A/HRC/16/56 in child-sensitive case management; (ii) putting in place an effective system of referral of complaints to appropriate authorities, with obligations to investigate where a child may be at risk, and enabling relevant authorities to intervene to protect children in danger; and (iii) child-sensitive judicial proceedings; (c) National human rights institutions should be established in all countries by 2013 to safeguard children’s freedom from violence; they should provide for, inter alia, child-sensitive counselling, reporting and complaint mechanisms; independent monitoring of measures to address violence; and effective remedies and redress, including the possibility of seeking advice and filing complaints before these institutions; (d) Capacity-building and training initiatives should be developed to ensure that those working with and for children have the necessary knowledge and skills, and abide by child rights principles and ethical standards when providing children with counselling when interviewing or supporting them in reporting and complaint proceedings or in relevant recovery and reintegration programmes. These efforts should promote a collaborative and integrated approach among relevant professionals, including in the medical, legal, social and educational areas. Where not available, mental health systems for children and adolescents should be developed; (e) Awareness-raising efforts should be promoted to inform children and their families about children’s rights, and information on effective remedies to address incidents of violence and on available services for assistance and support should be well publicized. Information should be made available on where to benefit from confidential advice, and on how and where to report incidents and lodge complaints. Information and services that are age- and language-appropriate and gender- and disability-sensitive should be put in place to enable access and ensure support to all children without discrimination of any kind; (f) Safety and confidentiality should be safeguarded to protect children and their representatives from any risk of reprisal when complaints are lodged or incidents of violence reported, and to ensure that all actions are carried out in the best interest of the child and with children’s involvement and informed consent. Children must be confident that no information will be shared without their consent and their confidentiality will not be breached, unless there is a well-founded belief that doing so would be necessary to protect them or others from serious harm; (g) Access by children and those acting on their behalf to international and regional mechanisms should be supported when domestic legal remedies fail to protect children; the drafting of the new optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the establishment of a communications procedure provides an essential avenue for addressing incidents of violence through safe and child-sensitive proceedings; (h) Data and research should be strengthened to overcome the invisibility of violence and the persistent lack of information on the outcome of violence-related cases and to evaluate the impact of relevant initiatives on the children concerned. Children’s views and experience should inform this process; (i) Monitoring and evaluation should be strengthened, including for ensuring respect for high professional and ethical standards, and enhancing the effectiveness and positive impact of those mechanisms. With this aim, confidential exit interviews should allow to collect views and comments of children who have used these mechanisms. Hearing these views and responding to them in the development of mechanisms and services is an essential way to move towards greater child sensitivity. 23

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