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Title | Date added | Template | Original document | Paragraph text | Body | Document type | Thematics | Topic(s) | Person(s) affected | Year |
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Work of the mandate and priorities of the SR 2015, para. 90 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The launch of the technical guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach to the implementation of policies and programmes to reduce and eliminate preventable mortality and morbidity of children under 5 years of age (A/HRC/27/31) in 2014 is a serious attempt to put an end to the unacceptable epidemics of preventable deaths of infants. The human rights-based approach is critically important in that regard since child mortality is intimately linked with human rights of women and the widespread discrimination against vulnerable groups of population. | Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Work of the mandate and priorities of the SR 2015, para. 89 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The right to survival relates to the prevention of infant and under-5 mortality. Despite many achievements in the field of medicine, 6 million children under 5 die every year in the world. Those children do not die of unknown or incurable diseases or illnesses; they die because of the conditions in which they and their parents live and poor governance and accountability. | Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Work of the mandate and priorities of the SR 2015, para. 66 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | However, current rates of preventable deaths among newborns, children under 5 and adults are still unacceptably high. Universal health-care coverage is still a dream for many. The realization of the right to health is impeded by many factors, and most of them are related to inequalities, and selective approaches to human rights principles and existing scientific evidence. This can and must be addressed with the strong commitment by States and concerted efforts by all stakeholders. | Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Witchcraft and the human rights of persons with albinism 2017, para. 38 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In addition, the common belief that persons with albinism are a bad omen or a curse on their family or on the community, although not, stricto sensu, a witchcraft accusation, does attribute evil qualities to a newborn, with an impact on the mothers and family members in a manner that is strongly analogous to the impact stemming from witchcraft accusations. Consequently, infanticide, abandonment of children with albinism and exclusion of the children and their mothers from community life (either structural expulsion or exclusion from participation) have been reported to the Independent Expert. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Witchcraft and the human rights of persons with albinism 2017, para. 37 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In its study on children accused of witchcraft, UNICEF reported that, in many African societies, births considered "abnormal" were generally surrounded by a complex system of representations and rituals. Such births included twins, "badly born" children and persons with albinism. Cases have been reported of parents killing their babies born with albinism for being witches. Where these children are not killed at birth, they are often taken to a spiritual leader or traditional healer to be "healed" through various forms of violent exorcism. Similarly, in a report published by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence Against Children in 2012, it is stressed that vulnerable children such as children with disabilities, children with albinism, premature babies or specially gifted children are often the target of witchcraft accusations. The link between witchcraft and persons with albinism was also noted in western Sudan where persons with albinism were accused of taking part in "strange and dangerous practices" related to witchcraft. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 41 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | A right-to-food approach requires that States fulfil their obligation to ensure that safe, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food is available; they must also respect and protect consumers and promote good nutrition for all. The Voluntary Guidelines, in particular Guidelines 9, on food safety and consumer protection, and 10, on nutrition, can guide States in the establishment and maintenance of effective food and nutrition policies, thereby increasing the protection of the most vulnerable from unsafe food and inadequate diets, while helping to combat overweight and obesity. The Convention on the Rights of the Child indicates that access to adequate nutrition, including family support for optimal feeding practices, is a right that should be supported for every child. The Special Rapporteur believes that increased focus must be placed on mother and child nutrition as the core of a healthy start in life, with the correlation between infant and young child feeding and food security being treated as a priority in all global food and nutrition security programmes and with formal recognition at the international and national level, including in legal frameworks. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 39 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Maintaining breast-feeding programmes, especially in countries experiencing the HIV epidemic poses a major challenge. The Special Rapporteur intends to coordinate with the United Nations Children's Fund the World Health Organization and other relevant stakeholders to help develop policies for strengthening specific programmes for young children. She also encourages States to fully implement the Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding, to position breastfeeding as the norm and to respect and promote community-based food sovereignty approaches to complementary feeding. The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, adopted by the World Health Assembly at its thirty-fourth session in 1981 as a minimum requirement to protect and promote appropriate infant and young child feeding, should also be supplemented by further monitoring and regulation to ensure that companies responsible for the production of baby food follow similar quality control regulations for domestic use to those for export products. