United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CEDAW/C/GC/31-CRC/C/GC/18 Distr.: General 14 November 2014 Original: English Convention on the Rights of the Child Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Committee on the Rights of the Child Joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on harmful practices Contents Page I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 II. Objective and scope of the joint general recommendation/general comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 III. Rationale for the joint general recommendation/general comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 IV. Normative content of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 V. Criteria for determining harmful practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 VI. Causes, forms and manifestations of harmful practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A. Female genital mutilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 B. Child and/or forced marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 C. Polygamy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 D. Crimes committed in the name of so-called honour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Holistic framework for addressing harmful practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A. Data collection and monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 B. Legislation and its enforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 C. Prevention of harmful practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 D. Protective measures and responsive services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 VIII. Dissemination and use of the joint general recommendation/general comment and reporting . . 23 IX. Treaty ratification or accession and reservations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 VII. 14-64765 (E) 251114 *1464765*

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