A/HRC/28/54 mechanisms to highlight and address the need for appropriate measures to rehabilitate those children, in compliance with the principle of the best interest of the child and respecting the child’s primary status as a victim. 74. The Special Representative welcomes the recent ratifications of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict and reiterates her urgent call upon States who have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Convention and its Protocols; to enact legislation to explicitly prohibit and criminalize the recruitment of children into armed forces or groups and the use of children in hostilities; and to establish the minimum age for voluntary recruitment into the armed forces at 18 years, when depositing their binding declaration (under article 3) upon ratification of the Optional Protocol. 18