A/HRC/17/46 collection and research on children in street situations, as well as the importance of using a gender-sensitive approach to protecting them. She highlighted the recommendations made by human rights mechanisms, particularly the Committee on the Rights of the Child, concerning the development of proactive policies and programmes of prevention, support to families and strengthening of assistance, including in education, health care, food and shelter. She stated that children in street situations should not be treated as delinquents, but that they should instead be provided with preventive and rehabilitative services. She emphasized that advocacy needed to be accompanied by coordinated actions among Governments, United Nations agencies, civil society, local communities and children themselves, and called on the Human Rights Council to make concrete recommendations following the day of annual discussion. 29. According to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children the true measure of a nation’s standing was assessed by how much it invested in children and how well it fulfilled children’s human rights. The recognition of these rights tended to fade away in the situation of children living or working in the street and was replaced by stigma, indifference, invisibility and fear. She stated that, with rapid urbanization, the number of children in the streets tended to grow, and with them, inequity, exclusion and violence. She stressed that addressing the situation of these children was a human rights imperative. Girls were at special risk: in addition to negative social attitudes, they endured sexual abuse and exploitation; faced early pregnancy and enhanced responsibilities as mothers of a new generation of street children; and still too often, they ended up in detention for deviant behaviour “for their own protection”. This dramatic pattern was seriously worsened by political instability. Across regions, there was a worrying trend to criminalize children living and/or working on the street. As noted in the United Nations study on violence against children, these children were demonized for activities that in no way warranted the kind of cruel and gratuitous violence that they endured. She concluded by explaining that it was crucial that national legislation be enacted to prohibit all forms of violence against children, everywhere and at all times, and that it was imperative that status offences, such as begging, truancy and vagrancy, be abolished. She also stressed the urgent need to establish and make widely available safe, childsensitive and confidential counselling for children working or living on the street and to provide reporting and complaint mechanisms to address incidents of violence. 30. The Deputy Inspector General of Police of Sindh (Pakistan) stated that, given that street children were more likely to come into conflict with the law, police officers had to be aware of different issues, including juvenile justice matters and drug abuse. Police perception of street children played a crucial role in shaping the response to the phenomenon; sensitization about street children and their rights was therefore essential. He outlined the issues and challenges the Sindh police had been dealing with, most of which affected all developing countries. There was an increasing awareness in the police leadership of the need to improve the handling of street children in large cities. Pakistan had taken a number of measures to that effect, including the establishment of five model child rights desks in Sindh province, the preparation of a police training manual on the juvenile justice system, and short courses and awareness-raising workshops for police officers on the rights of street children. Good practices needed to be institutionalized and replicated in other provinces and countries, and the capacity-building of police authorities needed to be expedited. Community policing matters should be encouraged to take street children off the street and reintegrate them back into society. 31. The Director of Proyecto meninos e meninas da rua stated that the reality of children living in the street is increasingly present but is forgotten in States’ agendas. The lack of adequate and timely answer by States, constant negative references by the media and the lack of support from society in general increases the stigma and exclusion of children in the street, moving them away from true permanent alternatives and solutions. Children on the 9