A/HRC/37/47 D. Building support for partnerships with human rights entities and United Nations mechanisms 51. The Special Representative continues to engage with Member States that have not already ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, with the aim of achieving universal ratification thereof and enhancing the legal protection of children’s rights in conflicts. In the reporting period, she held bilateral meetings with Member States and actively engaged with regional and subregional organizations, civil society and regional groups on the matter. The Central African Republic became a State party to the Optional Protocol during the reporting period. The Special Representative has also used those engagements to push for the endorsement of other instruments that will improve the protection of the rights of children in situations of armed conflict, such as the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups and the Safe Schools Declaration. In that regard, during the reporting period, the Special Representative and her Office worked with the Government of Yemen to support its endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration, which it signed in October. 52. The Special Representative continued to prioritize close cooperation between her Office and international human rights mechanisms, in particular the universal periodic review, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Human Rights Committee. In that regard, her Office submitted three contributions in the previous reporting period to the universal periodic review process on the Philippines, South Sudan and the Syrian Arab Republic. The Special Representative notes that during the review of the Philippines, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in his letter to the Foreign Minister, reiterated the points noted in the submission of the Office of the Special Representative by urging the Government of the Philippines to prioritize the passage of the draft law on children in situations of armed conflict to ensure better protection of children against grave violations in the context of armed conflict and take measures to prevent the abduction and recruitment of children by armed groups. In the case of the Syrian Arab Republic and South Sudan, many Member States highlighted the protection of children in the context of armed conflict during the respective interactive dialogues. The Special Representative encourages the Human Rights Council to continue to address issues related to children and armed conflict for relevant countries; welcomes the practice of adopting concrete recommendations; and encourages references to the relevant findings of treaty bodies and special procedures mandate holders to ensure sustained mainstreaming and follow-up by the various actors involved in the protection of children’s rights. 53. Treaty bodies have continued to play an important role in identifying gaps between the legal and policy framework and the practice regarding children and armed conflict, and have made recommendations to address any shortcomings. In that regard, the Special Representative is encouraged that the situation of children affected by armed conflicts in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been outlined in the respective concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC/C/CAF/CO/2 and CRC/C/COD/CO/3-5). Those are strong concluding observations, which mirror the messaging of the submission of the Office of the Special Representative though their focus on prioritizing peace talks, criminalizing the recruitment and use of children and pursuing accountability for grave violations against children, as well as enhancing disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes for children. During a meeting with the President of the Central African Republic in September, the Special Representative also emphasized these messages and offered the support of the United Nations. Moving forward, the Office will work with United Nations colleagues on the ground in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to provide support for the swift implementation of the important recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. 54. The Special Representative travelled to Geneva on three occasions during the reporting period. In December 2016, the previous Special Representative was invited by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to the ninth annual dialogue on protection challenges on the theme “Children on the move”. In her speech, she focused, among other 14