A/HRC/4/31 page 4 I. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR 1. The present report is submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council decision 2/102. 2. During 2006, the Special Rapporteur carried out one field mission to Ukraine. The aim of this mission was to acquire a better understanding of phenomena such as child trafficking, child prostitution and vulnerable children at risk. The report on the visit is submitted as an addendum to this report (A/HRC/4/31/Add.2). 3. Throughout the year 2006, the Special Rapporteur sent communications to Governments in the form of letters of allegation and urgent appeals, which are detailed along with the responses received from concerned Governments as an addendum to this report (A/HRC/4/31/Add.1). 4. In 2004, the Special Rapporteur had 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 2007. The Special Rapporteur in 2006 sent requests for invitations to visit Ukraine, which took place from 22 to 27 October 2006, and to Mexico. The Special Rapporteur has received positive responses to his request to visit Mexico in the first half of 2007 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 and Greece. 5. The Special Rapporteur addressed the new Human Rights Council during its second session from 18 September to 6 October 2006 and presented his annual and mission reports at that time, and an interactive dialogue between concerned and interested countries and NGOs followed. 6. The Special Rapporteur participated, during his visit to Geneva in September 2006, in a parallel event on the reinforcement of the children’s rights protection at United Nations level organized by the World Organization against Torture (OMCT), together with Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, independent expert of the Study on violence against children; Norberto Liwski, expert member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child; Vitit Muntarbhorn, Chairman of the Coordination Committee of the special procedures and current Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and former Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (1991-1994); and Eugénie Nakpa Polo, member of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The event aimed at discussing proposals for strengthening United Nations mechanisms for the protection of children’s rights, in view of the follow-up of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on violence against children, in the context of the Human Rights Council’s review of special mechanisms. 7. During the period under review, the Special Rapporteur continued to receive late replies to the questionnaire sent for the preparation of last year’s annual report, which focused on the