A/74/136 children arrived there, and conduct an independent review of each institution. States should operationalize a system of registration, licensing, regulation and inspection which ensures that providers of alternative care meet internationally recognized standards. 131. States shall ensure that children being placed in hospitals, psychiatric facilities and rehabilitation centres, including for substance abuse, be properly counted and included in systemic transformation and deinstitutionalization efforts. 5. Armed conflict 132. The Independent Expert recommends that children detained for association with armed groups be first and foremost recognized by States as victims of grave human rights abuses, and that their recovery and reintegration shall have absolute priority. 133. In line with the Paris Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups of 2007, States should not detain, prosecute, or punish children who have been associated with armed forces or armed groups solely for their membership in such forces or groups. 134. States should adopt and implement standard operating procedures for the immediate and direct handover of children from military custody to appropriate child protection agencies. 135. States should ensure that children formerly associated with armed forces and armed groups receive appropriate rehabilitation and reintegration assistance and, where possible and in the best interests of the child, family reunification. Such assistance should take into account the specific situation and needs of girls associated with armed forces and armed groups in order to guarantee equal access to rehabilitation and reintegration assistance, as well as tailored measures. 136. States and parties to armed conflict should not detain children arbitrarily, including for alleged offences by family members, intelligence gathering, ransom, prisoner swaps or for sexual exploitation. 6. National security 137. The Independent Expert recommends that States facilitate the recovery and reintegration of children recruited by non-State armed groups designated as terrorist, recognizing such children as victims, and hold those who recruit and use them to account. 138. States should explicitly exclude children from national counter-terrorism and security legislation and ensure that children suspected of national security offences are treated exclusively within child justice systems. 139. States should ensure that counter-terrorism legislation with penal sanctions is never used against children peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief, or freedom of association and assembly. 140. States should end all administrative or preventive detention of children and extended pretrial detention for counter-terrorism purposes. 141. States should never use the gravity of an offence, even when linked to national security, as a justification for lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility. 22/23 19-11838