A/HRC/16/54 1. African Union and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child 47. The meetings held in 2009 with the African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs and the Chairperson of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child opened avenues for sound institutional collaboration, including mapping positive initiatives across the region, supporting legislative reforms and consolidating national information and data systems on violence against children.13 This collaborative framework was further strengthened in 2010 by the thematic debate on violence against children, held by the African Committee with the association of the Special Representative. At the meeting, an agreement was reached on a strategic follow-up through enhanced advocacy to protect children from violence and promote positive alternatives to violent discipline; support for legislative and policy reforms to ban all forms of violence; the development of an African report on this issue; and the inclusion of the protection of children from all forms of violence in the agenda of a future summit of African Heads of State and Government. 2. Organization of American States and its specialized organs on the rights of the child, the Ibero-American Community and the Latin American and Caribbean Chapter of the Global Movement for Children 48. Guided by the important deliberations of the XX Pan American Child Congress,14 significant steps were taken to consolidate regional partnerships with the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Ibero-American Community. 49. Within OAS, strategic collaboration was pursued with the Inter-American Children’s Institute and the Rapporteur on the Rights of the Child of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, with whom a joint report is being prepared on violence in care and justice institutions. 50. The Twelfth Ibero-American Conference of Ministers Responsible for Children and Adolescents, held in June 2010 in Buenos Aires, provided an important platform to strengthen children’s protection from violence. The Conference, in which the Special Representative participated, addressed the role of education in the promotion of children’s social inclusion. The Buenos Aires Declaration recommended the development of effective laws and policies to combat violence against children, in line with the recommendations of the United Nations study. Violence against children was also identified as a priority concern for future ministerial meetings. 51. A strategic plan of action on violence against children for 2010–2012 was also agreed upon with the Latin American and Caribbean Chapter of the Global Movement for Children. This joint strategy supports the organization of three high-level subregional meetings in South America, the Caribbean and Central America, and the development of an analytical overview of national initiatives of follow-up to the United Nations study. These initiatives open avenues for strengthened collaboration with Governments in the region and will help to mobilize support for the adoption of a legal ban on all forms of violence against children, the development of a comprehensive national strategy and the consolidation of research and data in this field. 13 14 GE.11-11445 See also A/65/262, paras. 111–113. Ibid., paras. 89–93. 13