A/73/178/Rev.1 countries that offer the possibility of challenging the decision or the outcome of age assessment. 66 62. The language barrier, which prevents children from maintaining smooth communication with operators or officials, is also an important element. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child establishes judicial safeguards for refugee children, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and persons accused of committing crimes, noting the obligations of States to provide an interpreter and legal assistance and to explain the procedure in a language that the child understands. When these safeguards are provided for children and adolescents, they are able to gain a clear understanding of their situation, of the help they need and how to obtain it. For its part, the judicial or administrative body can clearly identify the legal issue affecting the child and thus provide timely and effective care and advice. 63. Organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) provide tailored assistance to unaccompanied migrant children through information, interpretation, legal advice, social support and family tracing and reunification. For example, in Bulgaria, UNICEF noted that unaccompanied child and adolescent migrants were being detained owing to a lack of clear procedures for identifying and assessing the child’s best interests, interpreters working with the police, cooperation with the child protection system or availability of social services. The detention of such children and adolescents in Bulgaria decreased significantly in 2017 after a series of measures was adopted. These included the creation of temporary assistance facilities for children and adolescents; the adoption of an effective mechanism for the designation of a guardian and a procedure for determining the best interests of the child; referral mechanisms; safe accommodation; and a legal reform prohibiting the detention of unaccompanied children and adolescents and requiring their referral to the child protection system for child protection measures to be taken, in compliance with the applicable international norms and standards. 67 64. Another crucial element of access to justice is training judicial and administrative officials and ensuring they acquire the necessary expertise with regard to childhood. The right to due process cannot be effectively applied without an effort to understand elements such as the progressive autonomy of children, their understanding of the world and their non-verbal language, which require special tools to be interpreted. In the inter-American system, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled on the issue 68 and has adopted the Ibero-American Protocol for Legal Action to improve access to justice for individuals and groups in vulnerable situations, with special emphasis on justice with a gender perspective, of 2014. 2. Migrant women 65. Migrant women have particular protection needs to ensure their effective access to justice in view of the sex- and gender-based discrimination they experience: they are less visible and less protected by virtue of their employment as domestic workers and in the informal sector; they experience discrimination in access to family reunification and naturalization programmes; and they are more likely than men to be detained and criminalized for their migration status. 69 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has noted that women workers have __________________ 66 Submission by ICJ/ECRE. 67 Submission by UNICEF Bulgaria. Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Advisory Opinion 17/02 of 28 Augus t 2002 on the legal status and human rights of children, and Advisory Opinion 21/14 of 19 August 2014 on the rights and guarantees of children in the context of migration and/or in need of international protection. Submission by IOM. Centro de los Derechos del Migrante collects data on wom en’s experiences in connection with sexual harassment and abuse through its Migrant Women Project. 68 69 16/20 18-15902

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