A/HRC/4/72 page 6 14. Also on 12 September, OHCHR sent letters to the following organizations, drawing attention to paragraph 15 of the resolution and requesting the submission of relevant reports: the United Nations Development Programme, the Office of the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral for children and armed conflict, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Labour Organization and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 15. In November 2005, OHCHR circulated a questionnaire to UN and NGO representatives in African countries. The questionnaire was aimed at eliciting an overview as to the nature and extent of abduction of children in each country. The responses to this questionnaire were evaluated in February 2006. 16. Four UN agency offices and eight NGOs from ten countries, responded to the questionnaires. For the respective countries, the survey identified purposes for which children are, or have in the past been, abducted, locations where abductions take place, the identity of abductors, their methods of abduction, conditions of children’s captivity, existing national legislation, as well as state programmes and services by other actors to prevent abduction and enforce legislation. III. INFORMATION PROVIDED BY MEMBER STATES 17. In a letter dated 12 October 2005, the Government of Lebanon provided information on its legal framework and provisions relating to abduction of children. It noted that the Criminal Code does not address the issue of abduction of children per se, but does address the issue of children deported illegally. The law states that a person abducting or hiding a child less than 7 years old, or exchanging or illegally handing a child over to the child’s father, is liable for imprisonment for a period not less than five years. Article 495 of the Criminal Code states that a person abducting a child under 18 years, even with consent, can be imprisoned for six months to three years; if the child is under 12 years of age, the penalty would be stricter, including hard labour. The letter further notes that Lebanon has ratified the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and has entered into agreements on child deportation with France and Canada. The Higher Council for Childhood has made efforts to gather relevant actors to analyse the issues and monitor cases, with a view to proposing mechanisms to protect children pre-emptively and to return abducted children to their parents. 18. In a letter dated 27 October 2005, the Government of Japan provided “responses to the Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/43 of 19 April 2005 entitled ‘Abduction of children in Africa’, particularly to its paragraph 10 which requests States to provide African States and African regional mechanisms with the necessary assistance, including technical assistance, in order to devise appropriate programmes to combat abduction of children and to protect refugee and internally displaced children in Africa who are exposed to the risk of being abducted, and to develop and implement programmes for the reintegration of children in the peace process and in the post-conflict recovery and reconstruction phase”. The letter noted the following: • As of October 5, 2005, the Government of Japan had disbursed US$ 52.78 million to UNHCR for the purposes of supporting refugees, internally displaced persons and other persons of concern to UNHCR in 2005;