On the occasion of the 26^th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, this report sets out to investigate the current situation of children’s rights, and the impact of violence on the rights of the child, in El Salvador. The report includes a comprehensive analysis of the progress made thus far in regards to children’s rights and identifies the areas where improvement is needed to reach complete actualisation of the convention in the nation. It determines the causes of violence against children and youth to develop accurate recommendations to address the current areas of weakness, as well as to provide insight on future prevention of violence against children.

Within the period of the last report (2009-2015), important progress has been made in outlawing violence against children. Council of National Childhood and Adolescence was established to oversee the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents, which constitutes a great milestone in El Salvador. However, many improvements are still needed to guarantee children’s rights. Through consultations with opinion groups, this report addresses important thematic areas within children’s rights: (1) Homicides committed against the public sector; (2) Social violence committed by gangs; (3) Violence against girls and women; (4) Education, health and labour exploitation; (5) Disability and missing childhoods; (6) Irregular migration of unaccompanied children.