A/HRC/40/50 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 9 January 2019 Original: English Human Rights Council Fortieth session 25 February–22 March 2019 Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Violence against children* Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children Summary The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the annual report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais. In her report, the Special Representative provides an overview of major initiatives and developments to sustain and scale up efforts to safeguard children’s freedom from violence and advance implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The report highlights the strategic milestone that will be reached in 2019 – the 30-year anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child – during which the high-level political forum on sustainable development will review progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 16, including its target 16.2 to end all forms of violence against children, and the General Assembly will mobilize accelerated action for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. * Agreement was reached to publish the present report after the standard publication date owing to circumstances beyond the submitter’s control. GE.19-00300(E) 