A/HRC/22/58 rehabilitate victims. In Kachin State, where armed conflict continues, he urges authorities to begin the process of demining in the areas where the conflict has ceased. 44. Following the signing of the Joint Action Plan in June 2012 to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers, the Government released 42 underage recruits and monitoring by the United Nations Task Force commenced. Additionally, ethnic armed groups, including the Karenni National Progressive Party and the New Mon State Party signed agreements in November with an international NGO to eliminate the use of child soldiers and to institute measures to protect children caught in conflict-affected areas. Given that underage recruitment has reportedly not ceased and continues to be practised by the military and a number of armed groups, the Special Rapporteur reiterates that the United Nations and other independent actors must be provided with access to recruitment centres and conflict areas to monitor implementation of the Joint Action Plan. 45. The Special Rapporteur has also previously highlighted systematic and endemic discrimination faced by ethnic minority groups, including policies preventing the teaching of minority languages in schools, restrictions on the freedom of religion or belief and economic deprivation. For example, he continues to receive allegations of discriminatory regulations and restrictions on the construction and renovation of Christian places of worship in Chin State, the destruction of Christian crosses and the construction of Buddhist places of worship using forced labour from Chin Christians. He also continues to receive allegations of coerced conversions to Buddhism at the Government’s Border Areas National Races Youth Development Training (Na Ta La) Schools across the country. He renews his call for ethnic minorities to be granted fundamental rights, as enshrined in the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities. IV. Situation in Rakhine State 46. The Special Rapporteur believes that Rakhine State is going through a profound crisis that threatens to spread to other parts of the country and has the potential to undermine the entire reform process in Myanmar. Both Muslim and Buddhist Rakhine communities continue to suffer the consequences of violence that the Government has finally been able to control, though question marks remain over the extent to which excessive force has been used. 47. Since the Special Rapporteur’s report to the General Assembly last year, a new wave of violence in October saw a further 37,000 displaced, the vast majority of whom were Rohingya but with Kaman Muslims also targeted. The current number of internally displaced persons in Rakhine State now stands at approximately 120,000. 48. The Presidential Announcement 2/2012 of 31 October 2012 stated that from 21 to 30 October 2012, 89 people were killed (bringing the total to nearly 200 deaths), 136 wounded and 5,351 houses burnt down. There have also been ongoing allegations of harassment, arbitrary arrests, arbitrary restriction of movement, destruction of places of worship and restrictions on religious worship. The 27-member Investigation Commission set up by the President on 17 August 2012 to investigate the violence was originally due to present its report on 16 November 2012, but is now scheduled to present its report on 31 March 2013. 49. The Special Rapporteur continues to receive widely divergent information on the scale of human rights violations in Rakhine State, particularly with regard to the number of deaths, injuries and victims of sexual assault committed during the violence. He reiterates the importance of the Investigation Commission’s report addressing the issue of human rights violations in Rakhine State. If, following the publication of this report, allegations of 11