A/RES/58/156 Recalling all other relevant United Nations conferences, the Beijing Declaration 8 and Platform for Action 9 adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, 10 and the outcome documents of the recent five-year reviews of the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 11 and the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, 12 Reaffirming the Dakar Framework for Action adopted at the World Education Forum, 13 Recalling the Declaration and Agenda for Action adopted at the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, held at Stockholm from 27 to 31 August 1996, 14 and welcoming the Yokohama Global Commitment 2001, adopted at the Second World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, held at Yokohama, Japan, from 17 to 20 December 2001, 15 Recognizing the efforts of the international community to strengthen the standards for combating sexual abuse and exploitation, and in this regard taking note of the Secretary-General’s bulletin on special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse 16 and other policies and codes of conduct developed by the United Nations system to prevent and address such incidents, Recalling the International Conference on War-Affected Children, held at Winnipeg, Canada, from 10 to 17 September 2000, and affirming the ongoing importance of the Winnipeg Agenda for War-Affected Children 17 for all children affected by armed conflict, Recognizing the need to achieve gender equality to ensure a just and equitable world for girls, Deeply concerned about discrimination against the girl child and the violation of the rights of the girl child, which often result in less access for girls to education, nutrition and physical and mental health care and in girls enjoying fewer of the rights, opportunities and benefits of childhood and adolescence than boys and often being subjected to various forms of cultural, social, sexual and economic exploitation and to violence and harmful practices, such as female infanticide, incest, early marriage, prenatal sex selection and female genital mutilation, _______________ 8 Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4–15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex I. 9 Ibid., annex II. 10 Resolution S-23/2, annex, and resolution S-23/3, annex. 11 Resolution S-21/2, annex. 12 Resolution S-24/2, annex. 13 See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Final Report of the World Education Forum, Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 April 2000 (Paris, 2000). 14 A/51/385, annex. 15 See A/S-27/12, annex. 16 ST/SGB/2003/13. 17 A/55/467-S/2000/973, annex. 2

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