A/HRC/28/34 I. Introduction 1. Pursuant to its resolution 25/10, the Human Rights Council held a panel discussion, on 23 September 2014, at its twenty-seventh session, on accelerating global efforts to end violence against children, with a particular focus on how to better prevent violence and protect children as a global priority and cross-cutting concern, and to share best practices and lessons learned in that regard. In resolution 25/10, the Council also requested the High Commissioner to prepare a summary report on the discussions of the panel, and to submit it to the Council before its twenty-eighth session. The present report was prepared pursuant to that request. 2. The panel discussion was chaired by the President of the Human Rights Council and moderated by the Associate Director of Child Protection, Programme Division, of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Susan Bissell. It was opened by the Director of the Research and Right to Development Division of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The panel comprised the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais; the Ombudsman on the Rights of the Child of the Russian Federation, Pavel Astakhov; the Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and Chairperson of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Benyam Dawit Mezmur; Fatiha Hadj Salah, medical doctor; Jorge Freyre, of the Latin American and Caribbean Movement for Children; and the Director of Children Protection, Save the Children – Liberia, Laila Khondkar. II. Opening statement by the Director of the Research and Right to Development Division 3. In her opening statement, the Director of the Research and Right to Development Division of OHCHR, Jane Connors, stated that violence against children could take many forms: physical brutality; sexual abuse, including rape; torture; inhuman and degrading treatment such as acid attacks; forced and child marriage; killings in the name of family “honour”; trafficking; forced begging; bonded labour; emotional violence; and neglect. Very often, the forms of violence overlapped, although the most common form of violence that children endured was corporal punishment. Far too often, these phenomena were invisible. Violence against children tended to be accepted as inevitable, treated with indifference or condoned. Although there were insufficient data on the subject, it was estimated that, annually, between 500 million and 1.5 billion children experience violence. 4. Violence against children was never justifiable and was entirely preventable. Nonetheless, it occurred in every country in the world, and crossed the boundaries of race, class, religion and culture. In violation of human rights norms, particularly the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto, children were victims of violence in multiple settings, including their homes, schools and care and justice institutions. They were also at risk of being subjected to violence in their communities, in places where they worked or in cyberspace. 5. Since the release of the report of the independent expert for the United Nations study on violence against children on the rights of the child in 2006,1 the need to prioritize the protection of children from violence had been increasingly recognized at the international, 1 A/61/299. 3