pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity’*’. 66.With regard to the accountability of State actors actors, the Committee refers to the explanation Convention against Torture. The Committee on states that ‘where state authorities or others acting of law, know or have reasonable grounds to for acts committed by non-state given by the Committee on the the Convention against Torture in official capacity or under colour believe that acts of torture or ill- treatment are being committed by non-State officials or private actors and they fail to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish such non-State officials or private actors consistently with the Convention, the State bears responsibility and its officials should be considered as authors, complicit or otherwise responsible under the Convention for consenting to or acquiescing in such impermissible act’.** 67.Legislative, administrative, social and educational measures are the means through which States can fulfill their obligation to protect children from any form of violence.” Although there are legislative and social initiatives in Senegal to protect the rights of children in general, the government failed to take specific administrative and judicial measures against the marabouts. The Respondent State did not deny the fact that since 2010 only 10 cases have been brought against marabouts who exploits children resulting in only nine convictions. Apart from the social term orientation for children in the street and destitute families and 24 Department Committees for the Protection of the Child (CDPE),“* the Committee notes that there are no educational and sufficient social measures that aim at changing the situation of the talibés. 68.As the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has stated that the prohibition against physical and mental violence also applies to corporal punishment in schools.*” The physical abuse likewise places the marabout in conflict with Senegal’s penal code, which provides particular care to children.** The severe physical abuse that many marabouts inflict on the talibés, as well as the looming threat of violence, therefore violates the children’s right to freedom from physical and mental violence and abuse and torture. The Government of Senegal therefore is in 48 Article 1 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment “4 General Comment No2 on Article 2 of the Convention on 45 General Comment No.8 (2006), The right of the child to protection from corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment (arts. 19; 28, para. 2; and 37, inter alia), para 30 4© Response from Senegal, pp. 12-13 ‘7 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8, The Right of the Child to Protection from Corporal Punishment and Other Cruel or Degrading Forms of Punishment (arts. 19; 28, para. 2; and 37, inter alia), UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/8 (2006). *° Penal Code of Senegal, art. 298. 18

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