National Coalition on the Rights of the Child in Lebanon The Fourth and Fifth Alternative Report on the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Lebanon Introduction

Recommendation 119:General Security must not discriminate in the right to family reunification between categories of workers. Category 3 & 4 workers must be able to sponsor their children and spouses.

Periodic Review of Shelters

115. 
     Children of migrants are much more likely to end up at alternative care institutions than Lebanese children. Not because their parents are more likely to abuse them but because their parents are subjected to many restrictive measures that can limit their ability to care for their children.Children of undocumented migrant are among the most at risk of being placed at an alternative care institution this because their parents are in an irregular situation and therefore could be detained at any time. When General Security arrests undocumented migrants it usually places children at closed shelters until they are deported with the parents. Insan Association has documented cases where General Security has detained entire families including children at the Adlieh Detention Center which is an-overcrowded underground facility.
     

Recommendation 120: Children should not be separated from their parents because of their parents’ immigration status.

Basic Health

116. 
     Undocumented migrants and their children suffer from a plethora of obstacles in accessing basic health services. Their documented counterparts also suffer from serious challenges.
     

Recently Lebanese hospitals began requiring valid residence permits in order to admit patients into the hospital. This poses a significant challenge for children of undocumented workers who do not have the legal papers in order to receive the care they need. Additionally, children of undocumented migrant workers have no insurance and do not benefit from public healthcare. Therefore, they suffer from double discrimination.

As a result of the restrictions placed on admitting undocumented migrant workers, many women choose to give birth using the legal papers of other documented migrant workers. This has worked to deny children of their identity and facilitated the exploitation and trafficking of children.

Children of documented migrant workers also face the challenge of accessing health care. Migrant Domestic Workers suffer from a restrictive insurance scheme that does not include giving birth or including their children in their coverage. This means that parents are faced with having to pay expensive medical bills in order to access health care.

Recommendation 121: The Ministry of Health must cancel the requirement for papers (residency and identification) that they impose as a condition for admitting migrant workers and their children into hospitals. Furthermore, the Ministry of Labor must impose new conditions for the mandatory insurance which will ensure that the worker and their family have access to a decent medical insurance.

Education, Leisure time and Cultural activities.

117. 
     In the school year 2014-2015, and as a result of increasing pressure on the educational sector resulting from the large influx of refugees, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education issued a series of decision tightening the enrollment of non-Lebanese students into public schools. The decisions of the ministry of education have restricted the enrollment of a large number of foreign children to Lebanese public schools. Children of migrant workers and non-Syrian refugees were among the most affected as specialized schools were later devised for Syrian refugees overlooking other categories of non-Lebanese children.
     

118. 
     Among the many conditions that the Ministry of Education has instituted, one specifically stands out. The Ministry of Education has requested that in order to register children parents must present valid residence permits. In practice however public schools were not only asking for parents’ residence permits but are also inspecting children’s residence permits. This decision was reversed in the school year 2015-2016 where all children were allowed to enroll following a grant the ministry of education received.
     

119. 
     Despite Lebanon’s commitment to guaranteeing the rights of all children to education, a number of national legislations have failed to guarantee this right. Law number 686 of 1998 states that “education is free of charge and compulsory and is the right of every Lebanese of school age”. This law makes no mention of non-Lebanese children’s right to education. The same applies to law number 150 of 2011 which states that “education is the right of every Lebanese of school age”.Resolution No. 407/M/2000 which sets the internal regulation of primary schools and kindergartens limited the enrollment of children into these schools to Lebanese children only. (Insan 2015)
     

Recommendation 122:The Ministry of Education must revoke all decisions that restrict the ability of children to enroll into public schools and in particular children of migrant workers.

Recommendation 123: The Lebanese parliament must amend Law number 150 and Law number 686. The amendment should explicitly acknowledge the right of children of migrant workers to education.

Children of Migrant Workers who are separated from their Parents:

120. 
     There exists a category of children who are children of migrant workers but the fate of their parents is unknown, they are either abandoned by their parents or their parents are dead. Those children are born in Lebanon however, because their legal status is dependent on that of their parents they have become undocumented. Despite protection order that Insan was able to obtain from court, General Security has not issued them with residence permit.
     

Recommendation 124:Children who are born and raised in Lebanon should not become undocumented for no fault of their own.General Security must find a legal solution to those children and regularize their status.

