Rights of Child Convention – Committee on Rights of Child – Initial report of Syria (excerpts)

COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES

UNDER ARTICLE 44 OF THE CONVENTION

Initial reports of States parties due in 1995

Addendum

SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC

[22 September 1995]

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V. THE FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE

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D.  Family reunification (art. 10)

117. The Syrian Constitution expresses eagerness to ensure family unity by stipulating that no citizen can be exiled from the country.  It also emphasizes every citizen's right to freedom of movement within the territory of the State unless such is precluded by a court order or pursuant to public health and safety enactments (art. 33 of the Constitution).

118. Syrian law permits departure from the territory of the Republic and return thereto by holders of passports or legally recognized travel documents.  Article 1 of the Passports Act No. 42 of 31 December 1975 stipulates as follows:  "Persons holding the nationality of the Syrian Arab Republic have the right to leave and return to the territory of the Republic only if they hold passports or travel documents in accordance with the provisions of this Act".  Article 7 of the said Act further stipulates that:  "Passports shall be issued to every Syrian Arab citizen or Palestinian refugee in the Syrian Arab Republic who meets the conditions for the acquisition thereof".  

119. According to article 4 of Ordinance No. 321 promulgated by the Syrian Minister of the Interior on 31 March 1979:  "When they are issued, passports and travel documents may include the holder's spouse, as well as his children under 16 years of age, if they accompany him on his journey".  Article 9 of the same Act further stipulates that minor children may be issued with a single passport or travel document if their guardian wishes them to travel unaccompanied.  

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VIII.  SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES

A.   Children in states of emergency

1.  Refugee children (art. 22)

211. Palestinian refugee children are subject to the same legal system as Syrian children in all matters pertaining to their health, education and entitlement to services.

212. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees and UNICEF are both providing health, educational, social and cultural services for Palestinian children.  Nevertheless, these children are still suffering from a low standard of living due to the large size of their families.

213. Palestinian children are suffering from the lack of an education system at the day nursery and kindergarten stage preceding their enrolment at government schools.  In Syria, there are only 31 Palestinian kindergartens catering for about 4,000 children, i.e. less than 6-7 per cent of the total number of children in the age group 3 months-6 years.  However, many Palestinian children attend Syrian day nurseries and kindergartens.

214. UNRWA provides education at the primary and preparatory levels, in accordance with the curriculum prepared by the Syrian Ministry of Education, for more than 60,000 Palestinian schoolchildren in addition to those studying at the secondary level.

215. The cultural and educational activities available to Palestinian children are limited due to the relative lack of clubs and cultural centres for these children.  However, it should be borne in mind that Palestinian children also benefit from all the Syrian cultural institutions.

2.  Children in armed conflicts (art. 38), including physical

recovery and social reintegration (art. 39)

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218. As a result of the Israeli occupation of the Golan, 275,000 persons (46,000 families) were displaced and forced to relocate to other locations inside Syria.  During that displacement, women and children suffered from the ordeals of poverty, disease and deprivation.  However, the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic is making diligent endeavours to ensure that those displaced persons enjoy a minimum standard of living.  These displaced persons, including children, are looking forward to returning to their homes, farms and villages in the occupied Syrian Golan under the terms of a just and comprehensive peace based on the principles of international law in accordance with which the occupation should be terminated, the land should be restored to its owners and Israel should withdraw to the demarcation lines of 4 June 1967.

219. Children have been affected not only by the occupation but also by the psychological and social aspects of their lives and the conditions in which they are being educated as a result of Israel's policy of changing the educational curricula in the occupied Syrian Golan with a view to obliterating the cultural identity of its population.  Israel's arbitrary practices, illustrated by the closure of schools in order to prevent students from receiving an education, constitute a violation of their basic human rights as recognized in the international conventions that guarantee and regulate the rights of civilians living under occupation.

220. Israel is violating the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 4 of article 38 of the Convention by refusing to implement Security Council resolution 497 (1981), in which the Council decided that the decision taken by the Knesset on 14 December 1981 to annex, and impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on, the Golan was null and void and without international legal effect.

221. Israel is still refusing to apply the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, to the occupied Syrian Golan.  It is also refusing to comply with the relevant resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights, the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly which, year after year, have urged it to respect the provisions of that Convention and cease its violations of human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan.

222. The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic is endeavouring to cater for the welfare of the children who lost their parents as a result of all the various wars and armed conflicts.  It had established schools to provide the sons and daughters of the martyrs with all the services and types of care needed to further their proper social, educational and occupational development, to make them feel that they are living in a family environment and to compensate them for the loss of their martyred parents.  Syria has three schools, in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo, for the sons and daughters of martyrs.  In the academic year 1993/94, 418 boys and 278 girls were benefiting from the services provided at those schools.

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