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 38 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Although issues of undernutrition are often framed in terms of disability prevention, good nutrition is also vital for those who already live with a disability. Infants and children with disabilities suffer the same ill-effects of undernutrition as those without: poorer health outcomes; missing or delayed developmental milestones; avoidable secondary impairments; and, in extreme circumstances, premature death. The exclusion of children and adults with disabilities from nutritional outreach efforts on the basis of the incorrect belief that preserving the life of a child or adult with a disability is of lower priority than preserving the life of someone who is not disabled must be addressed by tackling such discriminatory social and cultural norms which advocate this. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 37 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Despite global efforts to eradicate child deaths due to malnutrition, more than 2 million children under age five die every year as a result of poor nutrition, and many of those deaths are associated with inappropriate feeding practices. Undernutrition among pregnant women in developing countries causes one out of six infants to be born with low birth weight, which is not only a risk factor for neonatal deaths, but may also lead to disability and learning difficulties. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 36 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The first five years of life are the most important period of human development, with the first 1,000 days requiring special attention. Ensuring that a child receives adequate nutrition during that window of 1,000 days can have a profound impact on his or her ability to grow. It can also shape the long-term health, stability and prosperity of a society. Stunting, caused by chronic undernutrition early in a child's life, affects some 165 million children around the world. It was estimated that in 2011 more than one in every four children under five years of age in the developing world was stunted. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the two regions where stunting continues to be highly prevalent, with low-income countries experiencing the highest levels. Undernutrition magnifies the effects of every disease, including measles and malaria, while malnutrition can also be caused by certain illnesses which reduce the ability of the body to convert food into usable nutrients. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 28 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In general, food and nutrition security policies continue to treat women primarily as mothers, focusing on the nutrition of infants and young children or pregnant women, rather than addressing constraints on women's economic and social participation. Teenage mothers, women without children and women of post-reproductive age with specific nutritional needs are generally not considered within those policies, and this must change.6 | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 28 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In general, food and nutrition security policies continue to treat women primarily as mothers, focusing on the nutrition of infants and young children or pregnant women, rather than addressing constraints on women’s economic and social participation. Teenage mothers, women without children and women of post-reproductive age with specific nutritional needs are generally not considered within those policies, and this must change | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Vision for the mandate 2016, para. 38 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Studies often link the prevalence of skin cancer to factors such as the lack of basic understanding of albinism, particularly by persons with albinism and their families. For example, it is not uncommon for parents to put a newborn with albinism out in the sun for hours. Displaced persons with albinism are exposed to a heightened risk of skin cancer as they are mostly outside of their usual environment and have limited means to address their health needs. Also at particular risk of developing skin cancer are persons with albinism who work outdoors, such as farmers or traders. Such outdoor occupations also emphasize the link between the risk of contracting skin cancer and poverty. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 4 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Calorie intake alone, moreover, says little about nutritional status. Lack of care or inadequate feeding practices for infants, as well as poor health care or water and sanitation, also play a major role. As detailed by the Special Rapporteur (see A/HRC/19/59), even when food intake is sufficient, inadequate diets can result in micronutrient deficiencies such as a lack of iodine, of vitamin A or of iron, to mention only the deficiencies that are the most common in large parts of the developing world. Globally, over 165 million children are stunted - so malnourished that they do not reach their full physical and cognitive potential - and 2 billion people globally lack vitamins and minerals essential for good health. Too little has been done to ensure adequate nutrition, despite the proven long-term impacts of adequate nutrition during pregnancy and before a child's second birthday, both in low-income countries where undernutrition is the major concern and in middle- and high-income countries. Moreover, inadequate diets are a major contributing factor to the increase of non-communicable diseases occurring now in all regions of the world. Worldwide, the prevalence of obesity doubled between 1980 and 2008. By 2008, 1.4 billion adults were overweight, including 400 million who were obese and therefore at heightened risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease or gastrointestinal cancers. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 46 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Premature deaths resulting from non-communicable diseases linked to bad diets are deaths that can be avoided, and States have a duty to protect in this regard. By implementing the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding and the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, as well as the Political Declaration of the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases, States are not only making political commitments but also discharging their duty under international human rights law to guarantee the right to adequate food. