UNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for Women UNIOGBIS United Nations Integrated Peace - Building Office in Guinea-Bissau I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Guinean State, ratified the Charter on 28th February 2008 by Resolution No. 23/2007 published in the 3rd supplement to the Official Gazette of 28th February 2008 and deposited the instruments of ratification with the Secretary-General of the AU. Thereby committing itself to submit to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the Committee), through the existing mechanisms, periodic reports on the adopted measures, in order to give effect to the rights recognized in the Charter and the progress achieved by means of its implementation. 2. The purpose of this report, is to examine the applicability of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in Guinea-Bissau, under Article 43 of this Convention, according to which "States Parties to this Charter, undertake to submit to the Committee, through the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity, reports on the measures they have adopted with a view to realizing the rights recognized by this Charter on the progress made in the enjoyment of these rights within two years of entry into force of this Charter and every three years thereafter. Each State party, should therefore produce reports every three years on the applicability of this instrument to protect children in their territory. Due to several constraints, the country was unable to produce its first report within the period established in the said instrument. 3. In this context, this document, which is the first report of Guinea-Bissau, also serves as a facilitating tool for understanding the obstacles and challenges faced by the Government of Guinea-Bissau, in the implementation of the child protection policies and mechanisms, as set out in the Charter. 4. This report, covers the period from 2008 to 2018, recognizing that it is a complex exercise and an instrument for monitoring and evaluating government action on the implementation of the Charter. The efforts made in this direction, have opened up the possibility to use different information sources, namely DENARP - I and II. (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper), MICS 2010 and 2014, which includes relevant data on the visibility and existing gaps on the child’s rights in education, health, birth registration, mortality, nutrition and violence, which have been incorporated in the Operational and Strategic Plan -Terra Ranka 2015-2025, including information collected from the children themselves at different age groups in the three (3) provinces of the country (North, South and East), with a view to ascertain their rights. 5. This Operational and Strategic Plan, is a process coordinated by INE's technical team with the financial support of UNICEF, Plan-International, some UN agencies and other development partners. Thus enabling the collection and systematization of required information and consequently the preparation of the report, which also had the wide participation of different actors at all levels. 6