Laws relating to children, methods for dealing with abuse and child care allowances are all among the matters under Government review as Bermuda develops its first National Action Plan for Children.

The plan is intended to "ensure and promote the rights of all children,'' Health and Family Services Minister Nelson Bascome said in Parliament last week. It will also serve as Bermuda's method of implementing all aspects of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Bermuda signed on to the Convention in 1994.

Recommendations for developing and implementing the plan and will be made by the National Committee on the Rights of the Child, established in 1999 and chaired by MP Delaey Robinson.

Mr. Bascome tabled a report in the House last Friday which Government prepared in response to questions from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) related to Bermuda's compliance with the UN Convention.

The FCO had questions in several categories on the state of Bermuda's children, these included: Civil rights and freedoms; family environment and alternative care; basic health and welfare; and, special protection measures.

Under civil rights for example, the report clarifies that while judicial corporal punishment has been abolished, "corporal punishment can still be legally administered in schools.

In addressing family support and alternative care, it points out that policies of social assistance are currently under review including the child care allowance which at present does not exceed $50 per week, per child. Social assistance has not been reviewed since 1992.

Bermuda's attempts to address child abuse are dealt with in some detail. The report notes that the 1996 Task Force on Child Abuse "reported a serious child abuse problem existed in Bermuda'' and issued 52 recommendations. Many of these will be reflected in the National Plan, the report says, and the survey which formed the backbone of the 1996 findings is to be repeated this year.

And, with the enactment of the Children's Act last year, mandatory reporting of child abuse is now required.

The report contains good news with regard to the overall health of Bermuda's children. Infant mortality rates dropped from 3.6 per 1000 to 1 per 1000 between 1996 and 1998 and the country was set to achieve 90 percent immunisation coverage by the end of last year.

Use of drugs and alcohol by Bermuda students is also lower than that in Canada and the US, according to the National Drug Commission's 1997 survey.

But under special protection measures, the report notes 51 adolescents were being cared for under Residential Treatment Services in 1999.

The problems of the adolescents under care were many: 74 percent had behavioural problems, 69 percent had drug problems; 27 percent exhibited violent behaviour; 41 percent were victims of child neglect; 41 percent had a history of violence at home; and, 8 percent were sexual offenders.

With the planned Youth Village, the report says Bermuda "will offer a more comprehensive procedural service that will be consistently followed from admission to release of each adolescent.'' In preparation for the report, the committee conducted a survey of 25 Government departments using a UN check list to determine their compliance with the Convention. That data will be collected into a working document this year.