The 61st session
of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) took place from 17
September to 5 October 2012 in Geneva. The Committee reviewed the progress of
the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 7 countries:
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Bosnia &
Herzegovina, Canada, Liberia and Namibia.
IBFAN presented alternative reports
on the situation of infant and young child feeding for 6 of the countries under
review. In 4 cases these reports were written in collaboration with IBFAN
groups in the countries and IBFAN Regional Offices (Austria, Bosnia &
Herzegovina, Canada, Liberia and Namibia). The report on the situation of
infant and young child feeding in Albania was written by the Geneva Infant
Feeding Association (IBFAN-GIFA).
In its
concluding observations, the CRC Committee referred specifically to breastfeeding in 6 out of the 7
countries. With the
exception of Andorra, all the other countries received concluding observations
on infant and child nutrition and breastfeeding in particular. The 6 countries concerned were reminded by
the Committee of the importance of promoting exclusive breastfeeding for the
baby’s first 6 months of age.
The Committee
recommended the strengthening of
awareness-raising campaigns on the importance of breastfeeding, among the public generally and new
mothers in particular (Albania, Austria and Namibia). Namibia was also
recommended to train health
professionals and to develop educational
programmes for parents.
A particular
emphasis was put on the importance of the enforcement
of the International Code of
Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and especially on its thorough
monitoring and the sanctioning of violations (Austria, Bosnia &
Herzegovina, Canada, Liberia and Namibia). The Committee
considered important for Austria and Bosnia & Herzegovina to strengthen the
Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative
and recommended the governments to allocate more funds to it and increase the
number of certified hospitals.
The fight
against malnutrition has been
stressed as a priority for some countries and nutrition education and nutrition
programs have been proposed as useful strategies (Albania, Liberia and
Namibia).
On health more generally, the CRC Committee has focused on the need to
ensure equal access to health care services (Albania, Namibia) and to
improve the quality of the maternal health care system, with a focus on primary
health care, by allocating more resources, ameliorating the infrastructure and
its availability and accessibility (Albania, Liberia, Namibia).
Other issues of concern refer to establishing a countrywide system for
monitoring children’s health status (Austria), strengthening vaccination and iron supplementation programmes
(Bosnia & Herzegovina), addressing the incidence of obesity in children by inter alia ensuring greater regulatory
controls over the production and advertisement of fast food and unhealthy foods
(Canada), ensuring effective implementation by companies of international and
national environmental and health standards, and monitoring, sanctioning and
providing remedies when violations occur (Namibia).
Summary of concluding observations on IYCF: CRC Session 61 - 2012
Country
|
IBFAN report
|
Summary of specific
recommendations on IYCF
|
1
|
Albania
|
Yes
|
Direct (Para 60-61): strengthen its efforts to address child malnutrition, focusing
primarily on the most disadvantaged categories of children and on nutrition
education and access to quality food; Strengthen its efforts to promote exclusive breastfeeding until 6
months of age by raising the awareness of health personnel and the public of
the importance of exclusive breastfeeding;
Indirect (Para 61): prioritize the allocation
of financial and human resources to the health sector with a special emphasis
on primary health care in order to ensure equal access to quality health
services by all children, including children living in remote areas and Roma
children; strengthen the link between maternal and child health
services, including pediatric institutions and the collaboration of these
services and the early childhood care institutions;
|
2
|
Andorra
|
No
|
No
|
3
|
Austria
|
Yes
|
Direct (Para 48-49): strengthen awareness-raising efforts on the importance of breastfeeding
and promote exclusive breastfeeding of children up to the age of 6 months;
strengthen the monitoring of existing marketing regulations relating to
breast-milk substitutes and ensure that such regulations are monitored on a
regular basis and action is taken against those who violate these
regulations; increase the number of maternity hospitals that meet the
required standards and are certified as baby-friendly under the Baby-Friendly
Hospital Initiative (BFHI).
Indirect (Para 47): establish a countrywide
system for monitoring children’s health status.
|
4
|
Bosnia & Herzegovina
|
Yes
|
Direct (Para 54-55): reinstate its
Breastfeeding Promotion Programme; provide funding for the Baby-Friendly
Hospital Initiative; enforce the International Code of Marketing of
Breastmilk Substitutes at a national level with effective monitoring
mechanisms and commensurate sanctions for violations
Indirect (Para 55): strengthen vaccination and iron
supplementation programme
|
5
|
Canada
|
Yes
|
Direct (Para 62): establish a programme to promote and enable
all mothers to successfully exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months of
the infant’s life and sustain breastfeeding for 2 years or more as
recommended by the Global strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding; enforce
the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, and undertake
appropriate action to investigate and sanction violations.
Indirect (Para 64): address the incidence of obesity
in children, by inter alia ensuring greater regulatory controls over the
production and advertisement of fast food and unhealthy foods, especially
those targeted at children.
|
6
|
Liberia
|
Yes
|
Direct (Para 64-65): strengthen the promotion
of breastfeeding and enforce the International Code of Marketing of
Breast-milk Substitutes, as a means of combating the high prevalence of
infant malnutrition; prioritise work on the causes of maternal and child
mortality and morbidity, including underlying factors such as acute and
chronic under-nutrition and nutritional deficiencies; develop nutrition
programmes as a matter of urgency to reduce stunting and other forms of
malnutrition; implement the Essential Nutrition Package in all health facilities;
Indirect (Para 28, 62, 63):
improve access to basic health care services for all children and pregnant
women; devise and implement a strong primary health care system; strengthen
health education and promote positive attitudes and healthy behaviours that
may contribute to reduce the prevalence of maternal and child mortality; develop
an accessible ante-natal care system provided by trained caregivers at home
or in clinics, including care at delivery and for new-born babies; encourage
pregnant women to seek antenatal care and deliver babies at hospitals;
strengthen cooperation with civil society.
|
7
|
Namibia
|
Yes
|
Direct (Para 61-62): strengthen
the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding up to the age of 6 months, by
extending maternity leave without negatively affecting other labour rights; create
a national monitoring system to monitor compliance with the IC; train health
professionals, including professionals working in maternity units and
communities on optimal breastfeeding practices and the importance of avoiding
breastmilk substitutes, and ensure that they provide appropriate support to
new mothers; initiate country-wide programmes to facilitate the early
initiation of breastfeeding in all maternity centers; strengthen awareness-raising
campaigns, particularly among new mothers.
Strengthen efforts to address the high rates of malnutrition of
children, and develop educational programmes, including campaigns to inform
parents about basic child health and nutrition.
Indirect (Para 27, 54): ensure effective
implementation by companies of international and national environmental and
health standards, and that the implementation is monitored, and appropriately
sanctioned and remedies provided when violations occur, and that appropriate international
certification is sought; undertake measures to ensure that all children enjoy
the same access to and quality of health services; improve access to maternal
care services by improving health infrastructure and increasing the
availability and accessibility to Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care and
skilled birth attendants.
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