A/HRC/25/47 I. Mandate and strategic priorities 1. The mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children was established by the General Assembly in its resolution 62/141 and renewed for a further period of three years by the Assembly in its resolution 67/152. 2. The present annual report contains a review of major developments towards sustaining and scaling up efforts for children’s protection from violence. It takes into account the priorities identified by the Special Representative for the second term of her mandate (A/67/230, paras. 100–110). These include mainstreaming the recommendations of the United Nations Study on Violence against Children in the national policy agenda; addressing emerging concerns; tackling violence across children’s life cycles, with priority attention to the most vulnerable children; and promoting children’s protection from violence as a priority in the development agenda. 3. The Special Representative is a high-profile, global independent advocate for the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against children. She acts as a bridgebuilder and a catalyst for action across sectors and settings where violence against children may occur and promotes the protection of children from violence as a human rights imperative. The Special Representative makes use of mutually supportive strategies, including advocacy; the promotion of international, regional and national consultations to advance progress, identify good practices and promote cross-fertilization of experience; the hosting of expert consultations; the development of thematic studies and information materials; and the organization of field missions. 4. To advance national initiatives and bring the mandate closer to national stakeholders and the public at large, since the start of the mandate the Special Representative has conducted over 90 missions in more than 50 countries in all regions, most recently to Brazil, Costa Rica, Ghana, Indonesia, Mexico and Sweden. Country visits provide a valuable opportunity to promote the implementation of the Study recommendations and address a wide range of concerns through high-level policy discussions with national authorities; awarenessraising and advocacy initiatives with professional groups, civil society partners and children and young people; and media encounters. The visits have helped to promote accelerated progress in the universal ratification of human rights treaties; the enactment and enforcement of legislation to ban all forms of violence and safeguard the protection of child victims; the consolidation of data and research to inform policymaking; and initiatives to prevent children’s exposure to violence in the home, in schools and in care and justice institutions, and to address incidents associated with harmful practices and community violence. II. Consolidating progress in the implementation of the recommendations of the United Nations Study on Violence against Children 5. Capitalizing on the increasing momentum built around the recommendations of the Study, over the past year the Special Representative undertook significant initiatives to step up progress in children’s protection from violence. In the present annual report she highlights some of these developments, especially those aimed at: (a) Consolidating the human rights foundation of children’s freedom from violence through the ratification and implementation of international standards; (b) Accelerating progress towards a world free from violence, in the light of the findings of the global survey on violence against children; 3