A/HRC/RES/57/35 comply with the principles of human rights and democracy, in line with the State’s commitments under the relevant international and regional instruments; 16. Deplores the fact that grave violations against children, including murder, rape and maiming, 2 have increased by 6 per cent compared to the previous period, with the prefectures of Haut-Mbomou, Lim-Pendé and Ouham-Fafa most affected, and that the reported grave violations against children were committed mostly by armed groups; 17. Notes with satisfaction the organization on 4 and 5 June 2024 by the Government, with the support of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic and the United Nations Children’s Fund, of a workshop to validate the protocol for the transfer and protection of children associated with armed groups, which should make it possible for these children to be handed over directly to the child protection services of the country and its partners; 18. Encourages the Government of the Central African Republic to promptly adopt a national child protection plan and to consider ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure; 19. Welcomes the decree of the President of the Republic of 6 May 2024 establishing a steering committee headed by the Ministry of Justice to oversee the implementation of the national human rights policy adopted in 2023; 20. Encourages the Government of the Central African Republic to implement, with the support of technical and financial partners, a national strategy for technical and agricultural training and vocational training as a social lever for the transitional process, for the benefit of youth, including under the national development plan for the period 2024–2028; 21. Urges all parties to protect and to regard as victims those children who have been released or otherwise separated from the armed forces and armed groups, and emphasizes the need to protect, release and reintegrate in a sustainable manner all children associated with the armed forces and armed groups and to implement rehabilitation and reintegration programmes that take into account the specific needs of girls, in particular those who have been victims of violence; 22. Remains deeply concerned by the continuing conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence throughout the country, which is particularly prevalent in the prefectures of Mbomou and Ouham-Pendé, and which is reported to have been perpetrated mainly by the Coalition des patriotes pour le changement, including the group Retour, réclamation et réhabilitation and the Unité pour la paix en Centrafrique, but also by the national defence forces, which are alleged to have committed conflict-related sexual violence; 23. Encourages the national authorities, the Special Criminal Court, the courts of appeal and their criminal sessions, the military courts and the joint rapid response unit to prevent sexual violence against women and children to systematically monitor cases of sexual violence, to ensure that prosecutions are conducted and that criminal penalties are applied, and to protect and support victims, recalls in this respect the mandate of the joint unit, and calls on the authorities of the Central African Republic to provide it with the appropriate resources and means necessary for its independence and operation, and to ensure, through the relevant services, the provision of psychotherapeutic and socioeconomic support to victims; 24. Welcomes the renewal, by Act No. 23.001 of 9 January 2023, of the mandate of the Special Criminal Court for a further period of five years and its first ruling, on 31 October 2022, in Special Prosecutor’s Office v. Adoum Issa Sallet alias Bozizé, Ousame Yaouba and Tahir Mahamat, in which the three members of the armed group Retour, réclamation et réhabilitation were sentenced to imprisonment for terms of from 20 years to life for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Koundjili and Lemouna, in the prefecture of Lim-Pend��, in May 2019, and the decision by the Court of Assizes of 19 June 2023 on civil liability, by which 26 victims were awarded damages in amounts ranging from 2 6 S/2024/473, annex I, figure VIII. GE.24-18755