A/RES/60/141 session of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, entitled “Global Crisis – Global Action”, 9 Reaffirming further all other relevant outcomes of major United Nations summits and conferences relevant to the girl child, as well as their five- and ten-year reviews, including the Beijing Declaration 10 and Platform for Action 11 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”, 12 the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 13 and the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, 14 and welcoming the declaration adopted on 4 March 2005 by the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-ninth session, 15 Reaffirming the Dakar Framework for Action adopted at the World Education Forum, 16 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 17 and other policies and codes of conduct developed by the United Nations system to prevent and address such incidents, Recognizing also 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, rape, incest, early marriage, forced marriage, prenatal sex selection and female genital mutilation, Deeply concerned also that, in situations of poverty, war and armed conflict, girl children are among those most affected and that their potential for full development is thus limited, Concerned that the girl child has furthermore become the victim of rape, sexually transmitted diseases and, increasingly, of HIV, which have a serious impact _______________ 9 Resolution S-26/2, annex. 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. 11 Ibid., annex II. 12 Resolution S-23/2, annex, and resolution S-23/3, annex. 13 Report of the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 5–13 September 1994 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.95.XIII.18), chap. I, resolution 1, annex. 14 Report of the World Summit for Social Development, Copenhagen, 6–12 March 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.8), chap. I, resolution 1, annex II. 15 See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2005, Supplement No. 7 and corrigendum (E/2005/27 and Corr.1), chap. I, sect. A. 16 See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Final Report of the World Education Forum, Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 April 2000 (Paris, 2000). 17 ST/SGB/2003/13. 10 2

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