any provisions allowing or supporting the round-up or arbitrary removal of children and their families from the streets or public places”.27 Indeed, the practice of round-ups and ultimately the arbitrary removal of children found in the street for the third time from their parent’s custody does not ensure that the best interests of the children are appropriately considered and therefore might well amount to a violation of the children’s right not to be separated from their family. Additionally, NGOs have reportedly decried the practice of roundups and the placement in facilities as it does not adequately protect children in street situations. There is little information that might suggest that the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is coordinating closely with civil society and with the children themselves to provide them with necessary protection. The Iranian Government established a National Body for the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which has the responsibility “to set up plans and programs to promote the child rights and respect to their character” and to monitor and assess the implementation of child rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.28 During the country’s 2016 CRC review, The National Body listed its main achievements, notably the establishment its working groups, notably the Support and Coordination which did “analysis of ways to support street and working children” and the Monitoring and Assessment working group which visited “NGOs active in the area of supporting children, especially street, working and educationally deprived children”. 29 There is no readily available information that might indicate that the National Body coordinated with civil society and children in street situation themselves and took effective steps with a view to provide necessary protection and adequate social services specifically to children in street situation. In 2018 the director of the State Welfare Organization’s office reportedly declared that child workers, including children working in the street, were so numerous that no organization could single-handily address the issue.30 Yet, child rights organizations have been reportedly deploring the lack of cooperation of the Iranian Government with non-governmental organizations, in particular with regards to the ‘round-ups’ of street children,31 where they are frequently separated from their families and put into care facilities. 32 The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran affirmed that many non-governmental organizations working in the area of children’s rights were active and operating in the country as well as in close cooperation with the government.33 However there are reportedly few non-profit organizations engaged in activities directly linked to 27 General Comment No.21 on children in street situations, Committee on the Rights of the Child, CRC/C/GC/21, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/GC/21&Lang=en 28 Article 2 National Body for the Convention on the Rights of the Child Bylaws 29 The Supplementary Response of the (NBCRC) regarding the Concluding Observation on the Combined third and fourth periodic reports of the Committee on the Rights of the Child for the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2016, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCRC%2fCOB%2fIRN%2f23480 &Lang=en 30 Radio Farda, https://en.radiofarda.com/a/thousands-of-children-forced-to-work-beg-in-the-streets-in-iran/30142546.html 31 ISNA News, https://www.isna.ir/news/96070301939/‫ﮐﻮدک‬-‫ﮐﺎر‬-‫ﺑﺎ‬-‫اﻗﺘﺼﺎد‬-‫روﺳﯿﺎھﯽ‬ 32 Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://www.iranhumanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/Days-to-remember-low.pdf 33 OHCHR News, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16940&LangID=E 4