CRC/C/15/Add.137 page 2 B. Follow-up measures undertaken and progress achieved by the State party 3. The State party’s accession to the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Sanction and Eradicate Violence against Women (Belem do Pará) (1995), the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (1994), and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (2000) is regarded as a positive measure. 4. The establishment of structures for the promotion and protection of children’s rights, such as the Oidor del Niño and of the children section within the Office of the Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo), are welcomed by the Committee as follow-up measures to its recommendations (see CRC/C/15/Add.30, para. 14). 5. The Committee welcomes the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Government of Colombia and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (1996) for the establishment of a human rights monitoring office and advisory services programme. 6. The enactment of Law 49-99 (December 1999), raising the minimum age for recruitment for military service to 18 years, is regarded as a positive measure by the Committee. 7. In the light of its recommendation (CRC/C/15/Add.30, para. 19), the Committee welcomes the State party’s conclusion of the domestic process for the ratification of ILO Convention No. 138 concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment (1973). 8. The Committee welcomes the fact that the State party initiated, organized and hosted, in cooperation with UNICEF, the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Summit for Children (1998), to evaluate the goals established for this region during the 1990 World Summit for Children and their achievement. C. Factors and difficulties impeding further progress in the implementation of the Convention 9. Although the State party is undertaking efforts to find a peaceful solution to the ongoing armed conflict, the Committee is concerned that the general climate of violence largely caused by or related to this conflict is not only negatively affecting the implementation of the Convention but has led to systemic violations of children’s rights. 10. The Committee is also concerned about the direct effects of the armed conflict: the high death toll, large-scale internal displacement of children and their families, and the destruction of educational and health infrastructure and of water collection, purification and distribution systems, of the national economy, of agricultural production and of communication infrastructure, all of which have a very negative impact on the development of children and seriously hamper the implementation of many of the rights of the majority of children in the State party.