child" and the "respect for the views of the child" (arts. 3 and 12 of the Convention) are reflected in legislation, or actions undertaken by social welfare institutions, courts of law and administrative authorities. Please also provide some examples of implementation of these principle by courts and/or administrative bodies.

16. Please further indicate ways in which the principle of respect for the views of the child is reflected in practice in all matters affecting the child, including within the family, at school and at administrative and judicial levels. What concrete measures have been taken to sensitize public opinion to encourage children to exercise their participatory rights?

17. With regard to information provided in paragraph 54 of the report and in light of article 7 of the Convention, please indicate what measures have been taken to enforce the mandatory registration of births provided for in the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1970. Please provide some up-dated information on the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs project to revive and strengthen birth registration.

18. In light of articles 2 and 7 of the Convention, please explain existing or foreseen plans to abolish the requirement of paternal consent to the registration of a child born outside of marriage (para. 54).

19. Please indicate what measures have been taken to ensure that children born of foreign nationals, specifically of countries recognising only jus soli, do not remain stateless.

20. 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?

21. With regard to information provided in paragraph 72 of the report, please specify if corporal punishment has been legally prohibited and if so, what concrete measures have been taken to implement this provision. Do monitoring mechanisms function for the consideration of such acts? Finally, please explain what is understood by "serious disciplinary measures".

22. 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 indicate the measures taken and resources committed for implementing the provisions of articles 37 (a) and 39 of the Convention. Please indicate if penal legislation prohibits acts of torture.

23. With regard to information provided in paragraph 84 of the report regarding the prevalence in Uganda of a strongly established patriarchal societal structure, please specify what steps have been taken by the Government in the spirit of article 18 of the Convention to encourage the participation of fathers in the upbringing of children.

24. With respect to article 18, para.2, of the Convention, please provide information on any plans to assist parents in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities, specifically in the provision of child-care services to working parents.

25. With regard to information provided in paragraphs 90 to 95 of the report, what technical improvements have been made to ensure that the removal of children from the family environment may effectively be carried out when it is considered to be in their best interests. In particular, please indicate:

a) What attempts have been made to increase substantive support to Probation and Social Welfare Officers in the application and enforcement of Care Orders;

b) What progress has been realised in the establishment of a formal foster care system? What plans have been made to provide material assistance to foster parents?;

c) What steps have been taken to improve existing children's institutions?

26. In view of the high number of children infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS, please provide additional information on existing support programmes for child orphans and/or child-headed families.

27. With regard to information provided in para. 110 of the report, please provide further details on the role of the Inspector of Homes. Has substantive support to this office been adequately ensured? Please indicate in particular what is meant by "regular" visits.

28. With regard to information provided in para. 107 of the report, please specify if provisions to prevent and eliminate cases of abuses in the operation of orphanages as commercial ventures have been included in the Children and Babies Homes Rules.

29. In light of the information provided in paras. 121 to 126 of the report, please indicate what measures are in place or are envisaged to ensure the implementation of a legal framework for the effective protection of children in cases of national and intercountry adoption, and whether the State is planning to ratify the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. What is the present official position towards intercountry adoptions?

30. In light of the prevalence of systematic child abuse, please specify what measures have been undertaken by the Government to ensure that existing laws governing such offences are systematically enforced by police and law enforcement agents? Specifically, what sanctions exist for deliberate non-enforcement of these laws?

31. With regard to information provided in paragraph 140 of the report, please specify what is meant by "periodic" review of the cases of children in care of such schools.

32. What measures have been taken to provide for the physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of child victims of abuse, as set out in article 39 of the Convention?

33. Please provide further information on the progress of the Food and Nutrition Policy (para. 148). In particular, how is the situation of breastfeeding in the workplace addressed?

34. Please provide information on the steps that have been taken by the authorities to ensure that the decentralisation policy currently being pursued by the Government with respect to health care delivery does not further aggravate existing regional disparities in access to and quality of health care.

35. Please explain what attempts are being made by the authorities to increase the quality and quantity of health care practitioners.

