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monitoring, investigation and reporting of human rights violations and abuses. In
July 2016, the Queen of the Belgians and the Special Representative co -hosted an
event on the sharing of best practices on psychosocial rehabilitation and social
reintegration of children during which the critical importance of appropriate and
effective reintegration to avoid re-recruitment by other groups was emphasized.
70. The Office of the Special Representative also contributed to the online course
on United Nations human rights responsibilities that was launched in November
2015. In January 2016, the Special Representative participated in the interactive
dialogue of the General Assembly on the Human Rights Up Front Initiative.
71. Lastly, there was intensive collaboration with UNICEF and other United
Nations entities. The deprivation of liberty for children in situations of armed
conflict is an area of concern for the Special Representative, related in particular t o
responses to violent extremism. In that regard, the Office of the Special
Representative worked closely with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) and participated in three UNODC workshops with Government officials
of countries affected by violent extremism, which were held in Dakar and Amman
during the reporting period. The Special Representative also continued to contribute
to the initial phase of the in-depth global study on children deprived of liberty, in
line with General Assembly resolution 69/157, paragraph 52 (c).
V. Recommendations
72. The Special Representative urges Member States to ensure that their
engagement in hostilities and responses to all threats to peace and security,
including in efforts to counter violent extremism, are conducted in full
compliance with international humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee
law. She also calls upon all parties to conflict to refrain from using explosive
weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas, and to consider making a
commitment to this effect.
73. The Special Representative calls upon Member States and parties to
conflict to ensure the protection of hospitals, health-care works and transports,
in line with international law. She calls upon the General Assembly to continue
to give due consideration to the issue and its impact on children in its
resolutions on humanitarian and development issues.
74. The Special Representative encourages the General Assembly to highlight
the rights of children displaced by conflict and the obligations of States of
origin, transit and destination in the high-level meeting to address large
movements of refugees and migrants and in its resolutions on country-specific
situations and thematic issues.
75. The Special Representative calls upon Member States to treat children
allegedly associated with non-State armed groups as victims entitled to full
protection of their human rights, to ensure that they are not used as spies or for
the purposes of intelligence gathering, and to urgently put into place
alternatives to the systematic detention of children. The Special Representative
urges the General Assembly to take these issues into account and ensure the
protection of children in the review of the United Nations Global CounterTerrorism Strategy.
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