Mrs. Marta Santos Pais is an international human rights lawyer with more than 35 years of experience on human rights, children´s rights and international cooperation, including lead responsibilities within the United Nations system, engagement in European and multilateral intergovernmental processes, and participation in the drafting of key international human rights standards, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols, and the second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as in the negotiation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Mrs. Santos Pais heads the Portuguese Holocaust Remembrance Commission Never Forget and is a Commissioner of the International Commission against the Death Penalty. She is a member of the Task Force on Justice of the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies initiative, as well as a member of the International Board of Trustees of the African Child Policy Forum, of Arigatou International Advisory Group and of Joining Forces to Prevent Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. In Portugal, she is Vice President of the Board of UNICEF Portugal, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Portuguese Institute of the Child and of the ProChild Collaborative Laboratory.
From 2009 to 2919 she served as the first United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children. In that capacity, Mrs. Santos Pais acted as a high-level global independent advocate, promoting the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against children in all settings, including in the home, in schools, in institutional care, in the justice system, in the workplace and in the community. She was a bridge builder in all regions and across sectors and was strongly committed to mobilizing action and political support to maintain momentum around this agenda and to achieve steady progress across the world.
Before her appointment as the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Mrs Santos Pais was the Director of UNICEF Evaluation, Policy and Planning (1997-2001) and the Director of UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre (2001-2009). Prior to that, she was the Rapporteur of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Vice-Chair of the Council of Europe Childhood Policies Committee. In Portugal, Mrs Santos Pais was the Head of the Human Rights Branch of the Comparative Law Office of the Attorney General Office and a Visiting Professor at the International University in Lisbon. She is the author of numerous publications on legal cooperation, human rights and children’s rights.
