A/HRC/34/45 regional policy agenda, enhance the accountability of States and support national implementation efforts. 64. As part of this process, eight high-level regional consultations have been held in the South and Central American, Caribbean, South Asian, Pacific, European and Arab regions; six regional monitoring reports have been issued and periodic review meetings held to assess and accelerate progress. Moreover, six cross-regional round tables have been hosted to enhance cooperation and consolidate progress towards children’s freedom from violence. 65. As a result, regional commitments have been strengthened and are currently being aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through the adoption of new regional plans on violence against children. In turn, these efforts have translated into the strengthening of national legal standards and public policies, the consolidation of research and monitoring tools, and the promotion of campaigns to support, stimulate and monitor progress in the protection of children from violence. 66. To consolidate this cooperation and accelerate progress in freeing children from violence, the Special Representative organizes an annual high-level round table with regional organizations and institutions. This forum has become a strategic mechanism within the United Nations to engage in policy dialogue, share knowledge and good practices, promote cross-fertilization of experiences, coordinate action and enhance synergies, identify trends and pressing challenges, and join forces to prevent violence and strengthen children’s safety and their protection. 67. In May 2016, the Special Representative co-hosted, with the Council of the Baltic Sea States, the sixth annual cross-regional round table, held in Stockholm. The meeting addressed the role of regional organizations and institutions in supporting implementation of the 2030 Agenda and mobilizing efforts to reach target 16.2 and the other violencerelated Sustainable Development Goal targets. It provided a platform for sharing experiences in the development of regional strategies aligned with the 2030 Agenda and future actions foreseen. Attention was paid to strategies to support the mainstreaming of the violence-related targets in national and subnational plans and the development, where appropriate, of regional and national goals and targets. The role of regional organizations and institutions in mobilizing their member States to address violence against children in their voluntary national reviews for the high-level political forum on sustainable development was also stressed, as was cooperation with other regional entities in review processes. Support to peer learning and participatory processes of national assessment of progress was encouraged through this strategic cross-regional forum and other platforms. 68. A number of regions have already promoted significant initiatives to spearhead this work. This has been particularly evident in the incorporation of violence against children into regional action plans and their explicit alignment with the 2030 Agenda. 69. During the 2016 cross-regional round table, regional organizations and institutions, recognizing the strategic opportunity presented by the 2030 Agenda and the tenth anniversary of the United Nations study on violence against children, expressed a strong commitment to further accelerate and assess progress in eliminating violence against children and to reinforce cooperation. Strategic actions envisaged included support to the further development and implementation of regional plans on violence against children aligned with the 2030 Agenda; mobilizing partnerships and strengthening implementation of comprehensive national strategies for violence prevention and elimination; enacting and enforcing national legislation to ban all forms of violence against children; and enhancing data systems and supporting the follow-up and review process of the 2030 Agenda through strong accountability mechanisms at the national and regional levels. 70. As highlighted below, within individual regions significant developments have also been promoted and concrete results achieved to advance these goals. 15