CRC/C/MMR/CO/3-4 (b) The State party’s responses, which have not reached children reported to be present in the listed non-State armed groups; and (c) The refusal to allow the international community access to the listed nonState armed groups; and (d) The use of forced labour of children in support of military garrisons or military operations and of non-State armed groups, in activities such as portering, sentry or guard duty and camp-security-fence construction, in particular in ethnic or religious minority regions. 82. The Committee urges the State party to: (a) Strengthen its activities aimed at preventing the use of children in armed conflict by the military, releasing and reintegrating existing child soldiers, and extend these activities to non-State ceasefire groups; (b) Require that a national registration card or original birth certificate be the minimum age verification criteria accepted by the Armed Forces and cease the system of offering incentives to those enlisting new recruits; (c) Identify all children within the ranks of the Armed Forces, register and demobilize them with full family tracing, reunification and reintegration support from UNICEF and other child protection partners; (d) Take the appropriate measures to systematize, institutionalize and strengthen disciplinary processes and/or action against those responsible for aiding and abetting the recruitment of child soldiers, in particular ensure that all persons, including senior officials, who have sponsored, planned, incited, financed or participated in military or paramilitary operations using child soldiers are prosecuted by independent and impartial courts; (e) Facilitate contact between armed groups operating in Myanmar and the United Nations in order to prevent recruitment of children; (f) Ensure that the protection of children in armed conflicts is included as an important aspect of any comprehensive strategy to negotiate transformation of ceasefire groups to border-guard forces or to resolve conflict with other non-State armed groups; (g) Take immediate and effective measures to eliminate child labour in support of military garrisons and operations and of non-State armed groups, in activities such as portering, sentry or guard duty and camp-security-fence construction, in particular in ethnic or religious minority regions, and take the appropriate measures to systematize and institutionalize disciplinary processes and/or action against the military officers and civilians responsible for recruiting and using child labour; (h) Fully implement the recommendations contained in the mission report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict of 23 April 2011; and (i) Ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. Children affected by the armed conflict 83. The Committee is deeply concerned about the impact of the armed conflict on children, including that children remain at risk of being shot in open conflict areas; access to humanitarian services is obstructed in conflict-affected areas; children are killed and 18

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