certificates issued. The Committee also notes that while a National Civil Registration Act was adopted in 2016, it is not effectively implemented. Hence, the Committee recommends the state party to take the following measures. a) Develop a policy and long term strategic plan for birth registration; b) Adopt innovative approaches to ensure birth registration, including mobile registration (particularly in rural areas where registration is low); c) Encourage retrospective registration, especially for the hard-to reach communities; d) Strengthen and scale up public awareness and campaigns on birth registration; e) Digitize birth registers to ensure the elimination of fraud and transcript errors; enhance easy control and verification of validity of documents as well as easy access to credible statistical data; f) Provide financial and technical support to the State registry; g) Take the necessary measure to implement the National Civil Registration Act h) Work in collaboration with civil society partners to create an enabling environment in the effort of enhancing birth registration and certification and i) Provide support to the National Task Force for Births and Deaths. 18. The Committee observed that there are ambiguous citizenship clauses, in the Country’s nationality laws pertaining to nationality and citizenship, particularly relating to the status of children born to foreigners as well as children born to foreign fathers in Sierra Leone. The Committee recommends the State Party to amend the relevant clauses in order to clarify ambiguities in line with the Charter and other international treaties the State Party has ratified. Freedom of expression, access to appropriate information, freedom of thought, conscience and religion 19. The Committee notes the enactment of the Right to Access Information Act (2013), which guarantees the right of every person, including children, to access information The Committee further notes with appreciation the establishment of the Children’s Forum Network (CFN) as a national “child-to child” network that has the objective of enabling children’s access to information, rights to be heard and participate in national and provincial decisions and processes that affect them. The Committee recommends the State Party to ensure that the CFN adequately represents children from all backgrounds including children from urban and rural areas, children with disability and girls. The Committee further recommends the State Party to establish guidelines to support the work of the CFN and to establish centers in all parts of the country to encourage the participation of broad base of children. 8