Rights of the child
A/RES/72/245
and fundamental freedoms, such as the right to education, the right to freedom of
expression, the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and the right to
express their views freely, are used to their fullest;
(k) To ensure the legal protection of children from sexual abuse and
exploitation online and to define it legally, in accordance with international human
rights law and obligations, to criminalize all relevant conduct related to the sexual
exploitation of children online and offline and to ensure that all those in the whole
chain of individuals involved in or attempting to commit suc h criminal activities are
held accountable and brought to justice in order to fight impunity, taking into account
the multi-jurisdictional and transnational nature of child sexual exploitation and abuse
perpetrated online through information and communications technologies;
(l) To protect children deprived of their liberty from torture and other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to ensure that, if they are arrested,
detained or imprisoned, children are provided with prompt access to lega l and other
appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation
of their liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority,
and to a prompt decision on any such action, that, from the momen t they are arrested,
children will have the right to maintain contact with their family through
correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances, that no child is
sentenced or subjected to forced labour or corporal punishment or deprived of acc ess
to and the provision of health care and services, hygiene and environmental sanitation,
nutritious food, education, basic instruction and vocational training, access to safe,
confidential, independent mechanisms to report on violence and that the condi tions
in such settings are regularly and effectively monitored, and to undertake prompt
investigations of all reported acts of violence and ensure that perpetrators are held
accountable;
(m) To consider taking measures for the dissemination and implement ation of
the United Nations Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of
Violence against Children in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, 43
and invites relevant United Nations actors to support Member States, where
appropriate, to this end through concerted efforts;
(n) To improve the situation of children living in poverty, in particular extreme
poverty, deprived of adequate food and nutrition, water and sanitation facilities, with
limited or no access to basic physical and mental health-care services, shelter,
education, participation and protection, taking into account that, while a severe lack
of goods and services hurts every human being, it is particularly threatening and
harmful to children, leaving them unable to enj oy their rights, to reach their full
potential and to participate as a full member of society, and exposed to conditions that
lead to increased violence;
(o) To ensure that the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in
all decisions and actions concerning children, underlining that migrant children,
including undocumented and unaccompanied children, regardless of migratory status,
should be rapidly assigned a legal guardian when unaccompanied and be provided
with effective protection from discrimination and from violence, as well as with
access to due process in all legal and administrative proceedings affecting them,
including for the determination of their age and legal status, and in this context
reaffirms paragraphs 66 and 67 of its resolution 71/177;
(p) To devise, enforce and strengthen effective gender- and age-sensitive
measures to combat and eliminate all forms of trafficking in children, including for
sexual exploitation and forced labour, as part of a comprehensive anti-trafficking
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17-23328
Resolution 69/194, annex.
13/15