3. Street Children:

121. 
     A study titled “Children living and working in the streets in Lebanon: Characteristics and arguments”, a summary of which was published on Tuesday, February 17, 2015 in al-Akhbar newspaper - Issue No. (2520) - Year (9), conducted by the Ministry of Labor, and the International Labor Organization, UNICEF and the Save the Children International that covered 1,510 children living in the street, 73% of whom are Syrian refugees confirms that taking refuge in Lebanon is not the main cause of this phenomenon in any way; however, there are main factors that make children resort to streets, which are: social marginalization or exclusion, fragility of the domestic situations, flow of Syrian refugees, organized crime and child exploitation. These children practice various professions. 43% of the children are engaged in beggary, 37% are selling items in the street, while the rest of them are distributed on 7 activities such as shining shoes, portering, cleaning, fortune telling, etc. Prostitution is included among these activities at only 0.2%; however, 17% of the female children have been sexually assaulted or raped, and 46% of the children have been physically assaulted by passers-by. The main factors that make children resort to streets are: social marginalization or exclusion, fragility of the domestic situations, flow of Syrian refugees, organized crime and child exploitation. With respect to the external factor (the refugees), the phenomenon took root in a deeper manner as a result of other factors relevant to the economic and social conditions that existed before the crisis in Syria, such as the structural transformations in the economy, neo-liberal policies, and lack of balance in economic growth between various economic sectors and regions. In addition, there are social factors that play a big role in this phenomenon, such as family disintegration and abandonment of children. The emergence of the phenomenon of street children in Lebanon is resulting, to a great extent, from family disintegration and abandonment of children and their separation from their parents. In addition, it appeared that there is a relation between these cases and the cruelty of parents, domestic violence, sexual harassment, alcohol abuse, or drug abuse. The last factor is the organized crime and exploitation of children. The in-depth interviews revealed that many of the children who work in the street are controlled and managed by networks of organized crimes that used to exercise human trafficking through the transfer of the street children to Lebanon accompanied by their families in most cases, even before the Syrian crisis. In addition, the results of the quantitative research indicate that such networks exist at the level of street labor, as approximately 5% of the total sample of street children reported that they give all of their daily earnings to the “boss” or sharing them with him. The results also indicate that about 2% of the children are living with the stranger “boss” or employer. The majority of the street children cannot read and write and/or have never attended school. The percentage of the children who cannot read and write at all reached 42%, which is a percentage that is almost equivalent to that of the children who have never attended school (40%). Only about one-third of the children reported that they have good or acceptable reading and writing skills (32%) and about 29% reported that they can write at the same levels. While 40% of the street children have never attended school, 57% of the children have dropped out of school and only 3% are attending school and working in the street at the same time. The children who grew up in Syria have recorded the lowest percentage of street children who have never attended school (32%). In addition, the children engaged in begging recorded the highest rate of non-enrollment (72%). The majority of the street children entered the labor market for the first time at the age of 7-14. The highest rates were recorded among the children from 12-14 age group (39%), followed by the children from 7-11 age group, at a very close rate, (36%). As for the daily working hours, they ranged between 4 and 16 hours and the average working hours amounted to approximately 8.46 hours a day. Children are exposed to many risks during their work in the streets, including lifting heavy loads (39%) and various forms of traffic accidents (30%). About 29% of the street children reported that they have been expelledor detained by security men and police officers. In addition, about 3% of the children reported that sometimes they do not get the full daily wage agreed upon. Moreover, about 6% of the street children reported that they experienced sexual assault or rape in their workplace. Nearly half of the street children stated that they do not have anybody to complain to or seek protection from, while nearly one third of the children resort to a family member (35%) in such cases.
     
122. 
     Law No. (422) classified street children as at risk, and in this case shall take, in favor of such children, measures of protection, controlled freedom or rehabilitation, when necessary.
     

Recommendation 125: Adopting a national strategy to combat the phenomenon of street children and ensuring dedicated budget allocation for it.

Recommendation 126: Combating child labour in streets and imposing tougher sanctions on child laborers especially the family.

Fourth: Exploited children, including physical and psychological rehabilitation and social reintegration

1. 
   Child labour
   

123. 
     A study conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Saint-Joseph University (the Jesuit community) which included interviews with 1007 children in the North and Bekaa working in various sectors including automotive industry, carpentry and hospitality, showed that 29.5
     % of working children in the North and 36.5% in the Bekaa are under 14 years of age, i.e. the minimum legal age for labour. Research point to a strong link between child labour, poverty and education. In the North where the percentage of people living below the poverty line is nine times higher than that of the rest of the country, child labour rates are six times higher than that of the rest of the country. 33% of working children in the North and around 40% in the Bekaa cannot read or write, although the majority of illiterate children have attended school for at least two years.
     

