A/HRC/27/25 informed. It was important to understand local realities, and programmes had to be shaped by those who used them. The challenge ahead for the international community was to mobilize and take practical measures to ensure that children were able to realize their rights and fulfil their true potential, recognizing that access to justice should be tailored to local needs, context-based and responsive to children’s needs. 28. Ms. Bhandari stated that there were 23,000 paralegal members in Nepal, all of them women, all of them volunteers. These women were trained to support children’s access to justice by detecting incidents of violence and abuse against children, and offering early intervention. It was important to protect children both physically and mentally, and to prevent stigmatization and ostracism. This was done by mobilizing both professional and social support, organizing medical treatment, counsellors and legal aid, as well as helping friends and family to provide comfort and support. Paralegals acted as a bridge between the community and the justice system, and offered impartial and non-partisan assistance. They worked at the grass-roots level to educate citizens about children’s rights and access to justice. Ms. Bhandari urged the international community to encourage national Governments to scale up initiatives to ensure children’s access to justice, especially at the community level, as this was where support was needed most. 29. Mr. Roy stated that children deprived of their liberty were at a high risk of having their rights violated. Children in care and justice institutions were at a higher risk of violence than almost all other children, and in such settings often had little recourse to justice or effective avenues for registering complaints. Special attention therefore had to be paid to the additional challenges faced in access to justice by those deprived of their liberty. This included access to legal aid, the creation of independent and specialized ombudspersons, and a safe, accessible and child-friendly complaints mechanism. Accessibility required that children be informed of the existence of and process for using complaints mechanisms, and providing children with assistance and legal aid to submit complaints. A safe complaints procedure required confidentiality when complaints were filed, and throughout the procedure. An effective procedure had to deal with complaints without delay, and keep children informed of the process. Every complaint had to trigger an investigation, and children had to have access to complaints mechanisms without fear of stigmatization, harassment or reprisal. 30. Mr. Bengaly stated that the upsurge of violence in Mali had increased abuse and violations of the rights of children; in particular, the use of children in armed conflict had led to the arrest of many juveniles. Children had had to adopt survival strategies to protect themselves, which often put them in conflict with the law. Access to justice for such children was difficult, particularly given the complex nature of the judicial system. There were no juvenile courts outside the capital, and procedures moved slowly. Sociocultural obstacles persisted; once in conflict with the law, children could be abandoned because of the shame felt by their family, and bear a stigma within the community once released from prison. Those factors made it difficult for children to turn to the courts, so it had become only a last resort, when other means had been exhausted. In a post-crisis country, Mr. Bengaly advocated for the promotion of restorative justice to increase the possibility of assisting children in conflict with the law. 31. Ms. Derain stated that, very often, children were excluded from the justice system because it was impossible for them to know their rights or to realize them themselves. The task of the ombudsman was to ensure the best interests and rights of the child as enshrined in the law and international treaties ratified or approved by France. The children’s ombudsman could be an alternative means of conflict settlement, particularly suited to vulnerable children. It could be an alternative to the courts, and had many powers, including investigation to make it possible to present all relevant information for the court, as well as conducting hearings. It also had the ability to propose legislative reform and to 9