A/HRC/43/40 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 7/13 and 34/16. It contains information on the activities carried out by the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material, since her previous report (A/HRC/40/51). It also contains a thematic overview of the main issues of concern to the mandate and recommendations for the way forward, based on the experience of the Special Rapporteur during her six-year tenure. II. Activities A. Country visits 2. Since her previous report to the Human Rights Council, in March 2019, the Special Rapporteur has undertaken visits to Bulgaria, from 1 to 8 April 2019, and the Gambia, from 21 to 29 October 2019. The conclusions and recommendations of her visit to the Gambia will be presented to the Council at its forty-sixth session, in March 2021. The Special Rapporteur is grateful to the Government of Paraguay for agreeing to her request to visit in February 2020. She regrets that, due to unforeseen circumstances, she had to ask the Government to reschedule the visit to the second half of 2020. B. 1. Other activities Conferences and engagement with stakeholders 3. On 21 September 2019, the Special Rapporteur attended and contributed to a symposium on children’s rights in the age of biotechnology, organized jointly by the International Institute for the Rights of the Child and International Social Service in collaboration with the Committee on the Rights of the Child. 4. On 26 September, the Special Rapporteur contributed as a keynote speaker at the launch of the guidelines regarding the implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC/C/156). 5. On 8 October, the Special Rapporteur presented a report to the General Assembly on safeguards for the protection of the rights of the children born from surrogacy arrangements (see A/74/162). 6. On 14 and 15 November, she participated in a conference entitled “Promoting digital child dignity from concept to action”, organized by the Child Dignity Alliance, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities and held in the Vatican City. 7. On 20 November, she delivered a statement at the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the thirtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, held in New York. 8. On 22 November, she contributed to the session on child rights in sport at the Sporting Chance Forum, held in Geneva. Ahead of the Forum, the Special Rapporteur released a user-friendly version of her 2018 report to the Council, entitled “Playing it safe”. 9. On 29 November, the Special Rapporteur conducted a working visit to Ireland, where she delivered a keynote speech at the Irish Centre for Human Rights and met with the President of Ireland. 10. On 11 and 12 December, the Special Rapporteur and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children addressed WePROTECT Global Alliance summit on tackling online child sexual exploitation, held in Addis Ababa. 2