The Committee notes with concern that there are other definitions of a child in
certain extant laws, namely, the 1991 Criminal Law and the Act governing staff
regulations and rules which do not take the age criteria into account, even though all
other conflicting provisions have been abolished pursuant to the provisions of the
Act.
The Committee therefore recommends to the Government of the Republic of The
Sudan to introduce one or several legislative reform measures to define only one
majority age in line with the provisions of the Charter and the Child Act.
Article 3:
NON-DISCRIMINATION
The Committee commends the Government of the Republic of The Sudan for
the measures it has taken to protect the child from any form of unjust discrimination.
Efforts have also been deployed to combat all forms of discrimination.
However, children of unknown parentage and displaced children are still
subject to social discrimination.
The Committee recommends to the Government of the Republic of The Sudan
to pursue awareness-building actions among the various segments of the society.
Besides, awareness-building measures need to be intensified and all the necessary
action taken to ensure that no displaced child and children living in the streets are
subjected to discrimination.
Article 6:
NAME AND NATIONALITY
The Committee notes with satisfaction that the nationality act has been
amended to make it compliant with the existing constitutional text, and this is a most
welcome step. However, the procedures for acquiring Sudanese nationality in
respect of a child born by a Sudanese mother and a foreign father need to be
facilitated. Measures are being taken to ensure and facilitate registration of births.
The Committee however remains concerned at the fact that many births in
remote areas are not registered.
The Committee recommends to the Government of the Republic of The Sudan
to take appropriate measures to provide the means necessary to cover the entire
national territory in terms of structures for enlisting birth declarations and enhance
the capacities of such structures, thereby considerably increasing the rate of birth
registration.
The Committee suggests that secondary or mobile civil status centres be
established to more easily reach out to the populations and thus facilitate registration
of births and deaths.
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