Child-friendly report to the Human Rights Council

Child-friendly version of the Special Representative's annual report to the Human Rights Council

In 2022, for the first time since the establishment of the mandate, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence Against Children, Dr. Najat Maalla Maalla M'jid, prepared a child-friendly version of her annual report to the Human Rights Council. 

This version of the Special Representative’s report to the Human Rights Council, highlights how children are part of the solution to end violence and provides practical information to support children and young people’s actions to address violence and other priorities.   This child friendly version has been reviewed and received input from children, including messages from children to other children empowering them to act in their communities.

With the Special Representative's strong belief in children’s agency, child participation is one of the three strategic priorities of the Special Representative. A specific goal is to help build bridges between two key sets of stakeholders: Governments and other policy makers, and children, so that the lived experiences of the latter become an integral part of all decision-making processes addressing violence against children.

This child-friendly version promotes the need for the international community to invest more in children: in preventing violence, in children’s participation, and in better services for children and young people. 

The illustrations for the report were created by: Mathias Sielfeld @oyemathias

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March 12^th marked a very special date for the mandate, as for the first time the Special Representative briefed children on her report to the Human Rights Council.

Close to 500 children from all geographical regions joined the event and put forward questions, actions and key messages.

During the event, almost 200 questions were sent by children regarding violence, protection, their right to participate, and other issues.

In an effort to respond to these questions, we developed a set of short videos in which the Special Representative responds the main issues raised by children.

We invite you to watch the videos and learn more about participation and violence.

We also invite you to watch the recording of the event here and to download a copy of the child friendly version of the Special Representative’s report to the Human Rights Council.

The team in the office of the Special Representative on Violence against Children