A/HRC/25/46 B. The Arms Trade Treaty 57. The adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty by the General Assembly in its resolution 67/234 B of April 2013 constitutes an important opportunity for child protection. The entry into force of the Treaty falls in line with the long-standing interpretation by the Committee on the Rights of the Child of State parties’ obligations, and is expected to have strong potential for generating a positive long-term impact on the situation of children in conflict, as it forbids the transfer of arms that could be used in committing attacks directed against civilians, including children, or in committing grave breaches of international humanitarian law and war crimes as defined by the international agreements to which the State is a party, such as the crime of child recruitment under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In addition, under the Treaty’s export assessment provisions, exporting States are requested to assess whether arms transfers would directly or indirectly lead to serious acts of violence against women and children, including killing and maiming, but also to the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict and, if an overriding risk is identified, to refrain from exporting. C. Lucens guidelines on the military use of schools 58. Armed forces and armed groups use schools for a variety of military purposes, including as barracks, sniper or defensive positions, munitions depots, detention centres, recruiting grounds and training facilities. This is particularly true in remote locations, where shelter and large structures may be rare. It can involve parts that are central to the functioning of schools, such as classrooms, or those that are more peripheral, such as playgrounds, and water and sanitation facilities. The Security Council, in its resolution 1998, explicitly mentions the use of schools for military purposes as a concern and an integral part of monitoring and reporting. 59. Furthermore, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, which was created in 2010 and is composed of a number of United Nations agencies and civil society organizations, has spearheaded a process, in close consultation with military experts, childprotection actors, education specialists, and international humanitarian and human rights lawyers, to devise guidelines for protecting schools from use by armed forces and armed groups, known as the Lucens Guidelines. 60. This initiative aims at increasing knowledge and understanding, improving monitoring and reporting, and advocating for clear and explicit domestic legislation on the interaction of military forces with schools and schoolchildren. Member States are encouraged, both in times of conflict and of peace, to support and adhere to this set of principles, and to integrate them in a practical way into their national policies and legislation, as well as into their military doctrine, manuals and training. While the Lucens Guidelines have been produced specifically for application during armed conflict, they may also be instructive in other situations, including post-conflict situations with the potential to return to armed conflict. 61. The Office of the Special Representative has developed, in cooperation with partners, an operational strategy to reduce the military use of schools and to mitigate the impact of this on children. The strategy aims to address the concern raised by the Security Council in its resolution 1998 with regard to the military use of schools and the impact of this on the safety of schoolchildren and their teachers and on the right to education. Complementing the principles outlined in the Lucens Guidelines, this operational strategy provides a number of concrete, practical activities that can be voluntarily undertaken by parties to conflict with a view to implementing a voluntary commitment to further refrain from using schools for military purposes. The activities proposed in the operational strategy 13