CRC/C/GC/13 techniques for positive discipline in order to support families’ capacity to provide children with care in a safe environment; (ii) Providing pre- and post-natal services, home visitation programmes, quality early-childhood development programmes, and income-generation programmes for disadvantaged groups; (iii) Strengthening the links between mental health services, substance abuse treatment and child protection services; (iv) Providing respite programmes and family support centres for families facing especially difficult circumstances; (v) Providing shelters and crisis centres for parents (mostly women) who have experienced violence at home and their children; (vi) Providing assistance to the family by adopting measures that promote family unity and ensure for children the full exercise and enjoyment of their rights in private settings, abstaining from unduly interfering in children’s private and family relations, depending on circumstances. 20 (d) For professionals and institutions (Government and civil society): (i) Identifying prevention opportunities and informing policy and practice on the basis of research studies and data collection; (ii) Implementing, through a participatory process, rights-based child protection policies and procedures and professional ethics codes and standards of care; (iii) Preventing violence in care and justice settings by, inter alia, developing and implementing community-based services in order to make use of institutionalization and detention only as a last resort and only if in the best interest of the child. 48. Identification. 21 This includes identifying risk factors for particular individuals or groups of children and caregivers (in order to trigger targeted prevention initiatives) and identifying signs of actual maltreatment (in order to trigger appropriate intervention as early as possible). This requires that all who come in contact with children are aware of risk factors and indicators of all forms of violence, have received guidance on how to interpret such indicators, and have the necessary knowledge, willingness and ability to take appropriate action (including the provision of emergency protection). Children must be provided with as many opportunities as possible to signal emerging problems before they reach a state of crisis, and for adults to recognize and act on such problems even if the child does not explicitly ask for help. Particular vigilance is needed when it comes to marginalized groups of children who are rendered particularly vulnerable due to their alternative methods of communicating, their immobility and/or the perceived view that they are incompetent, such as children with disabilities. Reasonable accomodation should be provided to ensure that they are able to communicate and signal problems on an equal basis with others. 49. Reporting. 22 The Committee strongly recommends that all States parties develop safe, well-publicized, confidential and accessible support mechanisms for children, their 20 21 22 Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 17 (1989) on the rights of the child; European Court of Human Rights, Olsson vs. Sweden (No. 1), Judgement of 24 March 1988, Series A No. 130, para. 81; Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Velásquez Rodríguez vs. Honduras, Judgement on the Merits, 10 January 1989, Series C, No. 3, para. 172. Paragraphs 48 ff can also be applied to processes in informal and customary systems of justice. See also the Guidelines on Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crime. 19

Select target paragraph3