Assistance to refugees, returnees and displaced persons in Africa A/RES/73/150 situation in Africa, insofar as they relate to persons of concern to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; 10. Expresses its appreciation for the leadership shown by the Office of the High Commissioner, and commends the Office for its ongoing efforts, with the support of the international community, to assist African States hosting large numbers of refugees, including by providing support to vulnerable local host communities, and to respond to the protection and assistance needs of refugees, returnees and displaced persons in Africa; 11. Notes with appreciation the initiatives taken by the African Union, the Subcommittee on Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons of its Permanent Representatives Committee and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in particular the role of its Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, to ensure the protection of and assistance to refugees, returnees and displaced persons in Africa; 12. Underlines the need to provide an efficient humanitarian response to internally displaced persons, and recognizes in this regard the importance of the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa; 13. Acknowledges the important contribution of age, gender and diversity mainstreaming in identifying, through the full participation of women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities, the protection risks faced by the different members of the refugee communities, in particular the non-discriminatory treatment and protection of women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities; 14. Affirms that children, because of their age, social status and physical and mental development, are often more vulnerable than adults in situations of forced displacement, recognizes that forced displacement, return to post -conflict situations, integration into new societies, protracted situations of displacement and statelessness can increase child protection risks, taking into account the particular vulnerabili ty of displaced children to forcible exposure to the risks of physical and psychological injury, exploitation and death in connection with armed conflict, as well as the recruitment and use of children by parties to armed conflict in violation of applicabl e international law, and acknowledges that wider environmental factors and individual risk factors, particularly when combined, may generate different protection needs; 15. Recognizes that no solution to forced displacement can be durable unless it is sustainable, and therefore encourages the Office of the High Commissioner to support the sustainability of durable solutions, and recalls that those solutions include voluntary repatriation and, where appropriate and feasible, local integration and resettlement in a third country, while reaffirming that voluntary repatriation, supported, as necessary, by rehabilitation and development assistance to facilitate sustainable reintegration, remains the preferred solution; 16. Reaffirms the conclusion on civil registration adopted by the Executive Committee of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at its sixty-fourth session, held in Geneva from 30 September to 4 October 2013, 10 and recognizes the importance of early registration and effective registration systems and censuses as a tool of protection and as a means to the quantification and assessment of needs for the provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance and to implement appropriate durable solutions; 17. Also reaffirms the conclusion on registration of refugees and asylum seekers adopted by the Executive Committee of the Programme of the High __________________ 10 18-22203 Ibid., Sixty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 12A (A/68/12/Add.1), chap. III, sect. A. 5/9