dren, the Convention explicitly stipulates their protection from economic exploitation (art. 32), drug abuse (art. 33), sexual exploitation (art. 34), and abduction, sale and trafficking (art. 35). Article 23 provides particularly for the care of children with disabilities. Article 38 reaffirms States’ obligations in armed conflict under international humanitarian law, and requires them not to recruit and, where possible, not to use children under 15 years of age as soldiers in conflict. Beyond the provisions that assert children’s rights in terms of protection, the Convention broke new ground by elaborating the child’s perspective with regard to the “classic” civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights set out in the two Covenants. The Convention recognizes children as subjects of rights capable of exercising their own rights in accordance with their evolving capacity, age and maturity. For example, children have full rights to freedom of expression (art. 13), to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (art. 14), to free association and peaceful assembly (art. 15), to privacy (art. 16), to access to information (art. 17), as well as to health (art. 24), social security (art. 26) and an adequate standard of living (art. 27). The Convention, in part II, requires all State parties to report periodically to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The involvement of children in armed conflict, the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography are covered in more detail in two optional protocols to the Convention, adopted in 2000. The Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict complements article 38 of the Convention as well as international humanitarian law. It establishes that no person under the age of 18 shall be subject to compulsory recruitment into regular armed forces (art. 2) and imposes an obligation on States to raise the minimum age for voluntary recruitment further (art. 3). Upon ratification of, or accession to, the Optional Protocol, State parties must deposit a binding declaration stating their minimum age for voluntary recruitment and the safeguards in place to ensure that recruitment is voluntary. State parties to the Protocol shall also ensure that members of their armed forces under 18 years of age do not take a direct part in hostilities (art. 1). In addition, armed groups distinct from the armed forces of a State should not, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities persons under the age of 18. State parties are required to take all feasible measures to prevent the recruitment and use of children by such groups, including the criminalization of such practices (art. 4). 13