A/HRC/28/54 they do not fully recognize the special status of juveniles in conflict with the law. Moreover, when deprived of their liberty, children are vulnerable to human rights violations, including sexual abuse, degrading and inhumane treatment and, in some instances, torture. 29. Despite the challenges, agreements have been reached with a number of governments to ensure that detained children are handed over to the United Nations. In March 2014, a standard operating procedure for the handover of children formerly associated with armed forces and groups was adopted by the Government of Somalia. An agreement for the handover of children formerly associated with armed forces and groups was also reached with the African Union Mission in Somalia. On 10 September 2014, the United Nations and the Government of Chad signed a protocol on the handover of children associated with armed forces and groups, which includes specific provisions regulating detention. Those procedures build on the progress made with protocols for the handover of children formerly associated with armed forces and groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Mali signed in 2013. 30. The Special Representative calls upon the Human Rights Council to use all available tools to promote alternatives to the prosecution and detention of children for their alleged association with armed groups, in particular under counter-terrorism responses. In that regard, she commends the work of the Human Rights Council on detention and welcomes the panel discussion at the 27th session of the Council on the protection of the human rights of persons deprived of their liberty. The Special Representative attended the global consultation on the right to challenge the lawfulness of detention before court, organized by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva, on 1 and 2 September 2014. The Working Group will submit draft basic principles and guidelines to the Human Rights Council in 2015. The Special Representative anticipates that those documents will address the impact of detention on children in armed conflict. Lastly, the Special Representative welcomes the invitation by the General Assembly, in resolution 69/157 of 18 December 2014, to request the Secretary-General to commission an in-depth global study on children deprived of their liberty, conducted in close cooperation with relevant United Nations partners, including the Office of the Special Representative. The study will aim to formulate recommendations for action to effectively realize the rights of the child and will be submitted to the General Assembly at its seventy-second session. VI. Attacks on schools and hospitals 31. Attacks on schools and hospitals are becoming an all-too familiar aspect of conflict, depriving millions of children of their right to education and health. The Special Representative remained deeply concerned by the increasing number of attacks on schools and hospitals, despite their protected status under international law. In almost every situation relating to the children and armed conflict agenda, the right to education and health was gravely affected by attacks on and the widespread military use of schools and hospitals as well as by attacks and threats of attacks against teachers and doctors. In many situations, such as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Israel and the State of Palestine and the Syrian Arab Republic, parties to conflict destroyed schools and hospitals by indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas or in targeted attacks against education facilities, teachers, school children, health workers and clinics. In 2014, we witnessed attacks on schools and ideological opposition to standard school curricula in places as varied as Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, southern Thailand, Somalia and the Syrian Arab Republic. Attempts by certain groups to radicalize teachings or exclude girls or minorities from education pose an even greater risk to the fundamental right of all children to an education. Health centres and 9

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