b) Ensure that girls equally enjoy the right to education by sensitizing communities
about the benefits of sending girls to school, strengthening school feeding and
“dry ration” programmes, working towards eliminating cultural practises that
hinder the education of girls and undertaking other innovative interventions to
encourage and foster girls education;
c) Take necessary measures to ensure the accessibility of educational facilities to
children with disabilities;
d) Take measures to towards implementation of inclusive education provided for in
the Persons with Disability Act;
e) Ensure that teachers and other school personnel are adequately trained to
provide educational services to children with disabilities; and
f) Finance the interventions of the Education Sector Implementation Plan to
Increase the primary school completion rate and decrease the primary school
pupil: teacher ratio.
H. Special Protection Measures
Refugee children
27. The Committee notes with appreciation the adoption of the Refugees Protection Act,
2007. The Committee recommends that State Party to fully implement the Act and to
provide basic services such as education and healthcare to refugee children. The
Committee also recommends that the births of refugee children who are born in
refugee camps be duly registered.
Children in armed conflicts
28. The Committee recalls that the civil war of Sierra Leone (1991-2002) left a
devastating psychosocial impact on children. The Committee appreciates the
legislative and other measures taken by the State Party to protect children from the
impacts of armed conflict, including the endorsement of the Paris Commitments to
protect children from unlawful recruitment or use by armed forces or armed groups,
and the Paris Principles and guidelines on children associated with armed forces or
armed groups. The Committee further encourages the State Party to take the
following measures.
a) Amend the Child Rights Act in line with the international instruments to
provide clarity on criminal procedure that should be followed as a result of
unlawful recruitment or use of children and ensure that children who have
been associated with armed groups are free from criminal responsibilities;
b) Establish an organ to monitor the status of interventions to protect children
from recruitment; and
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