124. 
     In a study entitled ''Children Spreading and Working on the Streets in Lebanon: Properties and Arguments'', a summary of which was published in Al-Akhbar newspaper issue No. 2520 of the 9^th year on Thursday 17 February 2015, launched by the International Labour Organization ILO, the UNICEF and Save the Children International, and covering 1510 street children where 73% of them are Syrian refugees. The study affirms that asylum was not in any way the mean cause of this phenomenon. However, there are basic factors that cause children to live on the streets: marginalization or social exclusion, families in vulnerable conditions, influx of Syrian refugees, organized crime and child exploitation''. These children engage in various types of ''occupations''; 43% of children are engaged in begging, 37% in street vending, while the rest are distributed over 7 activities such as shoe shining, portering, cleaning, fortune-telling… Prostitution was also among these activities but at only 0.02 %. However, 17% of female children were sexually abused or raped, and 46% of children were sexually abused by passers-by. The main factors that cause children to live on the streets are marginalization or social exclusion, fragile family conditions, influx of Syrian refugees, organized crime and child exploitation. For the external factor (the refugees), it's a deeply-rooted phenomenon caused by other factors relating to the economic and social situation in Syria before the crises, including structural changes in the economy, neoliberal policies and imbalanced economic growth between different economic regions and sectors. Furthermore, social factors such as family disorganization, children abandonment and separation of children from their families have a powerful impact. A linkage was shown between such cases and parental brutality, domestic violence, sexual harassment, alcohol addiction or even drug addiction. The last factor consists, however, in the organized crime and child exploitation; in-depth interviews have shown that many of the children working on the streets are controlled and managed by organized crime networks which are used, even before the Syrian crisis, to practicing human trafficking by transporting street children to Lebanon, in most cases, accompanied by their families. The results of the quantitative research point to the existence of such networks at the level of street work. 5% of the total sample of street children report giving all their daily earnings to ''the boss'' or sharing it with him. The results have also indicated that around 2% of children live with their stranger ''boss'' or employer. The majority of street children are either illiterate and/ or have never attended school. The percentage of children who are completely illiterate has reached 42%, which is almost equivalent to the percentage of children who have never attended school (40%). Only one third of children believe they've acquired a good or fair level of reading and writing skills (32%), also 29% believe they have the same levels of writing skills. While 40% of street children have never attended school, 75% dropped out of school, and only 3% are attending school and working on the streets at the same time. The lowest percentage of street children who have never attended school are those who were raised in Syria (32%). while children engaged in begging had the highest percentage of non-enrolment (72%). The majority of street children enter the market between 7 and 14 years of age. The highest percentage of street children started working between 12 and 14 years of age (39%), closely followed by children at the age of 7 and 11 years old (36%). The daily working hours vary between 4 and 16 hours, with an average of 8.46 hours approximately. Children are also subject to many risks during their work on the streets including the carrying of heavy loads (39%) and various forms of traffic accidents (30%). Around 29% of children say they have been chased or arrested by policemen, while 3% say that sometimes they are not paid the whole agreed upon daily wage. Furthermore, 6% of street children have stated being victims of sexual abuse or rape in their workplace. Around half of street children have admit they have no one to complain to or ask for protection, while around one-third seek help from family members (35%) in such cases.
     

Recommendation 127: Consider the phenomenon of child labour as a social problem linked to poverty, dropout rates, lack of education and weakness of the legislative measures that allow the adoption of a comprehensive strategy to combat and avoid child labour.

Recommendation 128: Instituting the functions of regulatory agencies in the Ministry of Labour in order to reduce the prevalence of the phenomenon of child labour.

Recommendation 129: Urging the international community to assume the responsibility towards refugee children in Lebanon.

1. 
   Illegal exploitation of children in the production of drugs and psychotropic substances.
   

125. 
     Drug abuse is considered as the most aggravating problem on both global and local levels, because of the increasing number of drug abusers, the decrease in the average age for first drug use, as well as the progression towards new form of drugs including digital drugs and, consequently, towards a serious addiction problem which requires urgent intervention and attention. However, many measures have to be taken by the competent authorities, the most important of which include legal measures and amendment of existing laws which, to this very day, still consider the drug addict as a criminal and deals with him from this perspective while he should be considered as a patient and victim of superior forces which made him vulnerable to fall into the clutches of this scourge.
     
126. 
     The National council on Drugs was established on 26/11/2011 under the presidency of the Head of government and the competent ministries. By virtue of article No. 199 of the law of Drugs, Psychotropic substances and Precursors, the Commission on drugs was established having all the authorities stipulated by the law to take appropriate measures to ensure care, involuntary and mandatory treatment including the referral of drug abusers to specialized rehabilitation centers and issuing a registered certificate testifying that they were completely cured.
     
