GENEVA (5 June 2025) – The UN Child
Rights Committee (CRC) today issued its findings on
Brazil, Indonesia, Iraq, Norway, Qatar and Romania, after
reviewing the six States parties during its latest
session.
The findings contain the Committee’s main
concerns and recommendations on implementing the Child
Rights Convention, as well as positive aspects. Key
highlights include:
Brazil
The
Committee was deeply concerned about the systematic violence
against children driven by structural racial discrimination
and resulting in extremely high child mortality. It
highlighted the widespread violence against Afro-Brazilians,
especially the high homicide rate among Afro-Brazilian boys;
the frequent killings and disappearances of children during
military and police operations in favelas and poor urban
areas; and the large number of child deaths caused by police
violence amid criminalization, excessive force, and
impunity. The Committee urged Brazil to take urgent and
large-scale action to prevent such deaths and
disappearances, particularly among Afro-Brazilian children,
and to ensure independent investigations and prosecutions,
with public disclosure of outcomes and accountability for
those responsible.
The Committee highlighted issues
related to children’s right to privacy in the digital
environment, particularly the use of their personal data by
private companies in developing artificial intelligence
systems. While welcoming the preliminary ban on such
practices, the Committee noted the need for stronger
protections. It recommended that Brazil strengthen its legal
framework to safeguard children’s personal data, as well
as effectively implement the existing Resolution on
children’s rights and the digital environment. It also
urged a clear prohibition on using children’s data in AI
systems, the establishment of accountability and remedy
mechanisms, and the swift adoption of the draft Law
addressing AI-generated pornographic content.
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The
Committee also reviewed Brazil’s obligations under the Optional
Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and
Child Pornography and expressed its concern over reports
of a rise in child trafficking for illegal adoption and the
exploitation of vulnerable groups, especially mothers living
in poverty, by trafficking networks. It requested that the
State party establish strict adoption criteria, require all
efforts to prevent family separation to be exhausted before
the adoption is considered, and ensure that there is no
renumeration involved in the adoption
process.
Indonesia
The Committee
remained seriously concerned that, despite a national
decline in child marriage, provinces such as West Nusa
Tenggara, South Sumatera, West Kalimantan and West Sulawesi,
continued to report rates above the national average. It
also noted the rise in marriage dispensation requests,
unregistered marriages, and permissive cultural norms that
hinder efforts to end child marriage. In addition, it was
alarmed by the fact that female genital mutilation (FGM)
remained widespread, often performed on newborn girls by
midwives or traditional birth attendants. The Committee
recommended urgent, coordinated action to adopt the National
Strategy for Preventing Child Marriage as a binding policy,
ensure its implementation nationwide, and address harmful
norms through education, awareness-raising, and community
engagement. It also urged the adoption of the draft
Multisectoral Roadmap on FGM as a Presidential Regulation,
with clear penalties, enforcement, and community-based
interventions involving religious leaders, families, and
healthcare providers.
The Committee stated its grave
concern over Indonesia’s high rate of early pregnancy, one
of the highest in Southeast Asia, the criminalisation of
abortion in most cases, limited access to contraception for
unmarried adolescents, and cultural norms that stigmatised
discussions on sexuality. These factors severely restricted
adolescents’ access to vital sexual and reproductive
health services. The Committee urged the State party to
expand access to free, age-appropriate reproductive health
services for all adolescents, including those out of school
and in rural areas; to decriminalise abortion and to ensure
safe abortion and post-abortion care; as well as to adopt a
national policy on adolescent reproductive
health.
Iraq
The Committee
remained seriously concerned that the minimum age of
marriage for girls was set at 15 nationally and 16 in the
Kurdistan Region, and that unregistered marriages officiated
by religious leaders were used to bypass legal restrictions
on child and forced marriage under the Personal Status Law.
It urged the State party to enforce a uniform minimum
marriage age of 18 for both girls and boys without
exception, including in the Kurdistan Region, to prohibit
temporary and forced marriages, and to establish protection
mechanisms for victims of these harmful
practices.