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 37 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Governments have become aware of the adverse impacts of the spread of non-communicable diseases, caused by suboptimal breastfeeding and young child feeding and unhealthy diets, and they recognize the urgent need to take action. In 2002 and 2004, respectively, WHA adopted the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding and the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The latter recommends, inter alia, reducing energy intake from total fats, shifting fat consumption away from saturated fats to unsaturated fats, and eliminating trans-fatty acids; increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts; limiting the intake of free sugars; limiting salt consumption and ensuring that all salt is iodized. States are encouraged to adopt a national strategy on diets and physical activity; to provide accurate and balanced information to consumers; to align food and agricultural policies with the requirements of public health; and to use school policies and programmes to encourage healthy diets. Infant food manufacturers are expected to comply with provisions of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent relevant WHA resolutions and manufacture their products according to Codex Alimentarius standards. The agrifood industry is expected to reduce the fat, sugar and salt content of processed foods and portion sizes, to increase nutritious and healthy choices, and to review their marketing practices. More recently, in 2011, Governments pledged to promote, protect and support breastfeeding and strengthen the implementation of the International Code and to "reduce the impact of the common non-communicable disease risk factors," including unhealthy diets, by implementing "relevant international agreements and strategies, and education, legislative, regulatory and fiscal measures." | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 25 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The requirement of non-discrimination ensures that interventions are targeted, with a focus on the most vulnerable and marginalized groups, and that they are gender sensitive. Finally, the adoption of national strategies for the realization of the right to food by Governments through participatory means should ensure that the needs of all groups are identified, including those of pregnant and lactating women and infants, and actions planned to address those needs. Such strategies should also link efforts to improve nutrition during early childhood with later life, adopting a life-course perspective as recommended by WHO, in order to take into account, for instance, that in contrast to breastfeeding, formula feeding may be a cause of obesity; they should facilitate inter-departmental coordination, recognizing that the right to adequate diets requires a collaborative effort across all government; and they should create a stable, multi-year framework, providing the necessary conditions both for private investment and for a continued effort of government. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 17 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Second, the focus on pregnant and lactating women and infants in some recent nutrition initiatives, while understandable, should not lessen the need to address the nutritional needs of others, including children, women who are not pregnant or lactating, adolescents and older persons. The right to adequate food, which includes adequate nutrition, is a universal right guaranteed to all. This pleads in favour of broad-based national strategies for the realization of the right to food that address the full range of factors causing malnutrition, rather than narrowly focused initiatives that address the specific needs of a child's development between conception and the second birthday. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 16 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | First, it is troubling that the 1981 International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent World Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions remain under-enforced, despite the wide recognition that exclusive breastfeeding for the six first months and continued breastfeeding, combined with safe and adequate complementary foods, up to 2 years old or beyond is the optimal way of feeding infants, and reduces the risk of obesity and NCDs later in life. Countries committed to scaling up nutrition should begin by regulating the marketing of commercial infant formula and other breast-milk substitutes, in accordance with WHA resolution 63.23, and by implementing the full set of WHO recommendations on the marketing of breast-milk substitutes and of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children, in accordance with WHA resolution 63.14. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 8 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Like undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency or "hidden hunger" is a violation of a child's right to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical and mental development, and to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, recognized under article 6, paragraph 2, and article 24, paragraph 2 (c), of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The environment, not genetics, explains differences in child development between regions. The WHO Child Growth Standards demonstrate that infants and children from geographically diverse regions of the world experience very similar growth patterns when their health and nutrition needs are met, so that all children have in principle the same development potential. States, therefore, have a duty to support exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continued breastfeeding, combined with adequate complementary foods, until the second birthday of the child; and to establish food systems that can ensure each individual's access not only to sufficient caloric intake, but also to sufficiently diverse diets, providing the full range of micronutrients required. | Special Rapporteur on the right to food | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Study on illegal adoptions 2017, para. 39 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The above-mentioned motivations for carrying out illegal adoptions often overlapped, as was notably the case in Spain throughout the Franco regime and during