A/HRC/7/8 page 4 I. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR 1. The present report is submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 5/1. 2. During 2007, the Special Rapporteur carried out one field mission to Mexico. The aim of this mission was to study the phenomena of sexual commercial exploitation affecting children and as a follow-up of the visit undertaken by his predecessor in 1997 (E/CN.4/1998/101/Add.2) The report on the visit is submitted as an addendum to this report (A/HRC/7/8/Add.2). 3. Throughout the year 2007, the Special Rapporteur sent 12 communications to Governments in the form of letters of allegation and urgent appeals, which are compiled along with the responses received from concerned Governments as an addendum to this report (A/HRC/7/8/Add.1). 4. In 2004, the Special Rapporteur sent requests for invitations to the Governments of India and Thailand. In 2005, the Special Rapporteur sent a request for an invitation to Cambodia. This year, consultations with relevant partners of the mandate were held in Geneva to determine other countries that might possibly be visited in 2008. The Special Rapporteur in 2007 sent requests for invitations to visit Chile, Estonia and Latvia. The Special Rapporteur has received positive responses to his request to visit Estonia and Latvia, which will take place in the first half of 2008, and to visit Thailand jointly with the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children. Since his appointment, the Special Rapporteur has also visited South Africa, France, Brazil, Paraguay, Romania, Albania, Greece and Ukraine. 5. The Special Rapporteur addressed the Human Rights Council during its fourth session in March 2007 and presented his annual and mission reports at that time. An interactive dialogue among concerned and interested countries and NGOs followed. 6. The Special Rapporteur participated, during his visit to Geneva in March 2007, in several parallel events on the reinforcement of the children’s rights protection at United Nations level organized by different NGOs and partners of the mandate. Some events aimed at discussing proposals for strengthening United Nations mechanisms for the protection of children’s rights, in view of the follow-up to the Secretary-General’s Study on violence against children (see A/61/299), in the context of the Human Rights Council’s review of special mechanisms. 7. The Special Rapporteur was invited to join the Board of Advisors of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), an NGO based in Washington, D.C., that is active in establishing awareness and rapid-response programmes for missing or abducted children. As such, he participated in October 2007 in a United States/Balkan forum on missing and exploited children, held in Athens. This forum, organized jointly with ICMEC and the Greek NGO “The Smile of the Child” addressed the problems of missing and exploited children in both regions and other current and emerging issues, such as trafficking of children and opportunities for collaboration among agencies across borders. This forum was attended by government, law enforcement and international organizations officials as well as representatives from civil society organizations.