A/HRC/15/58 armed conflict. Most of these recommendations included, inter alia, the recruitment and use of children and their release from armed groups and armed forces, the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of children, training on child protection for State security forces, the enactment of appropriate legislative and policy measures to address and prevent abuses against children, as well as to criminalize the recruitment of children, action to combat sexual violence against children, and protection of children in refugee camps and sites of internally displaced persons (IDPs); (b) Recommendations to parties to conflict that recruit and use children included a call to prepare an action plan to cease recruitment and to establish transparent procedures for the verification and release of children, emphasized the need for parties to meet commitments made to the Special Representative during her country visits, and urged timely cooperation with the monitoring and reporting mechanism pursuant to Security Council resolution 1612 (2005); (c) Recommendations to ratify the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict were made to 192 out of the 29 States that had not yet done so at the time of their review and that, as a result, Mauritius ratified the Optional Protocol. 11. The Special Representative urges States to systematically include in their recommendations, as appropriate, specific references to information from the monitoring and reporting mechanism on grave violations against children, established in accordance with Security Council resolution 1612 (2005), as well as conclusions adopted by the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. 12. The Special Representative reiterates the recommendation made in her last report that concluding observations made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child on reports submitted by State parties under article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention should also be taken into consideration by the Working Group on the UPR when reviewing a State submission under the UPR process. 13. In addition, the Special Representative encourages States to pay particular attention to the implementation of relevant recommendations of the Working Group on the UPR, with the assistance of the international community, wherever it is needed. 14. The Special Representative is encouraged by the practice of some special rapporteurs and independent experts of highlighting concerns about children and armed conflict in their reports, and by their proactive advocacy for the protection of children’s rights. The Special Representative is particularly pleased to note that specific attention was paid to the plight of children, including their recruitment and use, and other grave violations against them, by the independent expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar in their reports (A/HRC/12/44, A/HRC/13/65 and A/HRC/13/48) to the twelfth and thirteenth sessions of the Human Rights Council. Additionally, the Special Representative collaborated with other United Nations experts to prepare the second joint report on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 10/33.3 The Special Representative urges all special procedures mandate holders to continue to take into account during their missions the challenges faced by children, as well as in their reports and recommendations, insofar as they are relevant to their respective mandates, and to bring those concerns to her attention. 2 3 Bahamas, Brunei Darussalam, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Grenada, Guinea, Guyana, Indonesia, Kiribati, Malaysia, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. A/HRC/13/63. 5