6. Recommendations 1. In all decisions that may lead to the detention of children, States are called upon to most rigorously apply the requirement of Article 37(b) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that deprivation of liberty shall be applied only as a measure of last resort in exceptional cases. 2. States should respect the principle provided under Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child ensuring that children shall have the right to express their views freely in all matters affecting them and that their views shall be given due weight. 3. Acknowledging that children have this right under Article 12, States should do what is necessary in order to empower children to influence decisions relating to their treatment. 4. This includes providing children with the power to seek effective remedies. Accordingly, States should ensure that effective, child-friendly procedures are set in place so that children can themselves lodge complaints to an independent and impartial authority on any grievances and human rights violation during detention. 5. States are strongly encouraged to ratify the third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communication procedure (OPIC), enabling children to further seek redress for violations of their rights. 6. Based on the views expressed by children in this Study (and elsewhere), States are strongly encouraged to develop and use community-based sanctions over detention. 7. States should ensure that independent monitoring procedures are established and maintained so as to regularly allow detained children to be heard in a safe and confidential space regarding their treatment. 8. Recognising that gaps in research exist in this area, States are encouraged to support comprehensive and robust research with children in order to determine what their own views and experiences are. Such research should be conducted in all detention contexts and settings. 9. States should ensure that all research with children are child-friendly, transparent, rights-compliant, accountable and ethical. 113