We are closely working with the PNP and AFP on the establishment and operationalization of the monitoring, reporting and response system or MRRS with the NCWC which addresses grave child rights violations of children in situations of armed conflicl This is our response or our compliance with the UN Security Council resolution, to establish a monitoring, reporting and response system of victims of grave child rights violations.This will generate a centralized government data base on coordinated and timely response on grave child rights violations in situations of armed conflict The six grave child rights violations include killing and maiming of children and the recruitment and use of children as combatants, as couriers and as kitchen staff, These are also considered as part of grave child rights violation-attacks on schools, abduction of children, rape and other gender based violence and denial of humanitarian access. These are the six grave child rights violations that we would like to monitor and respond to. lls a big challenge. We have started developing agency guidelines particularly AFP and the Department of Education are coming up with guidelines to show what these violations really are. This requires very thorough and specific guidelines. We've been talking about it in so many meetings and until now we are still flne tuning all these guidelines. There is a proposed bill on children in situations of armed conflict that has passed the lower house and is now in the Senate. Our challenges: When will the bill pass? Because that will really provide us the leeway to act on the programs and policies for children caught in situations of armed conflict ln terms of MRRS, a big challenge is how to update our data and our reporting in order to respond. We would like to emphasize that the reporting is not the end goal of this. it is really how we respond to the cases of the children raped in evacuation centers, children that are used as couriers, and some children that are even recruited as combatants by armed groups. How do we provide services such as counseling and reintegration to children. We have these government agencies in this MRRS, our colleagues from the DND, PNP, DSWD, OPAP, DOJ, DepEd and DOH; how do we embark on capacity building. For 2013, we are going to start with a few provinces, and these are the provinces which have high populations or incidences of child rights violations in conflicl The figure that we have for children affected by armed conflict situations is between 30,000 to 40,000 children. The figure reported earlier by Balay, 400,000 is our overall population and these are all lDPs. But the 30,000 to 40,000 is our estimate of children in armed confl ict situations. Proceedings of the Second National Summit on lnternational Humanitarian Law in the Philippines l.L December 20L2 @