A/HRC/21/31 C. Concluding remarks 23. Mr. Caparros Linares referred to the important role that schools have in prevention and in teaching young people not to consume drugs. He also referred to the important supportive role played by educators in centres where young people in conflict with the law were held, particularly in teaching them self-esteem, discipline, dialogue, and providing at the same time the psychosocial support they needed with respect, dignity and affection. 24. Ms. Bissell stressed the importance of taking a holistic approach to justice for children, interlinking justice systems with social and educational systems. She referred to birth registration as a fundamental aspect of a child protection system. Birth registration and age determination were essential to ensure the protection of children; there were currently 220 million children under the age of 5, particularly in the South, who did not have birth certificates. She also said that a critical part of the child protection work done by UNICEF was family strengthening and support as part of its prevention strategies—early detection of vulnerability in families was critical to strengthen social protection measures. 25. Mr. Cardona Llorens said that many States asked for guidance on how to respect the rights of the child in juvenile justice and that it was important to think about restorative justice. Specialized justice systems for children should be based on the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and should use new approaches and alternative measures. Juvenile justice systems should be adapted to young people and should steer them away from criminal proceedings for small crimes. Judicial proceedings and incarceration should be used only in serious cases, and instead States should resort to other measures, such as mediation between victims and offenders or community-based approaches. It was necessary to think about new realities; children were clearly showing qualitative and quantitative reduction in “traditional” offences. New forms of offences were emerging, such as cybercrime and crimes committed in families, which judicial systems were generally not well prepared to deal with. 26. Ms. Sloth-Nielsen said that introducing a floor of basic social security protection was the most important measure to prevent children from falling into vulnerability due to extreme poverty. The identification of children most at risk of social exclusion was also an important preventive measure, as those children were disproportionately represented in all forms of detention centres. She indicated that the biggest progress in juvenile justice had been made in terms of legislative reform. The role of international cooperation was vital to developing capacity and sound justice systems worldwide. There was also a wealth of academic, practical and programmatic information available which would be useful to adapt—much on restorative justice, but also educational programmes—and encouraged international cooperation in enhancing justice systems for children. 27. Ms. de la Vega said preventive measures were needed to protect children from childhood onwards, particularly from abuse by parents. It was important to have support for psychological problems as well. Children with psychological problems or suffering from abuse were more likely to be sentenced to extreme punishments. Legislative reform was a requirement to ensure that extreme penalties could not be applied to minors. A prohibition of extreme penalties should not only be applied at the federal level, but also at the level of states, provinces and regions in the case of federal systems. When the death penalty is abolished the option must not be to sentence children to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 8