A/HRC/40/27 recommendation No. 35, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women called upon States to establish appropriate and accessible protection mechanisms to prevent further or potential violence, and to remove the barriers that persons with disabilities face;23 and to adopt measures to ensure that both services and information are accessible to them, including hotlines, shelters, victim support services and reporting and complaints mechanisms (see CEDAW/C/FIN/CO/7, para. 33, CEDAW/C/KEN/CO/8, paras. 23 and 47, and CEDAW/C/ARG/CO/7, para. 21). Furthermore, an independent body must be designated with the mandate to monitor services and facilities for children and adults with disabilities, including institutions (art. 16, para. 3), and data on victims and survivors of violence should be collected and disaggregated in order to better formulate policies for prevention and protection (see CRPD/C/HTI/CO/1, para. 31 and CRPD/C/MNE/CO/1, para. 33). 30. Children with disabilities are also more exposed to bullying at school and beyond. Bullying can be manifested in different ways – as violence, but also as indifference and “invisibilization”. Children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to bullying in segregated settings, such as in homes, special schools or day-care centres. Although bullying is not an issue faced exclusively by children with disabilities, segregated and mainstream educational settings can facilitate it. All children should be valued as human beings; inclusive education settings should foster diversity in all its expressions, including on the basis of disability. C. Access to justice 31. Access to justice and the availability of effective remedies allow children with disabilities to receive redress and reparation for violations of their human rights. While in most cases it will be unlikely that they can return the individual to the situation before the violation was committed, the act of seeking justice and having the wrong acknowledged is a process of exercising agency, and can in itself be empowering for the particular individual and beyond – for their family and community. For most children, and children with disabilities in particular, however, access to justice is beyond reach. Public administration and justice systems and services are not tailored to recognize children’s rights and agency, or their own unique experiences and perspectives. 24 The act of reporting or seeking assistance is impeded when children with disabilities do not have accessible information or contact with the outside world. They may not know that they possess rights, or what their rights entail, nor how to report and file a complaint or seek justice. 32. Article 12, paragraph 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child specifically empowers children to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings relevant to them. In its general comment No. 10 (2007) on children’s rights in juvenile justice, the Committee on the Rights of the Child emphasized that different accommodations should be made to ensure access to justice for children, including children with disabilities. For example, age-appropriate procedural accommodations may require modified courtroom procedures and practices, specific settings and age-appropriate assistance, among others. According to article 13 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, States parties to the Convention should ensure effective access to justice and participation by persons with disabilities in that process on an equal basis with others, including through the provision of procedural and age-appropriate accommodations. In the view of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, legal reforms should be undertaken to ensure the provision of procedural accommodations appropriate to age and impairment (see CRPD/C/DEU/CO/1, para. 28), so that all children with disabilities have access to justice and may express their opinion in the course of the determination of their best interests (see CRPD/C/MEX/CO/1, para. 26). 23 24 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 35, para. 40 (b). UNICEF, Children’s Equitable Access to Justice: Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 2015, p. 118. 9