Home > News > Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Niger – September 2018

The 79th session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child was held in Geneva on September 24, 2018. In preparation for this meeting, IBFAN GIFA submitted a summary document to the committee members based on the latest 2015 WBTi report for Niger, produced during the first phase of the ANJE project. IBFAN’s presentation on the situation of infants and young children in this country highlighted a number of problems related to the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the country, especially with regard to infant and young child feeding (IYCF see here). It also made recommendations.

Among other observations, the IBFAN Alternative Report noted:

-The lack of recent national data on infant and young child feeding practices in accordance with WHO definitions and recommendations; on this point, the latest available data on breastfeeding indicators date from 2012; The still limited implementation of existing national policies on infant and young child feeding due to a lack of resources;

-The failure of the latest law on the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (ICBMS), adopted in 1998, to cover all the provisions of this code or subsequent relevant resolutions of the World Health Assembly (WHA);

-The insufficient use of training materials on BFHI in academic health care programs, which are sometimes outdated;

-The identification of only 36.1% of hospitals in the country as “Baby-Friendly Hospitals”; the underfunding of this initiative and the lack of regular evaluation of accredited facilities;

-Insufficient availability of breastfeeding rooms in the workplace, which prevents mothers who return to work from exclusively breastfeeding their babies until the age of 6 months;

-The still high rate of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV in the country (25% in 2015); Only 40% of pregnant women living with HIV receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment;

-Continued weak support for optimal ANJE practices in emergency situations and insufficient information for health professionals about infant feeding in emergency situations.

In addition to these observations, IBFAN brought to the Committee’s attention in the same document several cases of violations of the International Code identified in Niger between 2014 and 2017. Some violations had already been highlighted in the publication Look what they are doing in Niger!

In response to these comments, IBFAN proposed the following recommendations:

  • Systematically collect data on breastfeeding and BFIM practices; these should be consistent with WHO definitions and indicators;
  • Allocate adequate resources to ensure the implementation of BFIM policies; ensure that the National Multisectoral Committee has and exercises a clearly defined mandate;
  • Ensure that all provisions of the Code and relevant subsequent World Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions are translated into national law; establish an independent monitoring mechanism and put in place sanctions for violations of the Code;
  • Ensure that health programs throughout the country include up-to-date training materials on BFHI;
  • Strengthen the Baby-Friendly Hospitals initiative and establish regular monitoring of accredited facilities;
  • Allow longer breastfeeding breaks and raise awareness among employers to defend their employees’ maternity rights, including by creating dedicated rooms for breastfeeding or milk expression.
  • Ensure that all pregnant women living with HIV receive preventive treatment for mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) and promote greater assistance to mothers living with HIV so that they are well informed about the best methods of nutrition for their children.
  • Review and support ANJE policy in emergency situations, in accordance with the 2017 Operational Guidance for Emergency Response Personnel and Program Managers, to ensure adequate protection of breastfeeding and appropriate management of artificial feeding.

During the session, Committee members questioned the Niger delegation about International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 183 on maternity protection, which has not been ratified by that country.

The delegation did not respond to this question, leading the Committee to make recommendation § 32

(c) (original in English) under the heading “Health and health services,” which recommends that the State of Niger “Promote, protect and support breastfeeding, increase the number of hospitals certified as Child Friendly and fully implement the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.”

In its concluding observations (document in English), the Committee on the Rights of the Child also made recommendations that indirectly address the issues highlighted in the IBFAN alternative report.

These recommendations are as follows:

Allocation of resources

8 (a) Increase substantially and prioritize the allocations in the areas of health, education, nutrition and protection to adequate levels.

Data Collection

9 (a) Expeditiously improve its data collection system. The data should cover all areas of the Convention and should be disaggregated, among others, by age, sex, disability, geographic location, ethnic origin and socioeconomic background in order to facilitate analysis on the situation of all children, particularly those in situations of vulnerability. The collection and use of data should be based on respect for human rights and for the principle of self-identification;

(b) Ensure that the data and indicators are shared among the ministries concerned and used for the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, programmes and projects for the effective implementation of the Convention.

Independent monitoring

10 (a) Continue strengthening the mandate of the National Commission for Human Rights, including its mechanism for monitoring children’s rights and its capacity to receive, investigate and address complaints by children in a child-sensitive manner;

Dissemination, awareness-raising and training

11 Continue strengthening its efforts to raise awareness of the population on the provisions of the Convention, including by reaching persons belonging to minority groups and population in rural and remote areas.

Cooperation with civil society – Coopération avec la société civile

12 Strengthen further its collaboration with civil society organizations, including by providing support for services delivered by civil society organizations related to the promotion and protection of the rights of children through formal agreements.

Children’s rights and the business sector

13 (a) Establish a clear regulatory framework for the industries, especially mining industries, operating in the State party to ensure that their activities do not negatively affect human rights or endanger environmental and other standards, especially those relating to children’s rights;

(b) Ensure effective implementation by companies, especially industrial companies, of international and national environment and health standards, effective monitoring of implementation of these standards and appropriately sanctioning and providing remedies when violations occur, as well as ensure that appropriate international certification is sought;

(c) Require companies to undertake assessments, consultations, and full public disclosure of the environmental, health-related and human rights impacts of their business activities and their plans to address such impacts.

Right to life, survival and development

17 (a) Address the poverty and structural inequalities underlying the high rate of child mortality in the State party;

(b) Improve its health services to decrease infant and child mortality by providing better protection against preventable diseases, such as malaria, respiratory and diarrhoea causing diseases, raising awareness of methods of prevention, and providing appropriate health-care services for mothers and postnatal care for infants and children, taking note of target 3.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals on ending the preventable deaths of children under 5 years of age;

(c) Implement the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) technical guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach to the implementation of policies and programmes to reduce and eliminate preventable mortality and morbidity of children under 5 years of age (A/HRC/27/31).

Health and health services

32 (a) Prioritize measures to improve access to and the quality of health-care and nutrition services, including by allocating sufficient financial resources to the health sector and ensuring the availability of qualified health staff.

HIV/AIDS

35 (a) Sustain the measures in place to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, including through increasing Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission centers both in urban and rural areas, and develop a roadmap to ensure the implementation of its plans by allocating sufficient human, technical and financial resources;

(b) Improve follow-up treatment for HIV/AIDS-infected mothers and their infants to ensure early diagnosis and early initiation of treatment;

(c) Accelerate the adoption of the Elimination of Transition of Mother to Child Plan for 2018-2020;

(d) Improve access to quality, age-appropriate HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health services;

(e) Improve access and coverage of antiretroviral therapy and prophylaxis for HIV- infected pregnant women and girls.

END

The Committee’s recommendations are an important starting point for national advocacy work aimed at improving the situation of infants and young children in Niger. IBFAN GIFA, IBFAN Africa, and the national IBFAN group in Niger, GAPAIN, will work actively to ensure that the final observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child are followed up with concrete action on the ground.

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Britta Boutry-Stadelmann