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National law and policies on minimum ages – Comoros

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

Source: Initial report: CRC/C/28/Add.13, 7 October 1998

 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
125. The obligation to provide an education is […] enshrined in the preamble to the Constitution, which proclaims “the right of each child to an education and to instruction by the State, by parents, and teachers chosen by the latter”. In addition, under the outline act on the education system promulgated on 20 January 1995, school attendance is mandatory for all children between 6 and 14 years of age.
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
144. […] labour law prohibits minors under 15 from taking paid employment. In addition, it is unlawful to engage child workers in hazardous activities such as handling explosives and work on dangerous building sites. Inspectors with the power to make unannounced visits are obliged to inform a judge of any violation. In fact, owing to inadequate means, the pressure of economic necessity, academic failure and the inability of the school system to absorb children of school age, many children under 15 are forced to work.
 
Minimum age for marriage
52. […] Under Muslim law, physical maturity confers civil and criminal responsibility on a male child. The age of legal majority is therefore considered to be 14–15 years. Under local Muslim law, girls as well as boys may marry at that age. In some cases marriages may be arranged even earlier, especially for girls. They only acquire civil and criminal responsibility through marriage.
54. […] Article 12 of the preliminary Family Code bill states that “a man under the age of 22 and a woman under the age of 18 may not enter into marriage”, but “it is open to the cadi or the stipendiary magistrate officiating at the wedding to grant dispensations in respect of age for well-founded or legitimate reasons” (art. 13).
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
52. From the legal point of view, two approaches are possible. Under the French-based Civil and Criminal Codes, a child under the age of 13 is totally free from criminal responsibility. Under Muslim law, physical maturity confers civil and criminal responsibility on a male child. The age of legal majority is therefore considered to be 14–15 years. […]
79. In criminal cases, children are subject to special arrangements. This is because children under 13 years of age are not criminally liable for their actions. […]
 
Source: Initial report: CRC/C/28/Add.13, 7 October 1998