A/HRC/28/68 competence to be punished for crimes. In its general comment No. 10 (CRC/C/GC/10), the Committee on the Rights of the Child encouraged States parties to increase their lower minimum age of criminal responsibility to the age of 12 years as the absolute minimum age, and to continue to increase it to a higher age level. Nevertheless, many countries still maintain a minimum age of criminal responsibility well below 12 years. 35. States have an international obligation to put in place a dedicated legal system and law enforcement processes for children. All too often, criminal justice systems are designed for adults and incorporate none of the specific procedural safeguards required for children. In particular, adult criminal justice systems expose children to a range of sentences and disciplinary punishments aimed specifically at adults, without any rehabilitative component. 36. The imposition of the death penalty on children is forbidden under international law and has been accepted so universally as to reach the level of a jus cogens norm (A/67/279, para. 62). 37. Similarly, life sentences without the possibility of release for children are expressly prohibited by international law and treaties, including article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its general comment No. 10 (CRC/C/GC/10), and the Human Rights Committee, in its general comment No. 21, confirmed that life imprisonment without the possibility of release is never an appropriate punishment for an offence committed by a juvenile offender. 8 The vast majority of States have taken note of the international human rights requirements regarding life imprisonment of children without the possibility of release. Significantly, the United States of America is the only State in the world that still sentences children to life imprisonment without the opportunity for parole for the crime of homicide. 38. With regard to life imprisonment of children, the Human Rights Council, in its resolution 24/12, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its general comment No. 10, urged States to ensure that no one is sentenced to life imprisonment for an offence committed by persons under 18 years of age. 39. Although the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires States to ensure that detention or imprisonment of children should only be used as a measure of last resort, in exceptional circumstances, for the shortest possible period of time and only if it is in the best interests of the child, in reality, detention is often used as the first response to perceived problems. During his country visits, the Special Rapporteur observed that, although alternative or non-custodial measures are provided by law, in a high percentage of cases, detention is the preferred option and not the last resort (see A/HRC/22/53/Add.3, para. 53). 40. In many instances, the worst situations for children arise at the time of arrest by the police, and during transportation or subsequent questioning in police custody (see A/HRC/16/52/Add.5, para. 43 and A/HRC/22/53/Add.1, para. 73). During the period immediately following apprehension, children are at particularly high risk of physical, verbal and psychological violence, such as verbal abuse, threats and beatings, and they are too often not provided with information on their human rights and the allegations brought against them in a manner that they can understand. 9 Following their arrest, children often 8 9 8 See also CCPR/C/112/D/1968/2010, paras. 7.7 and 7.11, and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Juvenile Justice and Human Rights in the Americas: Rapporteurship on the Rights of the Child (UNICEF, 13 July 2011), para. 364. See, for example, Association for the Prevention of Torture, Jean-Jacques Gautier NPM Symposium, “Addressing children’s vulnerabilities in detention”, outcome report, June 2014, p. 14