36. Please provide information on measures taken to integrate traditional medicine into the national health policy, and the ways in which this type of medicine is monitored.

37. With regard to information provided in paragraph 158 of the report, please indicate efforts undertaken or foreseen by the Government to encourage family planning and reproductive health education and services.

38. With respect to the Domestic Relations Project on Traditional and Cultural Practices in Uganda referred to in paragraph 163 of the report, please advise on the progress of plans to prevent and combat traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children, in particular female genital mutilation.

39. With regard to information provided in paragraphs 154 and 155 of the report on HIV/AIDS issues, please provide up-dated information on recent trends and measures undertaken by the State Party to prevent and combat STDs, including HIV/AIDS and its impact on children.

40. Please provide additional information on progress made in the attempt to make primary education compulsory and available free to all.

41. Please specify if the Government has envisaged to provide financial subsidies to rural schools with a view to eliminating regional disparities in access to and quality of education.

42. With regard to information provided in paragraph 209 of the report and following the recommendation of the Education Policy Review Commission, please indicate if consideration has been given to increasing the proportion of Government funding allocated to education.

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

44. Please provide more information on steps envisioned by the Government to monitor pre-primary education, currently provided for mostly by the private sector and in large part unregulated.

45. Please provide more information on specific measures and programmes undertaken by the Uganda National Institute of Special Education (UNISE) to address the needs of orphans and other disadvantaged groups.

46. With regard to information provided in paragraph 215 of the report and relating to the review of the school curricula, please specify what consideration has been given to the incorporation of human rights education including on the Convention on the Rights of the Child into the national curriculum.

47. Please indicate measures undertaken and resources devoted to the implementation of article 31 of the Convention, especially on the right to rest and leisure.

48. To what extent is the Government's policy towards refugee and displaced children consistent with the principles of non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and development and respects for the views of the child?

49. With regard to information provided in paragraph 231 of the report, please explain whether measures are envisaged to bring the law regarding recruitment into armed forces (Armed Forces (Conditions of Service) Regulations 1969), which allows under some circumstances children from 13 years of age to be enrolled, in conformity with the principles and provisions of the Convention, especially its articles 3, 6 and 38.

50. Please provide further information, in the light of articles 37, 40 and 39 of the Convention (see para. 193), 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.

51. With regard to the situation of children in prison, please provide additional information (see paras. 249 to 254), in particular, on the following issues:

- the differences between an "approved school" and a "reformatory school" as well as the difference with an ordinary prison;

- the separation of child detainees from adult ones;

- 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, health and other facilities in these institutions.

52. Please provide additional information on the ways in which the Resistance Councils are involved in the administration of juvenile justice.

53. With regard to information provided in paragraph 242 of the report, please indicate the measures undertaken or foreseen to raise the age of criminal responsibility.

54. With regard to information provided in paragraph 251 of the report, please explain what legal and other measures the Government has taken to clearly prohibit corporal punishment and caning as a form of punishment in the children and family courts.

55. In view of the apparent legislative void in the area of child labour described in paragraph 260 of the report, please describe the measures taken or foreseen by the State Party to amend the existing legal framework relating to the minimum age for employment, its implementation as well as the monitoring mechanism to be established. Please also specify if the Government of Uganda is considering the ratification of ILO Convention No. 138.

56. Please further specify what is meant by "light" work, as referred to in the Employment Decree of 1975 (para. 260).

57. With regard to information provided in paragraph 263 of the report, please specify if the Government envisages to launch a comprehensive study on the phenomenon of drug and substance abuse with the view to adopt policies and programmes to prevent and combat these social behaviour among children.

58. In light of the information provided in paras. 270 to 279 of the report, please specify if any research has been undertaken to improve the knowledge on sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, including

prostitution, pornography and incest. What measures have been undertaken or are envisaged to prevent, combat and provide treatment against such sexual abuse and exploitation, and to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of victims. 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.

59. Please indicate measures undertaken by the State party to promote and protect the rights of children belonging to ethnic or other minorities.