A/HRC/RES/55/29
Noting with deep concern that long-term gender inequalities are perpetuated by the
fact that, worldwide, girls and women disproportionately undertake care responsibilities,
mostly unpaid or underpaid, hampering their access to education and formal employment and
jeopardizing their right to contributory social security, fair wages, safe and healthy working
conditions and an adequate standard of living across the life cycle,
Noting with deep concern also that significant gender gaps continue to exist in
inclusive social protection coverage, adequacy and comprehensiveness, particularly in lowerincome countries, with an impact on, inter alia, access to health care, including sexual and
reproductive health information, education and care services, menstrual health and hygiene,
as well as maternal health, services, such as prenatal and postnatal care and breastfeeding and
nutrition services, and mental health services, despite increasing awareness of the need for
gender-responsive and inclusive social protection,
Expressing serious concern that the absence of universal, non-discriminatory,
comprehensive, disability-inclusive and child rights-based inclusive social protection
systems, including systems to address the needs of family members, including those with
disabilities, in many countries means that the additional needs and support requirements of
children with disabilities are frequently not met, and underscoring the need to prevent and
eliminate discrimination arising from the way in which ableism and gender inequality interact
and compound each other,
Noting with concern that multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination have a
disproportionate impact on access to inclusive social protection by some children, including
children with disabilities, internally displaced, refugee, migrant and asylum-seeking children,
Indigenous children, children engaged in child labour, girls, children in early and forced
marriage, children of African descent, children in street situations, children in alternative care
and care-leavers, children deprived of their liberty, children in rural and remote areas,
children affected by armed conflict and natural disasters, children from the poorest
households and children whose parents or caregivers cannot work or work in the informal
economy,
Acknowledging that the benefits that children and their parents or caregivers receive
are often inadequate to meet children’s individual needs, especially the individual needs of
those furthest behind, and that universal child benefits, alongside the provision of
complementary interventions, access to essential services and in-kind benefits, and other
benefits received by the household, can improve children’s inclusive social protection and
gender equality, reduce child poverty and support children’s development,
Reaffirming that children, for the full and harmonious development of their
personalities, should grow up in a family environment, that their best interests shall be the
guiding principle of those responsible for their nurture and protection and that families’ and
caregivers’ capacities to provide the child with care and a safe environment should be
promoted, and underscoring the importance of social protection in promoting and
strengthening the capacities of parents, caregivers and legal guardians to care for their
children,
Recognizing the obligations of States to ensure access to inclusive social protection,
including by addressing the lack of integrated systems and poor coordination in design,
implementation and monitoring across services responsible for inclusive social protection,
rigid and fragmented systems, stigma and discrimination, the lack of relevant disaggregated
data, the lack of clear, accessible, child-friendly information about social protection systems,
the failure to meaningfully and safely engage children and the difficulty in accessing
accountability mechanisms in cases of unfair denial of benefits,
Reaffirming that inclusive social protection, whether in cash or in kind, should be
made available to ensure, inter alia, the full enjoyment of all human rights by all children,
regardless of the situation of their parents or caregivers, including in relation to cases where
a parent or caregiver lacks work-related income due to sickness, disability, maternity,
employment injury, unemployment, old age or death of a family member, unaffordable
access to health services or insufficient family support,
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