A/HRC/31/19 the Special Representative travelled to Havana and engaged directly with parties to the Colombian peace process. The peace talks, which are facilitated by Cuba and Norway, were launched in August 2012 with the aim of ending nearly five decades of conflict. Following sustained advocacy by the Special Representative and the country task force for the monitoring and reporting mechanism in Colombia, which is co-chaired by UNICEF and the Resident Coordinator, the negotiating parties expressed an interest in reaching an agreement on children’s issues. The Special Representative returned for a follow-up visit in October 2015 to continue discussions on further steps to be taken to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children, as well as to release and reintegrate children currently associated with FARC — EP. During her previous visit, the Special Representative welcomed both negotiating parties’ commitment to prioritizing the principle of the best interests of the child and ensuring guarantees for non-repetition. She also welcomed the commitments made by FARC — EP at the time of the visit to stop the recruitment and use of children under 18 and to release children under 15 years of age. She expressed a strong wish to see further progress to ensure the separation of all children and their effective reintegration in order to contribute to durable peace in Colombia. 42. The Special Representative also participated in consultations in Austria in May 2015 on children and armed conflict with the Justice and Equality Movement, the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid and the Sudan Liberation Army/Minni Minawi, which are listed in the annual report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict for the recruitment and use of children in the Sudan. As a result of joint efforts with the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur and the Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the leaders of the three groups signed a joint statement on the situation of children in Darfur, in which they pledged to end and prevent grave violations against them. 43. During her visit to Myanmar in July 2015, the Special Representative entered into dialogue with the Kachin Independence Army, the Karen National Liberation Army and the Karenni Army, which are listed for engaging in the recruitment and use of children. She had productive discussions with the groups with regard to action plans to end and prevent child recruitment and use and other grave violations. United Nations partners on the ground were continuing these discussions at the time of writing, in December 2015. In addition, in October 2015 the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund approved a project on preventing the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and groups in Myanmar as an entry point for durable peace. 44. Representatives of the United Nations in the Central African Republic continued to actively engage in dialogue with parties to the conflict to ensure compliance with the agreement to prevent and end grave violations against children signed by 10 armed groups in May 2015 on the margins of the Bangui Forum on National Reconciliation. Following this commitment, a large number of boys and girls were separated from anti-balaka and exSéléka factions. The country task force has also directly engaged with some of the exSéléka factions on the development of action plans to end the recruitment and use of children and other grave violations against children, for which they are listed in the annexes of the Secretary General’s report. However, the deterioration of the security situation since September 2015 has slowed efforts to engage further in dialogue with these armed groups. 45. Lastly, steady progress was made during the reporting period on the implementation of the action plan signed in 2009 between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the United Nations on the recruitment and use of children. A road map was agreed in 2014 to accelerate the implementation of the action plan, and the Government of the Philippines facilitated access for the United Nations. Representatives of the Office of the Special Representative and UNICEF travelled to the Philippines in November 2015 to assist and support the country task force in the implementation of the road map. 12