A/69/264 I. Introduction 1. The present report is framed by the priorities identified by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children for the second term of her mandate (see A/67/230, paras. 100-110). They include mainstreaming the recommendations of the United Nations study on violence against children 1 (the study) in the national policy agenda and addressing emerging concerns; tackling violence across children’s life cycle with priority attention to particularly vulnerable children; and promoting children’s protection from violence as a priority in the development agenda. The present report addresses opportunities and risks associated with information and communication technologies as a pressing area of concern. 2. To advance national initiatives and bring the mandate closer to national stakeholders, in 2014 the Special Representative conducted field missions in different regions, most recently to Thailand, Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia and Sweden. Country visits provide a valuable opportunity to promote high-level policy discussions with governmental authorities and national parliaments; awareness -raising and advocacy initiatives with professional groups, civil society partners and children; and media encounters. They have been critical in advancing progress in the ratification of human rights treaties; the enactment and enforcement of legislation to ban all forms of violence and protect children therefrom; consolidation of data and researc h to inform advocacy and policymaking; and initiatives to prevent children’s exposure to violence in schools, care and justice institutions, and in the home, 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 3. The Special Representative undertook significant initiatives to advance progress in the implementation of the recommendations of the study. They include: (a) Strengthening the human rights foundation of children ’s freedom from violence; (b) Building upon the findings of the Global Survey on violence against children to accelerate progress towards a world free from violence; (c) Placing child protection from violence at the centre of the post-2015 development agenda. A. Strengthening the human rights foundation of children’s freedom from violence 4. The year 2014 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is a time of commemoration and recognition of the important changes that have taken place in the realization of __________________ 1 2/23 A/61/299. 14-58801