A/HRC/40/28 exploitation or harmful practices within a terrorist group may be vulnerable to ostracization or further sexual abuse in the community. Where girls do not wish to return to their previous communities, they should have access to education and vocational training in their new community. Girls, and in particular girl mothers, should be supported in making choices in their own best interests, including whether to recognize or reject relationships they may have had with members of the terrorist group. Any children resulting from such unions should be registered and their rights to identity, nationality and not to be subjected to discrimination must be respected. 66. Formerly associated children outside their country of nationality should be afforded consular support and assistance in returning to their home country for the purpose of reintegration, whenever that is in their best interests. States should never strip the citizenship of children associated with terrorist groups abroad, regardless of whether they hold dual citizenship. Children born to foreign fighters are at particular risk of statelessness, abandonment, family separation, prolonged detention with their parents, discrimination, exploitation and recruitment by terrorist groups. 57 States should cooperate to ensure that all children are registered, have appropriate documentation of their identity and nationality, are permitted to enter their parents’ country of origin, and are protected against stigma and discrimination. States should recognize the risk of recruitment as a child-specific form of persecution for the purposes of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and should not return a formerly associated child to a country where there is a real risk of rerecruitment.58 V. Conclusions and recommendations 67. The full range of the impacts of terrorism and counter-terrorism on children cannot be addressed in a single report. In addition to the harms examined in the present report, terrorist groups may engage in trafficking, hostage-taking for ransom, harmful traditional practices and other forms of exploitation and abuse of children. Children whose caregivers are accused of terrorist crimes or traumatized by terrorist violence face particular risks. In all cases, international human rights law provides an essential framework for identifying, implementing and evaluating the most effective interventions to protect children and gender considerations should be integrated at all levels. 68. Children have been largely ignored in the counter-terrorism discourse. There is a need for further research on the short- and long-term impacts of terrorism on children and the drivers of terrorist exploitation of children. Counter-terrorism policies and programmes should, however, be grounded in the available empirical evidence, rather than untested theories, such as the narrative of radicalization. 69. States have different legal obligations towards children who are direct victims or witnesses of a terrorist attack, children at risk of association and children associated with terrorist groups. However, children in all of those categories are victims of terrorism. States should ensure that their laws, policies and practices recognise the primary status of children as victims, incorporate the best interests of the child as a primary consideration, ensure the protection of children and fully respect their right to express their views in all matters affecting them. 70. States should ensure that reparation programmes for victims and witnesses of terrorist acts are age- and gender-sensitive. Child victims and witnesses should have access as early as possible to any necessary rehabilitative health care based on their individual needs, including psychosocial and sexual and reproductive health-care services. Reparation programmes should account for the fact that the impact of terrorism on child victims and witnesses may include lost opportunities and ensure 57 58 See United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, “Guidance to States on human rights-compliant responses to the threat posed by foreign fighters”. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 6, paras. 58–59. 15