A/HRC/16/2
4.
Urges States:
(a)
To adopt, strengthen and implement legislative and other measures, crosssectoral strategies and plans of action to eliminate, as a matter of priority, all forms of
violence and discrimination against children working and/or living on the street and to end
the impunity of all perpetrators of these violations and abuses and the criminalization of
children living and/or working on the street;
(b)
To prosecute and/or provide effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions
for sale, trafficking and all forms of exploitation of children working and/or living on the
street, and to ensure protection, assistance and support for child victims of these practices;
(c)
To take appropriate measures to protect children affected by armed conflict,
taking into account the best interests of the child, in order to reduce the risk of these
children resorting to working and/or living on the street;
(d)
To recognize that it is generally in the child’s best interests that survival
behaviours, such as begging, loitering, vagrancy, truancy, running away and other acts, be
dealt with as child protection issues by the relevant State authorities, and to ensure, in
accordance with their legal systems, that laws on such behaviours do not constitute an
obstacle to effective assistance, support and protection for children working and/or living
on the street;
(e)
To ensure that children working and/or living on the street who are involved
in judicial proceedings have effective access to child-friendly justice systems and, where
they are party to proceedings, to legal representation, and are enabled to participate actively
in the proceedings and are informed about their rights in a way understandable to them;
(f)
To ensure that all interventions directed at children working and/or living on
the street take into account the best interests and the views of the child in question, in
accordance with his or her age and maturity, and are undertaken by adequately trained
professionals in order to prevent further victimization;
5.
Encourages States to take measures to address the stigmatization and
discrimination of children working and/or living on the street, including through awarenessraising campaigns and sensitization to the situation of these children;
6.
Calls upon States to ensure that children working and/or living on the street
enjoy all human rights fully and equally, and that they have access without discrimination
to health care, education, safe drinking water and sanitation, and social and other basic
services;
7.
Also calls upon States to address the vulnerabilities of children working
and/or living on the street to multiple health risks, including HIV infection, through social
protection and primary health-care services that would build relationships of trust with
these children and ensure their access to information on risky behaviours, counselling and
testing and adequate protection against health risks, including HIV;
8.
Calls on States to ensure appropriate care and protection of children who
work and/or live on the street without any parental contact or supervision, including
through measures to support their sustainable reintegration into their family and, when
family reintegration is not possible or appropriate, through a case-by-case approach to
provide alternative care that is appropriate and in the best interests of the child;
9.
Encourages States to develop, strengthen and implement, as appropriate,
national systems for collecting, monitoring and evaluating disaggregated national data on
children, including on children working and/or living on the street;
GE.11-17059
29
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