Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict has recommended that states treat children associated with armed groups primarily as victims.262 Especially for children, criminal justice responses should not be the norm, but used as a matter of last resort and with a pedagogical orientation, with the purpose of rehabilitating children. Particular caution must be exercised in the prosecution of the increasingly broad crimes of association or support. These offences are of particular relevance to the roles children often assume in FTF-related contexts and where concerns regarding individual criminal culpability are heightened. According to the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child regarding the minimum age of criminal responsibility, criminal justice responses for FTF-related acts are not appropriate for young children.263 For minors subject to criminal justice, international standards of juvenile justice, which apply to individuals under 18 years of age, must be respected.264 In accordance with the CRC, the juvenile justice system should be directed towards the rehabilitation and reintegration of child offenders.265 Detention should be exceptional, as short as possible and with attendant safeguards.266 Penalties should be tailored to age and personal circumstances, and life imprisonment without the possibility of release and the death penalty are prohibited absolutely under international law for persons under the age of 18.267 Even 262  UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Annual report to the UN Human Rights Council, UN Doc. A/HRC/31/19, 29 December 2015, para. 65. 263  The Committee recommends as a minimum standard that children under the age of twelve should not be considered criminally responsible. It considers a minimum age of criminal responsibility below the age of 12 years not to be internationally acceptable and has described a high age level of 14 or 16 years as commendable. See: General Comment No. 10 (Children’s rights in juvenile justice), UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/10, 25 April 2007, paras. 30ff, (hereafter, General Comment No. 10, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child). 264  Some of these standards are reflected in the CRC and the ICCPR, as supplemented by four juvenile justice instruments, which have been adopted by the UN General Assembly and the UN Economic and Social Council and are sometimes referred to collectively as the UN Minimum Standards and Norms of Juvenile Justice: the “United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency” (Riyadh Guidelines), the “United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice” (Beijing Rules), the “United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty” (Havana Rules); and the “Guidelines for Action on Children in the Criminal Justice System” (Vienna Guidelines). There are various recommendations and general comments of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other regional counterparts on juvenile justice; see also Handbook on Children Recruited and Exploited by Terrorist and Violent Extremist Groups: The Role of the Justice System (Vienna: UNODC, 2018), <www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Child-Victims/ Handbook_on_Children_Recruited_and_Exploited_by_Terrorist_and_Violent_Extremist_Groups_the_Role_ of_the_Justice_System.E.pdf>. There are also regional standards of relevance. To discuss these here in detail would go beyond the scope of this document. 265  Article 40 (1) CRC; General Comment No. 10, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, op. cit., note 263. 266  Article 37 (b)-(d) CRC. See also: “Chapter 5: Violence against children in care and justice institutions” in World Report on Violence against Children, Independent Expert for the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children, October 2006, available at <www.unicef.org/violencestudy/reports.html>. The report urges governments “to ensure that detention is only used for child offenders who are assessed as posing a real danger to others, and then only as a last resort, for the shortest necessary time, and following judicial hearing, with greater resources invested in alternative family-and community-based rehabilitation and reintegration programmes”, p. 218. 267  Article 37 (a) CRC and Article 6 (5) ICCPR. 72 Guidelines for Addressing the Threats and Challenges of “Foreign Terrorist Fighters”