Prevention, response and solutions
(g) Recommends that States, UNHCR and other relevant agencies and partners
work in close collaboration to prevent children from being put at heightened risk,
and respond, as necessary, through the general prevention, response and
solution measures listed non-exhaustively below:
•
Within the framework of the respective child protection systems of States,
utilize appropriate procedures for the determination of the child's best
interests which facilitate adequate child participation without
discrimination: where the views of the child are given due weight in
accordance with age and maturity; where decision makers with relevant
areas of expertise are involved; and where there is a balancing of all
relevant factors in order to assess the best option;
•
In the case of UNHCR, conduct best interests determinations respecting
child protection systems of States in cooperation with other relevant
agencies and partners;
•
Incorporate needs and rights of children into early warning mechanisms,
alerts and contingency plans, and ensure integration of child-based risk
analysis into inter-agency assessments relevant to children at risk and
development cooperation strategies and plans;
•
Establish confidential, accessible and child and gender-friendly complaints
and referral systems, in coordination with national authorities when
necessary, with clear roles for receiving, referring and addressing
complaints from or about a child while ensuring the safety of the child, and
for managing case files; children should be adequately informed about the
availability of complaint and remedial mechanisms;
•
Promote the implementation of mechanisms for monitoring the protection
of children at risk, particularly of those in alternative care arrangements;
•
Strengthen or promote the establishment of child protection committees,
as appropriate, with equal and meaningful participation of girls and boys;
•
Facilitate access to administrative or judicial procedures of States that are
in accordance with their international obligations and that allow for the
prosecution of perpetrators of crimes committed against children, and in
which decisions on whether a child should be separated from her or his
abusive or negligent parents or caretakers are made based on a
determination of the child's best interests;
•
Develop child and gender-sensitive national asylum procedures, where
feasible, and UNHCR status determination procedures with adapted
procedures including relevant evidentiary requirements, prioritized
processing of unaccompanied and separated child asylum-seekers,
qualified free legal or other representation for unaccompanied and
separated children, and consider an age and gender-sensitive application
of the 1951 Convention through the recognition of child-specific
manifestations and forms of persecution, including under-age recruitment,
child trafficking and female genital mutilation;
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