A/67/230 2. Protection from harmful practices in plural legal systems 15. Throughout the world, countless numbers of girls and boys fall victims to harmful practices, including female genital mutilation or cutting, early and forced marriage, degrading initiation rites, breast ironing, son preference, stoning, honour killings, forced feeding, witchcraft rituals and many other less-known forms of harmful practice. Often violent in nature, these practices compromise the development and education of the child, have serious and long-lasting health and psychological consequences, and may result in disability or death. 16. Despite the call made in the Study for all harmful practices to be prohibited by law, this is not the reality in many countries around the world. In some cases, general legislation on assault and bodily injury is applicable but rarely used or enforced, because of the social acceptance of those deeply entrenched practices. In other cases, different practices are compartmentalized in distinct pieces of legislation, hampering the consideration of commonalities and shared root causes and the promotion of a common holistic strategy. In countries with plural legal systems, where national legislation interplays with customary and religious law, legal interpretation and implementation face greater complexities, tensions and challenges that may seriously compromise children’s best interests. 17. In order to reflect on these questions and identify opportunities for change, the Special Representative and Plan International, in close cooperation with the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), OHCHR and the International NGO Council on Violence against Children co-hosted an international expert consultation. 18. The consultation considered significant developments where law reform and enforcement, supported by awareness-raising and a widely participatory social mobilization process, have helped to address deeply rooted social conventions and promote the abandonment of harmful practices against children. 19. Inconsistencies in legal regulation, selective implementation and compliance, and insufficient resources, together with lack of awareness within communities, prejudices among personnel and weak capacity to address children’s rights among law enforcement officials, the judiciary, traditional leaders and judges in customary and religious courts were identified as critical challenges. 20. The outcomes of the expert consultation are set out in a thematic report, to be launched during the commemoration of the 2012 International Day of the Girl Child, and include the following overarching recommendations: (a) Legislation plays a crucial role in the social process of abandonment of harmful practices against girls and boys, and is a core dimension of States’ accountability for the protection of children from violence; this includes the obligation to ensure harmonization of all legislation, including customary and religious laws, with international human rights standards, and to ensure the establishment of a legal definition of the child in compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (b) National legislation should include a clear and comprehensive prohibition of all harmful practices, secure the protection of children from all forms of violence and remove any justification of such practices that may compromise the 12-45164 7