Regarding the administration of child
justice, the Committee expressed concern over the low
minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is set at 9
years of age nationally and 11 in the Kurdistan Region,
along with the absence of a framework for diversion and the
lack of specialised services and alternative measures for
children. It urged Iraq to raise the minimum age to at least
14, expand early intervention and child welfare services,
and pilot law reforms on diversion and restorative justice.
The Committee also recommended legislative and procedural
changes to prioritise non-judicial measures, such as
mediation and diversion, promote alternatives to detention
like probation and community service, and ensure access to
health and psycho-social support for children in conflict
with the law.
Norway
Regarding
asylum-seeking, refugee, and migrant children, the Committee
acknowledged recent efforts to improve conditions in asylum
centres and health services. However, it remained concerned
about unequal care for unaccompanied children aged 15 to 18,
the detention of children in immigration cases, and the
large number of unaccompanied children who disappeared from
reception centres. The Committee recommended that Norway
adopt legislation ensuring adequate care for all children
seeking protection, allocate more resources to reception
centres, and transfer responsibility for unaccompanied
children to child welfare services. It also called for a
prohibition on child detention in immigration contexts and
immediate measures to prevent and investigate the
disappearance of unaccompanied children.
While noting
the 2023 reforms aimed to reduce punitive sanctions for
juveniles, the Committee remained concerned that children
aged 15 to 18 were still treated as adults in some cases,
with limited alternatives to detention. It also raised
concerns about the growing use of police custody, solitary
confinement, and excessive use of force, along with the lack
of child-specific expertise among forensic experts. The
Committee urged the State party to continue to align the
child justice system with international standards by
ensuring specialised proceedings, strengthening diversion
and prevention measures, and separating children from adults
in detention. It also called for strict limits on isolation
and coercive practices, and for forensic assessments to be
carried out by child rights
professionals.
Qatar
The Committee
was concerned that the Nationality Act does not allow
children to acquire nationality through both maternal and
paternal lines. It also noted that children born to
unmarried parents often could not obtain birth certificates
due to the requirement of a marriage certificate, and that
those born to non-Qatari mothers risked deportation or
separation from their mothers. The Committee urged Qatar to
amend the Nationality Act and the Law on Permanent Residency
to allow Qatari women to confer nationality to their
children without discrimination, ensure universal birth
registration regardless of parents’ marital status, and
prevent the separation or deportation of children born to
non-Qatari mothers.
The Committee was alarmed that the
age of criminal responsibility was set at just 7 years and
that children over 16 could be sentenced to life
imprisonment, hard labour, or flogging for certain offences.
It urged the State party to raise the minimum age of
criminal responsibility to at least 14, ensure that no child
under 18 is prosecuted as an adult in the justice system,
and repeal Penal Code provisions allowing the death penalty,
life imprisonment, hard labour, or flogging for offences
committed by children.
Romania
The
Committee was concerned about the reportedly high incidence
of violence against children, particularly sexual abuse of
girls in rural areas, schools, in the judicial system, and
online, exacerbated by the absence of a dedicated policy and
limited professional capacity to respond effectively. It
also raised concern about the recent introduction of the
concept of “parental alienation” in legislation, which
lacks a clear definition and may, therefore, be misused in
custody disputes, potentially harming children’s
well-being. The Committee recommended that the State party
adopt a comprehensive strategy to prevent and address
violence against children, strengthen professional capacity
for early identification and response to child abuse and
violence cases, and repeal the provisions related to
“parental alienation” to ensure custody decisions
prioritise the best interests of the child.
The
Committee stated its concern over the number of adolescent
mothers, which is highest in the European Union, alongside
significant barriers to accessing contraception, abortion
services, and reproductive health education. It called upon
Romania to adopt a comprehensive sexual and reproductive
health strategy for adolescents; to ensure that education
and services are age-appropriate, mandatory, and accessible
without parental consent, including for those left behind by
parents working abroad; and to guarantee confidential access
to contraception and counselling for all adolescents,
including those who are out of school and living in rural
areas.
The above findings, officially named Concluding
Observations, are now available on the session
page.
