Promote reproductive health and rights 77. The target of reducing infant and maternal mortality by one half, especially reducing the gap between developed and developing countries, should be met. Reproductive health and family-planning programmes, including education and awareness-raising about reproductive rights as human rights and about harmful practices, should be adequately funded and staffed, designed to help individuals and couples to meet their needs and accessible to all, aiming also at reducing early pregnancies and their effects on women. Programmes should target men as fathers and as persons responsible for their sexual behaviour. There should be training in health and family-planning programmes, with participation of midwives and community-trained female health workers. Foster research on women's health 78. Research on prevention, treatment, and health-care systems for diseases and conditions that affect women and girls differently, including drugs and medical technology, should be encouraged and supported. Specific needs related to old age should systematically be incorporated in research, training and service delivery, since women tend to be a majority in that age group and the burden of caring for that age group also rests with women. D. Eliminate violence against women 79. Strategic action should address all of the manifestations of violence set out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, which are physical and psychological, including sexual violence occurring in the family, in the workplace or within the general community. Violence against women should be recognized as a violation of women’s human rights. Various actions should be taken by Governments, non-governmental organizations and the international community in their respective areas of authority and competence. Governments should cooperate with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and support her in the fulfilment of her mandate. Address the root causes of violence against women 80. Gender-based violence is inextricably linked to male power, privilege and control. It is important to continue to study and widely publicize the root causes and mechanisms of the different forms of violence, including their relation to the balance of power between men and women in general as well as between individual men and women. Emphasis should be given to understanding the basis of sexual abuse, violence against the girl child, and against women migrant workers, sexual harassment and trafficking in women, in the context of social, economic and political conditions, including violence committed against women by extremists, including religious extremists. The study should examine the roots of violence in the social-cultural environment, and the impact of the mass media, including commercial advertisements, on violence against women. Studies should also address the cycle of violence and how violence is repeated through generations. Violence against women should be shown as an issue of gender inequality and human rights requiring improvement of the status of women and their empowerment. Governments should further combat the root causes of violence by adopting measures, including developing and conducting community education campaigns to promote non-violent attitudes and the unacceptability of violence against women, analysing and reviewing existing legislation relevant to violence against women, and where such legislation does not exist, introducing such legislation in consultation with non-governmental organizations and -44-