A/67/256 during the trial because those intermediaries were believed to have contaminated the evidence provided. In some cases, the former child soldiers simply could not remember the circumstances of their recruitment and use by the Forces patriotiques pour la libération du Congo. These experiences will, it is hoped, inform the development of best practices by the Court for use in future cases. B. Progress made in ending child soldiering 14. In line with the mandate of the Special Representative to promote the collection of information about the plight of children affected by armed conflict, in addition to General Assembly resolutions 64/146, 65/197 and 66/141, in which the Assembly called upon relevant parties to conflict to take time-bound and effective measures to end grave violations against children, considerable progress has been made since the previous report of the Special Representative in eliciting commitments from armed forces and groups to end the recruitment and use of children. During the reporting period, five parties signed action plans with the United Nations to halt child soldiering: the Armée populaire pour la restauration de la république et la démocratie and the Convention des patriotes pour la justice et la paix, armed groups operating in the Central African Republic, in October and November 2011, respectively; the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, in South Sudan, in March 2012; the Government of Myanmar, in June 2012; and the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, in July 2012. This brings the total number of action plans signed to 19, the fruit of a collaborative effort between the Office of the Special Representative, country-level task forces, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and, where relevant, peacekeeping or special political missions. 15. Action plans set out a comprehensive process by which the party to conflict will cease the recruitment and use of children in a durable manner. As such, they broadly involve four main components: verification and identification of children in the ranks of the armed forces or group; separation of children from the armed forces or group; the establishment of prevention mechanisms, including the strengthening of the domestic legal framework prohibiting child recruitment, the issuance of directives to uniformed personnel and the establishment of punitive measures for offenders; and the socioeconomic and psychosocial reintegration of children into civilian life. They also serve as key documents to monitor commitments by armed forces and groups to end grave violations against children. 16. The Special Representative dispatched technical missions to Nepal and Sri Lanka in December 2011 and January 2012, respectively, to review and report on compliance by the parties with their action plans. Upon verification of full compliance, two parties did not feature in the 2011 edition of the lists maintained by the Secretary-General of perpetrators of grave violations against children (A/66/782-S/2012/261, annexes I and II): the Unified Communist Party of NepalMaoist, which signed an action plan in 2009, and the Iniya Bharathi faction in Sri Lanka, which signed an action plan in 2008 while part of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal. 17. The Office of the Special Representative, in collaboration with key United Nations partners, has continued to encourage parties who have not yet entered into dialogue with the United Nations, or signed an action plan, to do so. It has also 12-45308 5