13     able to provide detailed and concrete evidence about the legislative and other measures, such as the use of child-sensitive procedures to protect children from hardship during questioning, including by the use of child-sensitive methods of questioning; and by reducing the number of interviews, statements and hearings. As a result, children that were separated from the LRA and have gone through a questioning process might not have had their right to have their best interests respected fulfilled. 51. States Parties to the African Children’s Charter also need to effectively implement the right to a remedy which includes a right to reparation,14 as an element of the due diligence obligation. This entails providing reparation to victims for acts or omissions that can be attributed to the State, or for their failures to meet their international obligations even when substantive breaches originate in the conduct of private persons. In this respect, it is important to mention that the African Committee, while recognizing the contribution of the Amnesty Act of 2000 to the return, demobilization and reintegration of thousands of children forcefully recruited by the LRA, it is concerned about the fact that the same Act does not necessarily follow the criteria for granting amnesties under international legal obligations of the State. As a result, such law may have led to impunity of those that would have been involved in the recruitment and use of children in hostilities. 52. One response to the instability experienced by the citizenry was the establishment of local militias drawn from the community to supplement the defence capacity of the UPDF. Some have argued that the establishment of such units by local communities to protect themselves against LRA is a consequence of the weakness or absence of State security forces and the judiciary in the areas affected by the conflict. The Government of Uganda provided recognition and support to the local militias (known as local defence units or LDUs). It has been argued that the establishment and control of the LDUs was not well thought through. The LDUs fell de facto under the responsibility of the UPDF, it appears. Evidence of Government support to LDUs in the form of training, munitions, direct financial support and basic foodstuff were presented. 53. In principle, members of the LDUs (also known as “home guards”) were supposed to be at least 18 years of age, be in good health, have completed their level S4 or above, and present a recommendation letter from a Local Councilor (LCI). While reportedly, the responsibility for the recruitment process of LDU members fell on the shoulders of the Local Council IIIs (sub-county leaders), local leaders were responsible for age verification of candidates, as they are presumed to know the person and his or her family. However, the “unofficial” recruitment process, largely condoned as a result of the poverty of some of the candidates, often bypassed the Local Councilors, and did not require education and age verification. Reports where children directly approached                                                                                                                 14 This right has become firmly enshrined in the corpus of international human rights and humanitarian instruments. See for instance, The Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law (Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 60/147 of 16 December 2005).