A/HRC/9/3 page 8 19. Apart from the sustained engagement and pressure placed on parties to conflict by the Working Group and other relevant bodies of the United Nations and its partners, country visits by the Special Representative have also provided the opportunity for high-level advocacy and opened doors for follow-up dialogue with military and political authorities by the United Nations country task forces on monitoring and reporting, and have elicited several key commitments by the parties to address the issues of recruitment and use of children and their protection from other grave violations during armed conflict. These visits also serve to highlight national efforts to advance child rights concerns in armed conflict. In 2007, the Special Representative made eight country visits, including to the Sudan (January), the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi (March), Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel (April), Myanmar (June) and Côte d’Ivoire (September). The visits to Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Côte d’Ivoire were primarily to follow up the recommendations of the Working Group. 20. The visits by the Special Representative to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel and Lebanon followed the fact that grave violations against children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel were recorded, as distinct situations of concern, in the 2005 and 2006 reports of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict (A/59/695-S/2005/72 and A/61/529-S/2006/826). In Lebanon, the conflict between Lebanon and Israel of July and August 2006, which witnessed the worst fighting since the end of the Lebanese civil war, was also recorded as a specific situation of concern in the report of the Secretary-General in 2006. The Special Representative had the express purpose of seeing for herself the impact of armed conflict on children in the region, and deemed it critical that the problem of the protection of children from the adverse effects of the conflict in those situations be addressed. In particular, the Special Representative engaged with parties, including Governments, United Nations and civil society, in order to garner commitments for the protection of children, as reflected in international humanitarian and human rights instruments applicable to children in armed conflict. Commitments from Governments and other parties to conflict 21. Some of the key commitments elicited from Governments and other parties to conflict during her missions are summarized below, and are elaborated in more detail in the Special Representative’s report (A/62/228). A number of actions have been taken by parties concerned to meet their commitments. The critical challenge is to ensure timely follow-up and adherence to commitments made and for their practical implementation, in order to bring about concrete results for the protection of children on the ground. To this end, the Special Representative calls on the Human Rights Council and the broader human rights community to join in monitoring these undertakings and ensuring that parties to conflict honour their commitments to the protection of children. 22. The Special Representative recommends that monitoring by national institutions for human rights be strengthened and invites the international community to continue to allocate adequate funding to strengthen further national institutional and societal capacities and mechanisms for monitoring, promoting and protecting human rights, including for those of children.