A/HRC/37/47 Sustainable Development Goals to endeavour to reach those who are the furthest behind, by working in partnership to ensure that children affected by armed conflict are protected from recruitment and use, provided with education and given the ability to live their lives in a heathy and peaceful manner. 6. To this end, as mandated by the General Assembly, the Special Representative plans to establish the capacity to enhance synergies among different United Nations agencies, regional and subregional organizations, international and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society to raise further awareness of the six grave violations against children. In coordination with Geneva-based entities, the Special Representative considers it vital to commence exercises on lessons learned to identify best practices through research, analysis, assessment and working partnerships that can shed further light on the past 20 years of the collective work of the Organization on children and armed conflict, and identify difficulties encountered in strengthening the protection of children and ongoing trends and dynamics to inform future action. 7. It is essential to engage additional actors in pursuit of greater protection of children’s rights and enhance engagement with actors where partnerships are already in place. In that regard, the Human Rights Council has reaffirmed that regional arrangements play an important role in promoting and protecting human rights. 1 The Special Representative therefore considers that partnerships with regional and subregional organizations can be developed or further advanced to secure politically or legally binding instruments to strengthen the prevention of violations in situations of armed conflict and facilitate programmatic responses when violations do occur. Among the regional organizations with which the Special Representative envisions enhancing engagement are the African Union, the League of Arab States and the European Union. Similarly, the Special Representative hopes to continue and strengthen the existing collaboration with such organizations as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the pursuit of best practices and with the aim of supporting the development of additional operational procedures that adequately take into account child protection concerns. 8. Engagement will also be pursued with subregional organizations, including the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Economic Community of Central African States and the Andean Community. Such engagement has historical roots in the work of the Office of the Special Representative; focusing on subregional organizations has the potential to be a multiplier for further progress. For instance, in the early 2000s, ECOWAS progressively integrated child protection into its policies and institutions, including through the adoption of the Accra Declaration and Plan of Action on War-Affected Children, at the Conference on War-Affected Children in West Africa, held in Ghana on 27 and 28 April 2000; established a child protection unit in its secretariat; and endorsed an agenda for action for war-affected children in West Africa at the ECOWAS summit in 2003. The Special Representative plans to contribute to further progress by supporting the re-establishment of such instruments and mechanisms and creating new partnerships to leverage the tools of a broad range of subregional organizations. 9. The additional focus on advocacy and lessons learned will feed into the overarching goal of the mandate, namely strengthening the protection of the rights of children affected by armed conflict. It is envisioned that lessons learned and raising public awareness will aid interactions with parties to conflict when violations against children occur. Best practices can be used to assist parties to conflict who demonstrate a willingness to better protect children by ensuring that the conduct of hostilities complies with international standards. When a party to conflict is open to entering into dialogue, the plethora of best practices that have been developed over the past 20 years can guide technical discussions on protecting children’s rights. However, to draw on the full potential of those best practices, it will be important to compile, capture and make them available to Governments, protection actors and other relevant entities. Awareness-raising, on the other hand, can be used to put pressure on belligerents who do not demonstrate the same willingness to improve their 1 4 See Council resolution 34/17.