127. 
     The Ministry of Social Affairs shall contract with specialized nongovernmental organizations (around 7 organizations) concerned with the rehabilitation and provision of integrated services including social, psychological, medical and legal follow-up. The capacity of such organizations is however very limited due to its limited human and financial capacities, in addition to the fact that it welcomes all categories of drug addicts; i.e. adults and minors of both sexes. There is no organization exclusively dedicated for minors follow up, which makes them vulnerable, during their presence with adults, to adopt and acquire dangerous behaviors. The number of drug addicts received by El-Nour Organization which has signed a contract with the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Social Affairs as a reception center for the year 2014, show that the demand is 3 or 4 times higher than the capacity and that 57% of help seekers have started drug abuse between 14 and 19 years of age.
     

Recommendation 130: Amending the drug law by considering the drug addict as a patient and not a criminal regardless of his repeated relapses.
Recommendation 131: Developing a national anti-drug plan and ensuring adequate budget allocation to it, including working on raising children awareness at schools as well as developing a treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration plan.
Recommendation 132: Follow up and monitor the institutions and organizations with which contracts were concluded to provide services for drug addicts and abusers in terms of service quality and outpatient follow-up.

C- Sale, trafficking and kidnapping

128. 
     on 24/08/2008, law No. 680 was issued authorizing the Lebanese government to join the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and law No. 681 authorizing the Lebanese government to join the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, in addition to law No. 682 for joining the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons especially women and children.
     

129. 
     On 26 August 2011, the Lebanese parliament approved law No. 164 on combating the crime of trafficking in persons, thus enhancing legal protection for the victims of such trafficking. It enacted the measure after the USA government had downgraded Lebanon to tier 3, the worst possible level, in its 2011 report on trafficking in persons. On 10/10/2012, the executive decree of law No. 9082 was enacted whereby were established the requirements for the ministry of justice to contract with specialized organizations that assist women and children victims of trafficking. After which a memorandum of understanding was signed with Caritas Internationalis to ensure sheltering, care and provision of medical and psychological services for the victims. So far, the reform does not include the following areas: ensuring that that victims of trafficking are not treated as criminals: as the law requests from the victim to offer evidences of its innocence, ensuring the victim's right to participate in criminal proceedings, which may require issuing a resident permit, the victim's right to compensation shall be established on an unconditional basis, given that such compensation depend on the confiscated assets of the human trafficker, the need for more rigorous tools to protect the victim's identity, provision of helpful treatment for victims under the age of 18, incorporation of protective measures to be taken by the government.
     

Recommendation 133: Enacting private laws and decrees to ensure appropriate protection and support for the victims especially children.

Recommendation 134: Paying due attention to female children, especially in terms of early marriage given that it constitutes the most remarkable violation of female children's rights.

Recommendation 135: Reviewing laws, regulations and policies to ensure it does not interfere with the new law on the trafficking in persons. For example, prostitution law and ''artist visa''.

Recommendation 136: Training advocates and officials on the implementation of law No. 164 on combating the crime of trafficking in persons.

Fifth: Children in conflict with the law

130. 
     Law 422/2002 on the protection of juveniles in conflict with the law or at risk, a private law focusing on the trial of juveniles, especially those who are in conflict with the law. So far, many of its essential articles regarding the protection of juveniles haven't been implemented yet especially in terms of juvenile detention centers distributed all over the governorates. It's also important to note that the only article which touches on vulnerable juveniles and the necessity of taking preventive and precautionary measures to protect them is (article 25). The basic principles to which calls the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile (the Beijing rules) adopted by the general assembly resolution 22/40 dated 29 November 1985 include: guaranteeing a fair and just trial for juveniles in order to protect their safety, adopting the principle of proportionality, detaining juveniles in separate institution from adults and considering the child's best interests during all proceedings. Furthermore, law 422/2002 regarding the trial of juveniles in conflict with the law stipulates in article 33 that a juvenile may be prosecuted in ordinary courts, i.e. adult criminal courts, if the juvenile commits a crime in partnership with adults, provided such courts shall apply all the protections that a juvenile would have before a juvenile court. However, it's important to mention that, from a legislative point of view, the application decrees of law 422/2002 haven't been completed yet, given that the reform school is now a juvenile detention center in Roumieh. Furthermore, the reform school hasn't seen the light of day yet. After the completion of a case study entitled ''Mixing Juveniles and Adults before Courts'' in 2013, more than 40 files were reviewed in the North and Lebanon Mountain governorates showing many gaps in terms of the application of the legal texts that protect juveniles during the trial.