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SRSG Coomaraswamy. 1 June 2009. Recommendations: While the steps taken to date are appreciated, the Government of Myanmar is strongly urged to put into place a tighter mechanism to prevent the recruitment of children and to demobilize unconditionally all children who participate in any capacity in its armed forces, in coordination with the country task force on monitoring and reporting. The Government should, in conjunction with the country task force on monitoring and reporting, address methods for accessing all children who are not the subject of a specific complaint through the ILO mechanism. These should include full and unhindered access of country task force personnel to recruitment centres, training centres and military camps in order to undertake inspections, identify and separate children, and support their reintegration and rehabilitation. In addition, the Government is encouraged to maintain and strengthen the application of the ILO Supplementary Understanding complaints mechanism. The Government is urged, without further delay, to engage with the country task force to finalize the action plan in line with international standards to prevent recruitment of children and release all children associated with armed forces and groups in Myanmar. To this end, the action plan should provide for: the independent, unaccompanied access by the country task force to recruitment centres, military camps and training centres to monitor, report and verify compliance; access to all non-State actors to facilitate dialogue to conclude action plans for the release and effective reintegration of children; the assurance of security and safety of monitors, witnesses and victims; as well as the establishment of a credible age-verification mechanism. The Government is urged to redress the prevailing culture of impunity, to launch investigations into all incidents of recruitment and use of children, to prosecute persons responsible for such acts under the Penal Code, or via instructions or orders, as a matter of priority. Disciplinary processes and action against those responsible for aiding and abetting the recruitment of children, including civilian brokers and some personnel at all levels of the armed forces, must be systematized and institutionalized, and incentives for the recruitment of children removed. To this end, the disciplinary process should be open and transparent and allow for independent verification by the country task force. Building on the limited progress thus far, the Government should, with immediate effect, cease the arrest, harassment and imprisonment of children under the age of 18 for desertion and/or attempting to leave the army, and continue to work with the country task force to monitor such cases and to ensure the swift and unconditional release of the children. To this end, the Government is urged to align its relevant policies to ensure that children are not charged with desertion in the first place, and therefore should not be subject to any criminal charge, imprisonment and/or any other form of harassment. The Government is encouraged to sign and ratify as early as possible the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and to align national legislation and practice with that commitment. While the facilitation by the Government with regard to the Karen National Union-Karenni National Liberation Army Peace Council and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army is recognized, the Government is urged to remove access restrictions on the United Nations to all other non-State actors, as well as to contested and ceasefire areas, in order to facilitate the necessary discussions of the country task force with those actors and allow regular visits to recruitment centres, training centres and military camps to monitor and verify the absence of children under the age of 18. The continued inability of the country task force to access and meet the Karen National Union and Karenni National Progressive Party remains a concern. The concerned Governments are encouraged to assist in this effort of the country task force and facilitate its immediate engagement with KNU and KNPP, in the light of their declared commitments to cease the recruitment and use of children, in order to enable monitoring and independent verification of compliance, and to provide appropriate assistance to demobilize, reintegrate and rehabilitate children from those groups. The continued lack of humanitarian access in Myanmar, particularly in contested and ceasefire areas, is an impediment to providing much needed humanitarian assistance. Under the principle of the “best interest of the child” the Government is called upon to ensure full, unhindered and safe humanitarian access for children, to allow free passage for the delivery of humanitarian assistance by the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations to all parts of the country, without exception, and to respect the exclusively impartial nature of humanitarian aid. In this regard, the Government is urged to facilitate and cooperate with United Nations efforts, through the provision of visas, in-country travel authorizations, unescorted access, confidentiality and security. While the largely unimpeded access given in the Delta is acknowledged, the Government is urged to facilitate similar access provisions to all vulnerable areas of the country. It is recommended that the Government continue its comprehensive education and awareness-raising activities for the Tatmadaw Kyi, particularly regional commanders, military recruiters and active service personnel of various ranks in all military training schools at the national, regional and divisional levels, with support from the country task force. The activities should direct military personnel to refuse the recruitment of children, and instruct them on the investigation, prosecution and disciplinary actions that will be undertaken for recruitment in contravention of applicable international law, Myanmar national law and relevant Military Defence Council directives. The country task force should, in cooperation with the Government, strengthen its monitoring and reporting capacity with a view to improving its work, in particular to enhance monitoring and reporting on all grave violations against children in Myanmar through increased staffing and geographical coverage; to ensure the implementation of appropriate interventions to respond to these grave violations, including prevention, protection, release and reintegration support, and justice for children affected by armed conflict; as well as to sustain a reduction of instances of such grave violations. The country task force is called upon to continue to establish systematic protection dialogue with all parties to the conflict with the goal of creating concrete, time-bound action plans to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers and to address other grave violations as appropriate. (paragraphs 66 to 78)