A/HRC/RES/40/14 Special protection measures for children with disabilities 11. Calls upon States to take all appropriate measures, ensuring that they are age, gender and disability sensitive, to protect children with disabilities, both within and outside the home, including in institutions, from all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse, including emotional, verbal and physical abuse, sexual and gender-based violence, harassment, discriminatory social norms and harmful practices, female genital mutilation, child, early and forced marriage, forced or coercive medical procedures, bullying and cyberbullying, and other crimes, such as trafficking and smuggling; 12. Also calls upon States to take all measures and to exercise due diligence to prevent children with disabilities, on an equal basis with other children, from being subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or violation of their physical and mental integrity, including through forced sterilization, forced abortion and forced contraception; 13. Urges States to ensure the right of children with disabilities to social protection, including by providing access to appropriate and affordable services, assistive devices and inclusive technologies, and the maintenance thereof, and other assistance for disability-related needs, and to social-inclusion and poverty-reduction programmes, including assistance with disability-related expenses, adequate training, counselling, financial assistance and respite care for families and caregivers, in particular for those living in situations of poverty; 14. Also urges States to ensure that children with disabilities enjoy the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, without stigmatization or discrimination of any kind, and to provide them with the same range, quality and standard of free or affordable health-care services, information and education to enjoy that right in practice as provided to other children, including with regard to sexual and reproductive health, and those services needed specifically because of their disabilities, including early identification and intervention, as well as psychological and physical care, habilitation and rehabilitation, and sustainable support and provision of services designed to protect and respect their dignity, integrity, choices and inclusion in the community and to minimize and prevent further impairments; 15. Further urges States to pay particular attention to the situation of children with psychosocial disabilities and to abandon all practices that fail to fully promote, protect and respect their rights, will and preferences, on an equal basis with other children, with a view to preventing practices that lead to power imbalances, stigmatization, violence, abuse and discrimination in mental health and other settings; 16. Urges States to provide early and comprehensive information, services and support to children with disabilities and their families with a view to preventing concealment, abandonment, neglect and segregation and to ensuring they have equal rights with respect to family life, and in this regard encourages States to replace institutionalization with appropriate measures to support family and community-based services and, where the immediate family is unable to care for a child with disabilities, undertake every effort to provide alternative care within the wider family and, failing that, within the community in a family setting, bearing in mind the best interests of the child and taking into account the child’s will and preferences; 17. Recognizes that children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters and human-made hazards, and reaffirms the obligations of States under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, to take all measures necessary to ensure their safety and protection in such situations, including by reviewing emergency response programmes and support facilities to make them accessible for children with disabilities and providing timely and appropriate reintegration and rehabilitation assistance to children with disabilities; 4