A/HRC/21/38 legislation to explicitly prohibit and criminalize the recruitment of children into armed forces or groups and their use in hostilities. 67. States parties should also establish mechanisms to identify children who have been or may have been recruited or used in hostilities, and provide such children with the necessary assistance, including psychological and psychological rehabilitation and social integration, and prohibit the export of arms to countries where children are being recruited or used in hostilities. 68. States parties to the Convention and to the Optional Protocol are further urged to implement the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child as a matter of priority and to submit timely reports to the Committee under the Optional Protocol. To this end, States parties are encouraged to establish effective interministerial coordination mechanisms with a view to ensuring comprehensive measures to prevent and protect children from offences under the Optional Protocol. 69. States are encouraged to establish 18 years as the minimum age for voluntary recruitment into armed forces when depositing their binding declaration upon ratification of the Optional Protocol. Those States that have ratified but not adopted what is known as the “straight-18 position”1 are urged to reconsider their declarations and to raise the minimum age to 18 years. 70. Since ratification and the implementation processes of the Optional Protocol place a clear burden on the resources of those States willing to ratify the instrument, leadership by one or more countries that have already ratified is encouraged, to provide guidance and other forms of assistance. 71. The Special Representative urges the international community to continue to advocate 18 years as the minimum age for recruitment and participation in hostilities; to exert international pressure on parties that continue to recruit and use children; to monitor and compel adherence by parties to conflict to commitments made to protect children, and to hold them accountable for failure to comply with international standards; to address the political, social and economic factors facilitating the recruitment and use of children; and to respond to the rehabilitation and reintegration needs of former child soldiers. B. Universal periodic review 72. During the universal periodic review process, States are urged to include, as appropriate, in their recommendations to the State under review specific references to information from the monitoring and reporting mechanism on grave violations against children established in accordance with Security Council resolution 1612 (2005), in addition to the country conclusions adopted and recommendations made by the Working Group of the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict, as appropriate. 73. The concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on reports submitted by States parties under the Optional Protocol to the Convention should also be taken into consideration by the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review when reviewing a State submission under the review process. 1 16 See A/HRC/15/58, para. 17.