A/HRC/4/31 page 18 B. Global initiatives 69. The International Centre of Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) is a global agency founded in 1998 working for the well-being of children through activism, policy development and multinational coordination. It encourages the creation of new national, operational centres that are based on a public-private partnership model and established with the support of the national Government such as the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States and Child Focus in Belgium. The main objective of ICMEC is to develop in interested nations those centres including at minimum: a call centre, a photo distribution system and linkages with law enforcement by offering training, model policies and procedures, and technical support. A network comprised of 17 countries has also been developed. In fact, the Global Missing Children Network is a central and multilingual database featuring information about and photographs of missing children; 17 websites feed into it. 70. A number of countries have also demonstrated their interest in working closely with ICMEC, such as Costa Rica, Romania and South Africa. The South African Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (SACMEC) was launched in April 2004. The scope of its activities is broad but its flagship project is the tracing and recovery of missing children. Reported cases of missing children are dealt with following specific operational guidelines. These cases are immediately reported to SACMEC and each case is assigned to a dedicated case manager, who reports to the Director, liaises closely with relevant law-enforcement agencies and facilitates the sharing of information and resources. The SACMEC support staff also ensures the rapid dissemination of information on cases and assists in the process of repatriation, rehabilitation and follow-up counselling. Finally, cases of cross-border abduction are handled by SACMEC in cooperation with Interpol. C. National initiatives: National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children 71. The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), based in the United States of America, is a non-governmental organization founded upon the concept of public-private partnership. Congress provides the core funding but NCMEC remains a private entity. Since 1984, it has handled 2 million calls through its 24-hour call centre, disseminated millions of photos of missing children, and trained 211,000 professionals. Its recovery rate has climbed from 62 per cent in 1990 to 96 per cent today. Several divisions and programmes related to missing and abducted children exist within NCMEC. 72. The “AMBER Alert Plan” (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies and broadcasters to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases so as to instantly galvanize the entire community. NCMEC’s goal is to offer technical assistance and training, in concert with the United States Department of Justice, to all AMBER Alert Plans. A set of criteria have been put up in order to ensure a smooth AMBER Alert system. The main criteria are that the child has to encounter an imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death and that there is enough descriptive information on him/her. A toll-free call centre that operates a 24-hour hotline is also made available. The Case Analysis and Support Division works to identify patterns between cases from across the United States. Furthermore, “Code Adam” was created and promoted by