III. Specific measures for the implementation of group rights A. The rights of children 260. According to the general population and housing census, the population of Burkina Faso is very youthful with 46.6% of the inhabitants below 15 years and 53% below 18 years. Burkina Faso has since 2009 been implementing a project dubbed “work of children in mines and smallscale quarries”. The implementation of this project has made it possible since then to withdraw 11 123 children from 23 small-scale mines and quarries out of which 6 021 are boys and 5 012 girls. 261. On 13 September 2011, the official launch of the hot line (Number 116) was carried out to enable the population to denounce cases of violence perpetrated against children. On 26 June 2012, the government adopted a national plan of action to fight against the worst forms of child labour. The intended objective for the adoption of this plan of action is to minimize the incidence of child labour by 2015, through the adoption and implementation of political, social, economic and institutional actions for the eradication of the worst forms of child labour. To strengthen the protection of children in situations of armed conflicts, the government has raised the minimum age for recruitment into the armed forces from 18 to 20 years by adopting Decree No.5602012/PRES/PM/MDAC of 5 July 2012 on the organisation of operations for recruitment into the army. 262. In the area of child trafficking, in spite of the enactment on 15 May 2008 of a law on the establishment of a National Watchdog Committee, for 2012, 1910 people fell victim to trafficking including 1554 internal trafficking ( 1 115 boys and 433 girls) and 356 cross-border trafficking (306 boys and 50 girls). In respect of the latter aspect, Burkina has signed several agreements with Mali and a new bilateral agreement in the area of the fight against cross-border trafficking of children is due to be signed with the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. Additionally, the Law on the definition and crackdown on the sale of children, child prostitution and pornography was enacted in 2014. 263. Several awareness-raising campaigns on the rights of children have been carried out. For the year 2012, 308 educational talks, 309 film debates, 21 radio broadcasts, 1065 counselling sessions, 61 radio missions, 61 theatre-fora and 101 patrols were carried out on the worst forms of child labour. Furthermore, two training sessions were organized in 2013 for 100 video club operators and cyber-café managers on the disastrous consequences of pornography on the education of children. The same training was organised for 48 local security committee servicemen. Similarly, conferences on the rights of the child were organised for 1500 studentteachers of national basic education schools. Finally, a seminar was organised in 2012 for 24 police officers and gendarmes on the protection of the rights of minors in conflict with the law. B. The rights of persons with disabilities 264. According to the General Population and Housing Census of 2006, out of 14 017 262 inhabitants of Burkina Faso, 168 094, (or 1.2%) have disabilities. These are mainly people with physical disabilities (26.44%), the visually impaired (17.50%), hearing impaired (12.20%) and mentally deficient persons (14.90%). It is also clear that the handicap affected more men than women with 52.7% and 47.3% respectively. The majority of the people with disabilities (80.6%) can be found in the rural communities. 66