CRC/C/CRI/CO/4 Independent monitoring 15. While taking note of the long tradition of the Ombudsman Office (Defensoría de los Habitantes) working in accordance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (Paris Principles), which to date has received and dealt with complaints from or on behalf of children, the Committee recommends that the State party create a specialized unit for the promotion and protection child rights and provide it with the necessary human, technical and financial resources. In that regard, the Committee draws the State party’s attention to its general comment No. 2 (2002) on the role of independent human rights institutions in the promotion and protection of the rights of the child. Allocation of resources 16. While welcoming the constitutional increase of financial resources for education, the Executive Decree to coordinate all resources allocated to the social sectors under the Joint Institute on Social Aid and the fact that the National Child Welfare Agency (PANI) was exempt from recent budget cuts affecting all public institutions, the Committee remains concerned that the continued lack of an adequate and stable budget for all public institutions dealing with the comprehensive promotion and protection of child rights, both at the national and local levels, may undermine their effectiveness. 17. The Committee recommends that the State party ensure a stable and sufficient budget for the National Policy on Children and Adolescents, its Action Plan and the coordination system chaired by PANI, thus enabling those mechanisms to meet their goals and targets. In line with the recommendations resulting from its day of general discussion on “Resources for the rights of the child - Responsibility of States” (2007), the Committee encourages the State party to: (a) Increase the level of social investment for the promotion and protection of child rights, ensuring expansion and equitable allocation to disadvantaged regions and groups and addressing gender and ethnic disparities; (b) Utilize a child rights’ approach in the elaboration of the State budget by implementing a tracking system for the allocation and the use of resources for children throughout the budget, thus providing visibility on investment on children and enabling monitoring and evaluation; (c) When possible, implement the United Nations recommendation to start budgeting-by-results to monitor and assess the effectiveness of resource allocation; (d) Continue protecting children’s and social budgets from any external or internal instability, such as situations of economic crisis, natural disasters or other emergencies, in order to maintain the sustainability of investments; (e) Define strategic budgetary lines for those situations that may require affirmative social measures, such as birth registration, especially with regard to indigenous and migrant children; (f) Ensure proper accountability by municipal and national authorities in an open and transparent way that enables participation by communities and children in budget formulation and monitoring, as appropriate; and (g) Seek technical assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other international organizations, as appropriate. 4