A/HRC/13/43 address, or address adequately, violations of their rights; (d) adequate reparation for children whose rights had been violated. 42. According to the expert, many States still failed to provide effective remedies, as they considered children as objects rather than subjects of rights. Attention was drawn in this respect to the particular vulnerability of children with disabilities. He emphasized that often children could act only through their parents. However, in many cases (civil, penal or administrative) there were risks of a conflict of interest between the parents and the child. 43. The lack of adequate remedies at the national level had been highlighted in the 2006 Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children. Furthermore, although in its general comment No. 2, the Committee on the Rights of the Child had requested States parties to empower their respective national human rights institutions to consider individual complaints on behalf of or by children, that goal had not been generally achieved. 44. Ideally, according to the expert, remedies should be available at the national level. Unfortunately, that was rarely the case in practice. The process of elaboration, adoption and coming into force of an optional protocol could intensify access to and better functioning of national mechanisms. 45. The expert pointed out that States had not denied access to international remedies to adults when national mechanisms failed to provide an adequate response. Accordingly, a different approach should not exist in relation to children. Furthermore, it should be kept in mind that children have a special status. 46. As to the requirement of exhaustion of domestic remedies, the expert stressed that that requirement should refer only to remedies which are accessible to the child or his/her representative, and which are not unduly delayed. Furthermore, special measures to protect the child from threats in connection with the submission of a communication must be envisaged. 47. According to the expert, the optional protocol should also allow the Committee to carry out inquiries for mass violations under the Convention. A collective complaint mechanism, without identification of the specific victims, could also be envisaged. All procedures envisaged should be child-sensitive and child-friendly. In conclusion, the expert stressed the need to ensure consistency and coherence among the envisaged procedure(s) and those already existing. A new optional protocol could only be an additional tool to ensure better enjoyment by children of their rights. 48. Regarding the proposal to have a collective complaint mechanism, several States parties indicated that that issue needed to be further explored. A distinction should be made between collective complaints filed by identifiable individuals, and complaints where no individualization was possible. 49. A number of delegations pointed out that the Inter-American Commission/Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights had already referred in their respective jurisprudence to provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and that had facilitated the application of the Convention’s provisions by domestic courts. Some delegations insisted on the complementary nature of the regional and international mechanisms of human rights protection. An optional protocol could only further develop this complementarity. 50. One delegation suggested that the new optional protocol include guidelines on the main features of national human rights institutions dealing with children’s issues. 51. Several delegations provided information on their respective children protection mechanisms and practices, including on the issue of representation, and provided examples of good practices. Many insisted that the protection of children at the national level should 10 GE.10-10385