CRC/C/15/Add.227 page 2 B. Positive aspects 4. The Committee notes with appreciation the efforts to improve coordination of policy through, inter alia, the establishment of a Youth Commissioner in the Netherlands in 2004. 5. The Committee welcomes the efforts to improve the participation of youth in policy-making through, inter alia, the establishment of a National Youth Council and a Youth Parliament in Aruba in 2003. 6. The Committee welcomes legislative reform aimed at improving implementation of the Convention, in particular: (a) Amendments to criminal law provisions on sexual offences in Aruba in 2003; (b) The adoption of the Work and Care Act in 2001; (c) The entry into force of the Disablement Assistance (Young Persons) Act in 1998. 7. The Committee also notes with appreciation that the State party has met the United Nations target of allocating at least 0.7 per cent of gross national income to official development assistance. C. Principal areas of concern and recommendations 1. General measures of implementation The Committee’s previous recommendations 8. The Committee notes with satisfaction that various concerns and recommendations (see CRC/C/15/Add.114 of 26 October 1996) made upon the consideration of the State party’s initial report on the Netherlands (CRC/C/51/Add.1) have been addressed through legislative measures and policies. However, recommendations regarding, inter alia, the establishment of an independent mechanism to monitor children’s rights such as an ombudsman for children (para. 12), alternative care and the need for alternatives to residential institutions for children deprived of a family (para. 16), female genital mutilation (para. 18) and human rights education (para. 21), have not been given sufficient follow-up. The Committee notes that those concerns and recommendations are reiterated in the present document. 9. The Committee urges the State party to make every effort to address those recommendations in the concluding observations on the initial report that have not yet been implemented and to address the ones contained in the present concluding observations with respect to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Reservations 10. The Committee is concerned about the reservations to articles 26, 37 and 40 entered by the State party on its accession to the Convention.