The European Commission (EC) is developing a strategy/action plan on Children in External Relations to give more guidance to EC staff on what they should be doing to mainstream children in development programming. On 29 January, the EC organized an EU member states expert meeting on children in the EC external action in which the Independent Expert participated. During this meeting a draft of the strategy was discussed. Professor Pinheiro highlighted the findings of the Study and discussed how the EC and the EU member states can take the Study recommendations forward in their external action.

On 23 January 2007, the Independent Expert attended the debate in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The Assembly discussed its report on ‘Child victims: stamping out all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse of child victims’. The report calls for reinforcing and devising new domestic measures to step up the protection of children from violence. Other high-level participants in the debate included: Her Royal Highness Princess Caroline of Monaco, Human Rights Commissioner, Mr. Thomas Hammarberg and the Executive Director of UNICEF, Ms. Ann Veneman.
Following the Assembly debate, there was a ceremony to launch the UN Study on Violence against Children in Europe. The Independent Expert was the main speaker at this ceremony. Click here to read the remarks by the Independent Expert. Other speakers included the Parliamentary Assembly president René van der Linden, and the Deputy Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio. The Council of Europe had invited about 60 elementary school children to attend the Assembly debate and the launch. The report was very well received and there was a lot of media attention.
In addition to the Assembly debate and the launch ceremony, the Expert held bilateral meetings with the president of the Parliamentary Assembly, with the Deputy SG of the Council of Europe, and with Her Royal Highness Princess Caroline.
For more information, see the Council of Europe web-site.

The Independent Expert delivered the opening statement at the Milestone Conference on Gender Equality in Norway. The Milestone Conference is an annual national conference with the aim of being a venue for dialogue between the Norwegian Government and Norwegian NGOs on issues related to gender equality. The conference is arranged in cooperation between the Ministry of Children and Gender Equality, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Norwegian umbrella organisation for women’s organisations FOKUS, the Norwegian Resource Centre for Men, REFORM, and the Ombudsman Office for Discrimination and Gender Equality. The last few years, the thematic focus of the conferences has been linked to the following Commission on the Status of Women in NY in February/March. Hence, this year the topic will be discrimination against the girl child, and the role of men and boys. Prof. Pinheiro spoke about the Study on Violence Against Children generally and paid particular attention to violence against the girl child. He also participated in the Human Rights Dialogue with Vietnam and had separate meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Children and Gender Equality on the follow-up to the Study.