A/71/205 October 2015, and the general cooperation meeting between the United Nations and LAS in May 2016. North Atlantic Treaty Organization 60. The Special Representative engaged with NATO with a view to deepening the partnership on the issue of children and armed conflict. In January 2016 in Brussels, the Special Representative met with the incoming Assistant Secretary General for Operations and the Deputy Secretary General to discuss ways to further strengthen the protection of children in NATO-led operations. She also briefed the Operations Policy Committee and underscored the responsibility and role of NATO in protecting children in armed conflict. 61. During the Special Representative’s visit to Afghanistan in February 2016, she met with the Commander of the NATO Resolute Support Mission and the NATO Senior Civilian Representative to voice concerns about rising child casualties and advocate for the appointment of an adviser on children and armed conflict within the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. The position was filled in May 2016. 62. The Office also contributed to the development of NATO policies and guidelines on children and armed conflict. The Office attended the NATO -United Nations staff talks, held in March 2016, during which potential opportunities for training NATO focal points were explored. C. Building support with civil society organizations 63. Building relationships and cooperating with civil society organizations, including academia, is a key priority and during the reporting period the Special Representative met regularly with non-governmental organizations working on the protection of children. In particular, she worked with non-governmental organizations to support the Safe Schools Declaration, and spoke at events organized by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack in December 2015 in Geneva, in May 2016 in Addis-Ababa and at a Human Rights Watch event in The Hague, also in May. In addition to engagement with New York-based non-governmental organizations, the Special Representative engaged regularly with the Geneva -based non-governmental organization Focus Group on Children Affe cted by Armed Conflict during the reporting period. Furthermore, she continued to raise awareness of the children and armed conflict agenda with universities, academia and think tanks and interacted in many forums, including the Council on Foreign Relation s in February 2016. D. Building support upon partnerships with United Nations mechanisms 64. The Special Representative continued to foster international cooperation to ensure respect for the rights of children affected by armed conflict. In that re gard, she briefed the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict on specific country situations to keep Council members abreast of the latest developments pertaining to the mandate. During the 12 -month period, country reports of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict were issued for the Central African Republic and Iraq. On 16 November 2015, the Special Representative briefed the Security Council during the monthly meeting on the 16-12896 15/18