UN Child Rights Committee Publishes Findings On Brazil, Indonesia, Iraq, Norway, Qatar And Romania

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.

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.

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