A/HRC/25/47
partners, including children and young people, from different regions who reviewed and
refined the text, advised on the design and helped shape these important advocacy tools. It
is expected that the publications will help to widely disseminate the Optional Protocols,
raise children’s awareness about their rights, help to prevent their exposure to sexual
violence and abuse, and give children confidence to speak up and seek support to prevent
violations and enjoy effective protection. Collaboration with Member States and other
partners will remain crucial to support the translation of these child-friendly materials into
national languages and promote their consideration in the framework of the school system.
2.
Advancing the implementation of international standards for children’s protection
from violence
12.
The Special Representative pursued close cooperation with United Nations partners,
regional organizations and other strategic allies in advocacy and policy dialogue for the
promotion and implementation of international standards to safeguard children’s right to
freedom from violence.
13.
Critical attention was paid to violence in work settings. This is an area where
significant challenges prevail, with countless children coerced into working in plantations
or fishing in the deep sea; engaged in hazardous activities; sold into marriage, victims of
trafficking and sexual exploitation; or recruited by criminal gangs or drug dealers. All these
situations compromise the protection of children’s rights.
14.
Children engaged in domestic work, most of them girls, are also highly vulnerable to
violence. According to the most recent figures published by the International Labour
Organization (ILO), at least 52.6 million people are employed as domestic workers across
the world, 15.5 million of whom are children.3 Most of them work as housekeepers, nannies
or caregivers, and many are also migrants who hope to support their families through their
remittances. Often isolated, with no formal protection structure, child domestic workers are
highly vulnerable to labour exploitation, working long hours without rest, being denied
holidays or deprived of wages, and enduring serious manifestations of violence and abuse.
15.
As highlighted by the Special Representative at the third Global Conference on
Child Labour, held in October 2013 in Brazil, such forms of violence are not inevitable;
they can be prevented and effectively addressed. Promoting the ratification and
implementation of ILO standards, including ILO Convention No. 189 (2011) concerning
Decent Work for Domestic Workers, remains a crucial step in this regard. Together with
the promotion of the outcomes of the third Global Conference and the Roadmap for
Achieving the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2016, these standards
will remain a core component of the Special Representative’s global advocacy agenda.
B.
Accelerating progress towards a world free from violence — the global
survey on violence against children
16.
During 2013, the Special Representative conducted, in collaboration with a wide
range of partners, a global survey to assess progress since the submission of the United
Nations Study on Violence against Children. The survey was designed to gain perspective
on achievements, reflect on good practices and success factors and boost efforts to
3
http://srsg.violenceagainstchildren.org/sites/default/files/cropped_images/RaisingUnderstanding_OCPC.pdf.
ILO, Ending Child Labour in Domestic Work and Protecting Young Workers for Abusive Working
Conditions (2013), p. 1. Available from
http://srsg.violenceagainstchildren.org/sites/default/files/studies/WDACL2013_Report_EN_Web.pdf.
5
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