2007 (Executive Committee—58th Session) survivors of violence, in particular sexual and gender-based violence and other forms of abuse and exploitation; children who get married under the age specified in national laws and/or children in forced marriages; children who are or have been associated with armed forces or groups; children in detention; children who suffer from social discrimination; children with mental or physical disabilities; children living with or affected by HIV and AIDS and children suffering from other serious diseases; and children out of school; (d) Recognizes the challenges involved in identifying children at heightened risk as they are frequently less visible than adults and may not have the opportunity or feel able to report protection incidents, particularly if these occur in the private domain and/or are associated with social stigmas or taboos; acknowledges the need to provide children access to adults with expertise in age-appropriate and gender-sensitive interviewing and communication skills to ensure that children's views are taken into account and their needs and protection risks are adequately identified and responded to; (e) Recognizes that individual, careful and prompt registration of children can be useful for States, UNHCR and other relevant agencies and partners in identifying children at heightened risk; (f) Recognizes that the systematic collection and analysis of age- and sex-disaggregated data, and of data on children with specific needs, such as unaccompanied and separated children, can be useful for States, UNHCR and other relevant agencies and partners in identifying children at heightened risk; Prevention, response and solutions (g) Recommends that States, UNHCR and other relevant agencies and partners work in close collaboration to prevent children from being put at heightened risk, and respond, as necessary, through the general prevention, response and solution measures listed non-exhaustively below: i. Within the framework of the respective child protection systems of States, utilize appropriate procedures for the determination of the child's best interests which facilitate adequate child participation without discrimination: where the views of the child are given due weight in accordance with age and maturity; where decision makers with relevant areas of expertise are involved; and where there is a balancing of all relevant factors in order to assess the best option; ii. In the case of UNHCR, conduct best interests determinations respecting child protection systems of States in cooperation with other relevant agencies and partners; iii. Incorporate needs and rights of children into early warning mechanisms, alerts and contingency plans, and ensure integration of child-based risk analysis into inter-agency assessments relevant to children at risk and development cooperation strategies and plans; iv. Establish confidential, accessible and child and gender-friendly complaints and referral systems, in coordination with national authorities when necessary, with clear roles for receiving, referring and addressing complaints from or about a child while ensuring the safety of the child, and for managing case files; children should be adequately informed about the availability of complaint and remedial mechanisms; v. Promote the implementation of mechanisms for monitoring the protection of children at risk, particularly of those in alternative care arrangements; vi. Strengthen or promote the establishment of child protection committees, as appropriate, with equal and meaningful participation of girls and boys; vii. Facilitate access to administrative or judicial procedures of States that are in accordance with their international obligations and that allow for the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes committed against children, and in which decisions on whether a child should be separated from her or his abusive or negligent parents or caretakers are made based on a determination of the child's best interests; viii. Develop child and gender-sensitive national asylum procedures, where feasible, and UNHCR status determination procedures with adapted procedures including relevant evidentiary requirements, prioritized processing of unaccompanied and separated child asylum-seekers, qualified free legal or other representation for unaccompanied and separated children, and consider an age and gendersensitive application of the 1951 Convention through the recognition of child-specific manifestations and forms of persecution, including under-age recruitment, child trafficking and female genital mutilation; ix. Ensure that age assessments are only carried out in cases when a child's age is in doubt, and take into account both the physical appearance and the psychological maturity of the individual; that they are 192