A/69/264 practices and success factors and boost efforts to overcome persistent challenges and accelerate progress in children’s protection from violence. 1. Mainstreaming the study recommendations in the national policy agenda 25. The survey confirmed that strategic actions are under way in many countries to advance national implementation of the recommendations in the study. Many States have launched public information campaigns to prevent violence and address attitudes and social norms condoning violence against children. Similarly, there has been an incremental adoption of policy reforms to counter violence against children. Today, close to 90 States have a comprehensive policy agenda, in many cases developed through a participatory process and involving governmental departments, national institutions, civil society and children. 26. Similarly, significant legislative reforms have been promoted to address distinct manifestations of violence against children, including physical, emotional and sexual abuse, bullying in schools, and neglect and maltreatment in institutions and within the home. Since 2006, the number of countries with a comprehensive legal ban on all forms of violence, including corporal punishment, has more than doubled, reaching 39 by July 2014. Brazil is the most recent nation with such a comprehensive legal framework. With its large child population, the enactment of its legislation has led to a visible increase in the proportion of the world ’s children protected by a legal ban, from 5 to 8 per cent. This process has been accompanied by training initiatives for professional groups and programmes for parents and caregivers to promote positive parenting and non-violent discipline. 27. Data and research are crucial to break the invisibility of violence against children, to challenge its social acceptance, understand its causes and enhance protection of children at risk; and they provide sound evidence to inform legislation and government advocacy, policy, planning and budgeting for effective child protection services. This is an area where many challenges prevail but the recent past has been marked by incremental progress with the development of national surveys addressing the magnitude of this phenomenon, identifying risk and protective factors, and assessing the consequences of violence on children’s well-being. 28. National surveys have helped to mobilize a comprehensive national response across multiple sectors, including health, education and social welfare, planning and budgeting, law enforcement and justice. Since the start of the mandate, eight national surveys 9 have been conducted in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean and seven others 10 are being undertaken. 29. Cross-fertilization of knowledge and national experiences has been an important factor of progress. For this reason, in 2014, Swaziland in cooperation with UNICEF and the Together for Girls Partnership, hosted an important meeting at which 20 countries involved in this process gathered to share evidence and reflect on ways of translating national data and research into a multisectoral policy agenda to protect children from violence. The Special Representative will continue to support this process and will join the launch of national data surveys to support the __________________ 9 10 6/23 The United Republic of Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Cambodia, Malawi, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Botswana, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mozambique. 14-58801