In February 2003, the UN Secretary General appointed Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro as Independent Expert, at the Assistant Secretary General level, to prepare a study in depth on violence against children. Click here to know more about the Independent Expert’s activities.

Mr. Pinheiro is a visiting professor of international relations at Watson Institute of International Studies, Brown University, and a research associate at the Center for the Study of Violence, University of Sao Paulo, which he founded in 1987 and was director of until 2001. He is a Professor (retired) of Political Science at the University of São Paulo, USP, Brazil. He has also taught at Columbia University, Notre Dame University, Oxford and the École des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris. He has published many articles, essays and books on social history, democracy, violence, and human rights.

In the UN, Mr. Pinheiro holds the position of Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar. He is also a member of the Sub-Commission for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights.

During the last twenty years Mr. Pinheiro has been involved in many civil society organizations. He is a member of the Justice and Peace Commission of São Paulo (founded by Cardinal Arns) and of the Teotonio Villela Commission on Human Rights (São Paulo). He is a member of the board of the São Paulo Institute against Violence, Brazil and the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, COHRE, Switzerland and of the advisory councils of the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, CELS, Buenos Aires and Realizing Rights, Ethical Global Initiative, EGI, New York.

Mr. Pinheiro served as Secretary of State for Human Rights, under President Cardoso, Brazil, as Special Counsel to the Governor of São Paulo State, Brazil, and as Rapporteur of the Brazilian National Human Rights Plan.

Mr. Pinheiro is married to Ana Luiza and has three children, Daniela, Andre, and Marina. He divides his time between Geneva and Saõ Paulo.

To read more about activities of the independent expert click here.

To read some of the independent expert’s presentations and articles click here.

Independent Expert’s Presentations and articles

Besides participating to all Study activities, the Independent Expert participated to a number of academic meetings, colloquiums, workshops and seminars, and other events related to the topic of violence against children. See below some of his statements and articles on violence against children.

Statement to GA (62nd session)

Statement to GA (61st session)

Statement to GA (60th session)

Statement to the Human Right Council 21 June 2006

Statement to CHR (60th session)

Foreword the report “Violence Against Children in Cyberspace”, ECPAT, November 2005.

Presentation at the World Conference on Prevention of Family Violence, Banff (Banff, Canada, 24 October 2005)

Presentation at the ECPAT 2005 General Assembly (Rio de Janeiro, 8 September 2005)

Not just tinkering at the edges, article for the Global Future magazine, World Vision, 2005

Statement for the opening of the "Yokohama review for Europe and Central Asia - Combating sexual exploitation of children" (Ljubljana, 8 July 2005).

Statement for the opening of the conference “Children Behind Bars”, Bethlehem, OPT (Bethlehem, 30 June, 2005).

The Alistair Berkley Memorial Lecture, London School of Economics - Youth Violence and Social Justice in Latin America (London, 26 May, 2005).

Foreword for: Mali Nilsson (Coord.) et al. Ending Physical and Humiliating Punishment of Children, Save the Children, Stockholm, 2005.

Foreword for: Dowdney, Luke (Coord.) et al. Neither war nor Peace, ISER, IANSA and Viva Rio, Rio de Janeiro, 2005. (click here to download the publication)

Foreword for: HART, Stuart (Coord.) et al. Eliminating Corporal Punishment –UNESCO, Paris, 2005.

Notes for oral presentation to the British Parliament

Statement for the Sub Regional Seminary on the implementation of CRC observations (Buenos Aires)