A/RES/54/146 Page 4 16. Urges States, in cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner and other relevant organizations, to explore and support fully capacity-building initiatives as part of a comprehensive approach to addressing refugee issues and to take necessary measures to promote sustainable development and to ensure the success of capacity-building activities, and reiterates that such initiatives may include those which strengthen legal and judicial institutions and civil society, those which promote the observance of human rights, the rule of law and accountability and those which enhance the capacity of States to fulfil their responsibilities with respect to persons of concern to the Office of the High Commissioner; 17. Reiterates its support for the role of the Office of the High Commissioner in providing humanitarian assistance and protection to internally displaced persons on the basis of criteria enumerated in paragraph 16 of its resolution 53/125, and underlines the continuing relevance of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement;9 18. Calls upon States to adopt an approach that is sensitive to gender-related concerns and to ensure that women whose claims to refugee status are based upon a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons enumerated in the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol, including persecution through sexual violence or other gender-related persecution, are recognized as refugees, and encourages the Office of the High Commissioner to continue and to strengthen its efforts for the protection of refugee women; 19. Urges States and relevant parties to respect and observe principles of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law that are of particular relevance to safeguarding the rights of child and adolescent refugees, notes the particular vulnerability of refugee children to being forcibly exposed to the risks of injury, exploitation and death, in particular in the context of armed conflict, and to abduction with a view to their forced participation in military activities, and urges all States and concerned parties to take all possible measures to protect child and adolescent refugees, including, in particular, from all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse and forced military service, and to prevent their separation from their families; 20. Recognizes the special role of elderly refugees within the refugee family, and, bearing in mind that 1999 has been declared the International Year of Older Persons, calls upon States and the Office of the High Commissioner to make renewed efforts to ensure that the rights, needs and dignity of elderly refugees are fully respected and addressed through appropriate programme activities; 21. Recalls that the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and that it is entitled to protection by society and the State, and calls upon States, working in close collaboration with the Office of the High Commissioner and other concerned organizations, to take measures to ensure that the refugee’s family is protected, including through measures aimed at reuniting family members separated as a result of refugee flight; 22. Notes that forty-eight States are now parties to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons10 and that twenty States are parties to the 1961 Convention on the reduction of 9 E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, annex. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 360, No. 5158. 10 /...