A/HRC/43/40 2. Communications 11. A summary of communications sent and replies received appears in the communications report of special procedures (A/HRC/42/65). III. Reflections on a six-year tenure A. Objective and methodology 12. Pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 7/13, the Special Rapporteur has dedicated her final thematic report to the Council, at its forty-third session, to taking stock of the achievements of the multi-stakeholder child rights global constituency – comprising Member States, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, United Nations agencies, international and regional human rights mechanisms and private entities – in preventing and eliminating the scourge of the sale and sexual exploitation of children, and the challenges that lie ahead in addressing this complex phenomenon. 13. The Special Rapporteur’s first report to the Human Rights Council upon assuming the mandate, at its twenty-eighth session (A/HRC/28/56), coincided with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the mandate in 1990. The end of her six-year tenure coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of the mandate: 30 years after its creation, the mandate appears to be as relevant and necessary as ever. Since 1990, significant changes have occurred in the world, impacting the extent and nature of the sale and sexual exploitation of children. Although numerous efforts have been undertaken to address the scourge of these crimes, serious protection gaps remain. 14. The Special Rapporteur prepared this report as an overview of the main issues of concern and emerging trends related to the sale and sexual exploitation of children, their root causes and new manifestations identified in the course of her six-year tenure. In the context of the thirtieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the twentieth anniversary of the Optional Protocol and efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, this document rises to the occasion in reflecting on the relevance, complementarity, coherence and impact of existing interventions to combat and eradicate the sale and sexual exploitation of children. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on the ways and means to enhance the impact of the mandate to eradicate the sale and sexual exploitation of children, and identify good practices and recommendations to effectively mitigate, prevent and protect children from this scourge. 15. To inform her report, the Special Rapporteur sought input from a wide range of stakeholders, including members of the Council, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, United Nations agencies and regional organizations. She held two sets of public and expert group consultations focusing on the key issues of concern to the mandate, the lessons learned and recommendations for the way forward. 1 She has also drawn on her experience from country visits and information gathered through literature review. The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank all of the stakeholders who responded to her call for submissions,2 and welcomes the engagement demonstrated through this exercise. B. Overview of the issues and trends relating to the mandate: the scope of the sale and sexual exploitation of children 16. The real magnitude of the problem of the sale and sexual exploitation of children is generally unknown, due to the unavailability of centralized and disaggregated data on the different forms of these crimes and on the number of cases identified, investigated and prosecuted. The inadequacy of existing legislation that lacks clarity on relevant offences, 1 2 The Special Rapporteur is grateful to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Innocenti Office of Research for organizing and hosting a two-day expert consultation in Florence on 24 and 25 September 2019 (see UNICEF Innocenti Office of Research, “UN Special Rapporteur holds expert consultation on prevention of the sale and sexual exploitation of children”, 24 September 2019). See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Children/SR/Call_for_inputs_SR_children.docx. 3