CAT/C/BOL/CO/2
The Committee urges the State party to take steps to prevent the sexual abuse of
children in its schools, to mount an appropriate response to cases of such abuse and,
in particular, to:
(a)
Urge all the relevant authorities to investigate such abuses and to bring
the suspected perpetrators to trial;
(b)
Set up effective complaints mechanisms and mechanisms for the
provision of comprehensive assistance to victims and their families that will afford
them protection, access to justice and redress of the harm suffered;
(c)
Ensure that victims have access to specialized health-care services in the
areas of family planning and the prevention and diagnosis of sexually transmitted
diseases;
(d)
Develop ongoing awareness-raising and training programmes that focus
on this problem for teachers and other civil servants involved in victim protection;
(e)
Compile a broader range of data on this issue.
The State party should ensure that the persons suspected of having murdered the
child Patricia Flores are brought to trial and, if found guilty, punished appropriately.
It should also make certain that her family members receive full and effective redress.
Refugees, non-refoulement
17.
The Committee is aware of the efforts made by the State party to establish an
appropriate legal and institutional framework for protecting refugees and asylum seekers
present in the country. However, it notes that, prior to the entry into force of Act No. 251 in
2012, in some cases the State party engaged in practices that were at odds with the principle
of non-refoulement. The Committee also observes that the transitional provision of
Supreme Decree No. 1440 establishes that applications from stateless persons are, on a
provisional basis, to be processed by the National Commission for Refugees (CONARE)
(arts. 2 and 3).
The Committee reiterates its earlier recommendation (para. 97 (i)) to the effect that
the State party should adopt adequate measures to ensure that no person can be
expelled, returned or extradited to another State where there are substantial grounds
for believing that that person would face a personal and foreseeable risk of being
subjected to torture. In particular, the State party should give clear instructions to its
immigration officials and other law enforcement officers, expand the curriculum of its
mandatory training courses on asylum and the protection of refugees, and ensure that
CONARE takes prompt action, in accordance with its terms of reference, to ensure
that the principle of non-refoulement is upheld.
The State party should also:
(a)
Establish regulations to govern the procedures used to determine
whether or not a person is stateless and the procedures relating to the determination
of migrant status, documentation and the protection of such persons in order to
ensure that the State party is fulfilling the international commitments assumed under
the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954). The State party
should also grant its nationality, in accordance with its national laws and subject to
the criteria set forth in the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961), to
persons who were not born on Bolivian territory but who would otherwise be stateless.
The State may request technical advisory services, as needed, from the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in this connection;
GE.13-44526
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