A/HRC/17/44 received accounts of the presence of children, but would need to undertake further investigation to verify the claims and evaluate the extent of such usage. Information received from other United Nations agencies and in particular the office of the SecretaryGeneral‟s Special Representative on Children in Armed Conflict also raises significant protection concerns relating to children affected by the ongoing conflict in Libya. 2. Applicable law 211. All parties to a non-international armed conflict are under an obligation to provide children with the care and aid they require (art. 4, para. 3, of Protocol II). Measures are to be taken, if necessary, and whenever possible with the consent of their parents of persons responsible for their care, to remove children temporarily from the area in which hostilities are taking place to a safer area within the country (art. 4, para. 3 (e), of Protocol II). Parties are under specific obligations not to recruit children who have not attained the age of 15 years into the armed forces or groups or allowed to take part in hostilities. Children are to be afforded special protection even if they take a direct part in hostilities and are captured (art. 4, para. 3, of Protocol II). Similar provisions are found within article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.185 By ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and making a declaration, Libya has declared 18 years of age as the age of voluntary recruitment. The Optional Protocol also obliges Libya to take all feasible measures to prevent armed groups (separate from the armed forces) recruiting and using in hostilities those under 18 (art. 4). 212. The Rome Statute also includes as a war crime the offence of conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities (art. 8, para. 2 (e) (vii)). 3. (a) Factual findings Use of child soldiers by Government forces 213. Eyewitnesses informed the Commission that many checkpoints controlled by the Government are currently manned by child soldiers. A report of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also contains reference to child soldiers having been reported to be patrolling in the streets, stopping people and asking for the identity cards of those travelling in the west towards the Tunisian borders.186 According to those who have fled Libya, Government forces have distributed a large number of weapons to a wide range of civilians, including children. A 16-year-old wounded soldier who spoke to the United Kingdom-based television company, Channel 4, stated that about 90 young boys between the ages of 15 and 19 had been called to military barracks in Tripoli “for training” as early as on 17 February, when the anti-Government uprising began. Another young soldier captured by the armed opposition stated to the broadcaster that “we were kept locked in the camp and trained a little and then they took us to the battalion”.187 214. The presence of children among the opposition forces in both the west and east of the country also continues to be reported by different sources including United Nations staff, international NGOs and migrant workers who have fled Libya since late February 185 186 187 States are inter alia required to take all feasible measures to ensure persons under 15 do not take a direct part in hostilities, to refrain from recruiting those under 15, and within the age group 15–18, to give priority to the oldest (art. 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child). OCHA Report, Initial Assessment of Migrant Workers from Libya in Tunisia. Ruth Sherlock, “Child soldiers sent by Gaddafi to fight Libyan”, Channel 4 News, 23 April 2011. Available from www.channel4.com/news/child-soldiers-sent-by-gaddafi-to-fight-libyan-rebels. 61