CRC/C/GC/21 support the critical role of social workers, including street-based workers, in early detection, providing support to families with children at risk and to children in street situations. Professionals should be involved in participatory development of operating procedures, good practice guidelines, strategic directives, plans, performance standards and disciplinary codes, and should receive support to implement these in practice. States should facilitate sensitization and training for other stakeholders who come into direct or indirect contact with children in street situations, such as transport workers, media representatives, community and spiritual/religious leaders and private sector actors, who should be encouraged to adopt the Children’s Rights and Business Principles.10 Service provision 19. States should take action to secure the ability of children in street situations to gain access to basic services such as health and education, and to justice, culture, sport and information. States should ensure their child protection systems provide for specialized services on the street, involving trained social workers with good knowledge of local street connections and who can help children reconnect with family, local community services and wider society. This does not necessarily imply that children should renounce their street connections, but rather, the intervention should secure their rights. Prevention, early intervention and street-based support services are mutually reinforcing elements and provide a continuum of care within an effective long-term and holistic strategy. While States are the primary duty bearers, civil society activities may complement States’ efforts in developing and delivering innovative and personalized service provision. Implementation at the local government level 20. Successful initiatives rely on a detailed understanding of local contexts and individualized support to children. Care must be taken when scaling up initiatives not to lose children in the process. States should encourage and support local-level, partnershipbased, specialized interventions on the basis of a child rights approach, small and flexible, with adequate budgets, often led by civil society organizations with local expertise. These interventions should be coordinated by local governments and supported by the State, through the national child protection system. They could benefit from support from the private sector, for capacity-building resources and organizational skills, and academia, for research capacity to enable evidence-based decision-making. Child-friendly cities and communities contribute to an atmosphere of acceptance and provide the basis for social networks and community-based protection systems for children in street situations. Children in street situations should be supported to participate in local, decentralized bottom-up planning processes. Monitoring and accountability 21. The effective implementation of legislation, policies and services relies on clear monitoring and accountability mechanisms that are transparent and robustly enforced. States should support the involvement of children in street situations, including in social accountability mechanisms, such as coalitions of State and non-State actors, committees or working groups that monitor public policy, focusing on children in street situations. Independent national human rights institutions for promoting and monitoring implementation of the Convention, 11 such as children’s rights ombudspersons, must be easily accessible to children in street situations. Access to justice and remedies 22. Children in street situations who have been victims or are survivors of human rights violations have the right to effective legal and other remedies, including legal representation. This includes access to individual complaints mechanisms, by children themselves and/or represented by adults, and to judicial and non-judicial redress 10 11 8 See http://childrenandbusiness.org. See also general comment No. 16. See general comment No. 2 (2002) on the role of independent national human rights institutions in the promotion and protection of the rights of the child, paras. 2 and 15.