The girl child A/RES/68/146 Recognizing that chronic poverty remains one of the biggest obstacles to meeting the needs of and promoting and protecting the rights of children, including the girl child, Recognizing also that urgent national and international action is required to eliminate poverty, in particular extreme poverty, and noting that the ongoing effects of the global financial and economic crisis, volatile energy and food prices and continuing food insecurity as a result of various factors are felt directly by households, especially those headed by girls, Recognizing further that the phenomenon of child-headed households is linked to other economic, social and political realities, such as armed conflict, natural disasters, lack of economic empowerment and health inequities, and that a comprehensive approach to these problems is needed to resolve the issue of childheaded households, Deeply concerned about the serious social problem of child-headed households, in particular those headed by girls, and that the impact of the HIV and AIDS epidemic, including illness and mortality, the erosion of the extended family, the exacerbation of poverty, unemployment and underemployment and migration, as well as urbanization, have contributed to the increase in the number of child-headed households, Recognizing that child-headed households may result from the death of parents and/or legal guardians, and that children can become de facto heads of households owing to parental illness, whether physical or mental, parental neglect, the migration of parents or other such factors, Deeply concerned about the extreme vulnerability of children who are heads of households, particularly girls, who may be exceptionally negatively affected by the economic and care burdens placed on them at a young age, which in turn may lead to their having difficulty completing their education and increase their vulnerability to poverty, discrimination, trafficking and physical abuse, Deeply concerned also about the vulnerability of children raised in childheaded households, in particular the girl child, who suffer from the lack of adult support and may be particularly vulnerable to poverty, mental and psychosocial trauma and physical vulnerability owing to, inter alia, food insecurity and poor nutrition, limited access to safe water and adequate sanitation, and communicable and non-communicable diseases, Deeply concerned further that children in child-headed households may be subjected to stigma and discrimination owing to the fact that parental death is a result of HIV/AIDS, and that children heading households may be at greater risk of HIV because of their vulnerability to violence and exploitation as they seek to support their households, Deeply concerned that, in situations of poverty, armed conflict, natural disasters and other humanitarian emergencies, the incidence of child-headed households increases and makes the girl child particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, abuse, exploitation and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, which have a serious impact on the quality of their lives and leave them open to further discrimination, violence and neglect, thus limiting their potential for full development, Recognizing that women and girls are more vulnerable to HIV infection and that they bear a disproportionate burden of the impact of the HIV and AIDS 3/13