the first decades of democracy. Indeed, the practice of illegally adopting children for ideological and religious reasons soon morphed into a profit-driven criminal activity. Thousands of newborn babies were reportedly abducted from their parents by criminal networks involved in large-scale illegal adoptions. Medical personnel and clergy members actively participated in the abduction of children. Newborn babies were abducted from hospitals and subsequently told that their parents had died. The children were then given to other parents following the falsification of documents and, in certain cases, payments. | Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Study on illegal adoptions 2017, para. 36 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Gender discrimination and violence based on moral and religious constructs regarding the social or marital status of the mother have been a key driver of illegal adoptions in several countries. In Ireland, the so-called mother and baby homes, which were managed by Catholic organizations, and other maternity institutions, were established in the 1920s to deal with unmarried pregnant women and girls and operated until the 1990s. Conditions in those institutions were deplorable and cases of violence against the women were common (e.g. abuse of expectant mothers, forced labour, neglect and detention). Before the 1952 Adoption Act, most children born out of wedlock were placed in foster care, "boarded out" or informally adopted. After passage of the Act, children were put up for formal adoption. Consent was improperly induced or forcibly obtained and documents, including illegal birth registrations, were falsified on a large scale. Furthermore, there were cases of intercountry adoptions, in particular to the United States of America, which often resulted from the same illegal practices. | Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Study on illegal adoptions 2017, para. 28 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The abduction of babies (e.g. through kidnappings or by falsely informing parents that their baby was stillborn or died shortly after birth), the improper inducement of consent (e.g. through misrepresentation, bribery or coercion) and improper financial gain (e.g. through payment for the child or the payment of bribes to intermediaries involved in the adoption process) are among the most common methods used in the sale of children and illegal adoptions. Inherent to the methods is the falsification of documents (e.g. birth and medical certificates, the identification documents of the biological mother, DNA test results and relinquishment or abandonment declarations) and the bypassing of regulations. | Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Sexual education 2010, para. 73 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Although fathers and mothers are free to choose the type of education that their sons and daughters will have, this authority may never run counter to the rights of children and adolescents, in accordance with the primacy of the principle of the best interests of the child. This implies a need to create forums in which all options and opinions can be discussed within the education process. Particularly in the case of sexual education, people have the right to receive high-quality scientific information that is unprejudiced and age-appropriate, so as to foster full development and prevent possible physical and psychological abuse. | Special Rapporteur on the right to education | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 103 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | States should also increase and improve access to reproductive health services and information, in particular for girls and women, including access to family planning. Health information tailored to young mothers about proper nutrition and care for their health and the health of their babies should be made available. Access to reproductive health care for women and girls in urban and rural areas needs to be increased and improved by ensuring that adequate resources and health-care experts are available. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 100 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The minimum age cannot be applied if there is no proper birth and marriage registration in the country. Registration of births should be compulsory even if the marriages of the parents are not registered. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Rights of indigenous women and girls 2015, para. 66 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Many countries do not have birth registration systems that robustly provide certification of the births of all indigenous children, which exacerbates the lack of monitoring and disaggregated data. Such lack of birth registration systems places indigenous children and people in a situation of increased vulnerability because they are invisible within the State system. Other consequences include no or limited access to social, health and educational services and increased vulnerability to statelessness or trafficking. | Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Right to health in early childhood - Right to survival and development 2015, para. 113a | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [In addition, the Special Rapporteur recommends that other stakeholders:] Step up efforts to significantly reduce mortality and morbidity rates among newborns; | Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Right to health in early childhood - Right to survival and development 2015, para. 112g | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [In this connection, the Special Rapporteur urges Governments:] To equip primary health-care and paediatric services not only with modern lifesaving medicines and vaccines, but also with knowledge and effective and culturally appropriate interventions based on research in neuroscience, psychology, developmental paediatrics and child psychiatry; | Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Right to health in early childhood - Right to survival and development 2015, para. 112a | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [In this connection, the Special Rapporteur urges Governments:] To address the youngest children, especially newborns and infants, as rights holders and to join forces with all relevant stakeholders to achieve a breakthrough by significantly reducing mortality and morbidity rates among newborns; | Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 |