Guinea-Bissau is a signatory to several international treaties and conventions, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CDC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which bind the State to adopt mechanisms and procedures internal legislation and actions with the basic principles of protection enshrined therein.

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The national legal framework is neither up-to-date nor harmonious with regard to the issue of child protection, with a clear gaps when compared to international conventions. For this reason, it is urgent to adopt a coherent national regulation that effectively provides a systematic, coherent and updated response to the needs of preventing the violation of children's rights, as well as the promotion and protection of children, with a view to their integral development.

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The process of creating the Code for Integral Child Protection (CPIC) started more than 10 years ago, having had a stronger momentum in the last two years. This process is of fundamental importance for the country, and invoved a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary technical work, open to gathering different opinions and contributions, national and international.

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At each stage of the process, the final product of each previous work session was reviewed, in order to ensure the sharing of information and the appropriation of content by the various stakeholders in the process, as well as the technical quality of the result.

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It is now time to submit the text to public consultation in order to disseminate the draft and gather contributions from GuineaBissau civil society and/or experts in the field.