A/HRC/40/49 contributed to meetings and reports on the issue by, inter alia, the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNODC. In those forums and in her interactions with relevant Member States, the Special Representative has advocated for the application of human rights and international humanitarian and refugee law standards for every child, regardless of their alleged or actual association with armed groups using violent extremist tactics. C. Progress in ending grave violations against children 22. Notwithstanding continued violations against children affected by armed conflict, the Special Representative and other child protection actors have also achieved important advances in strengthening their protection. 23. In Afghanistan, amendments to the Criminal Code criminalizing the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and the use of boys for bacha bazi2 purposes entered into force in February 2018. The establishment of all 34 provincial child protection units in Afghan National Police recruitment centres was finalized during the reporting period. The units are mandated to screen out children during the recruitment process and thereby give effect to the national legislation on child recruitment. 24. In Colombia, following the transformation of FARC-EP into a political party, the group ended all child recruitment, released 135 children and was delisted from the annexes of the annual report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict for 2017 (see A/72/865–S/2018/465). 25. The situation of children and armed conflict in Myanmar remained concerning, with 1,166 grave violations against children reported as documented between 1 July 2017 and 31 August 2018 in the report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Myanmar (S/2018/956), and the listing of the Tatmadaw (government armed forces) and integrated border guard forces for the killing and maiming of children and rape and other forms of sexual violence against children in the 2017 annual report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict. However, progress was noted in the implementation by the Government of Myanmar of the joint action plan on the recruitment and use of children. In August 2018, 75 children and young people who had been recruited as children were released by the Tatmadaw within the framework of the joint action plan. The final agreement of the peace conference held in July 2018 between the Government and opposition armed groups included a specific commitment to eliminate the six grave violations against children. Advocacy and outreach by the Special Representative has resulted in greater willingness on the part of the Government to engage on the issue of the six grave violations and in December 2018, training on them was organized by the Office of the Special Representative in cooperation with the country task force on monitoring and reporting. 26. In Nigeria, the Civilian Joint Task Force advanced in the implementation of the action plan signed in September 2017, including through the promulgation of a standing order to refrain from recruiting or using children, the initiation of a process to identify and release children in their ranks, the creation of child protection units in Borno State to support the implementation of the action plan and joint awareness-raising sessions with the United Nations on recruitment and use at the community level. In October 2018, the Civilian Joint Task Force released 833 children to child protection actors, with more children expected to be released in 2019. 27. Following high-level engagement with the Government of South Sudan, the country agreed to revise and expand the current action plan on recruitment and use, signed in 2012 and recommitted to in 2014, to comprehensively address all grave violations against children for which its security forces are listed in the annexes of the 2017 annual report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict. Engagement between the United 2 8 The term bacha bazi (dancing boys) refers to the practice which includes the sexual exploitation of boys by men in power, including commanders of armed forces and groups.