PSC/PR/BR.(CDXXXIV community-based child protection networks; building partnerships with community-based structures; and prioritizing children’s participation in their own protection, were all at the center of ensuring the protection of children in armed conflicts on the continent. Participants and Council expressed sympathy to the families of more than 200 Nigerian girls who were abducted from their school in north-eastern Nigeria and to the Federal Government of Nigeria. They urged those responsible for their abduction to immediately release them unharmed and for the Nigerian authorities to ensure that they are successfully re-united with their families. In this regard, Participants and Council called for concerted efforts to prevent violations of children’s rights and the need for AU Member States to take robust punitive measures against the perpetrators of violations against children. Participants and Council stressed the need for governments to institutionalize the protection of children within their disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) and security sector reform (SSR) programmes, as well as to include rehabilitation of former child soldiers particularly in countries emerging from conflicts. In accordance with both continental and international instruments, particularly Article 22 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Participants and Council called on all State and Non-State actors to strictly adhere to International Humanitarian Law. In this regard, Participants and Council welcomed the Declaration signed in September 2013 between the AU and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflicts, to mainstream the protection of children in all peace and security activities of the AU. Participants also welcomed the steps being undertaken by the AU in mainstreaming child protection activities in its peace support operations. Participants and Council called on AU Member States to extend a standing invitation to the ACERWC to visit their respective countries and to collaborate with the Committee to ensure that there is no impunity to the violation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Participants and Council welcomed the ‘Children, Not Soldiers’ Campaign by the SRSG and UNICEF aimed at ending the recruitment of children by government forces by 2016 and called on the SRSG/CAAC, the AUC and the ACERWC to develop a partnership for the success of this Campaign. Participants and Council recommended the appointment of an AU Special Envoy for Children in Africa to sustain efforts in the protection of children’s rights in the context of armed conflict on the continent. They also called for further strengthening of the capacity of the ACERWC, as well as for the re-doubling of efforts in mobilizing funding for child protection related activities including within the framework of the 2013-2023 Plan of Action. In the same vein, they stressed 3