A/RES/57/189 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”, 9 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 10 and the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, 11 Reaffirming the Dakar Framework for Action adopted at the World Education Forum, 12 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 1996,13 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, 14 Recalling also 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 Children15 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, 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 sexually transmitted diseases and increasingly of the human immunodeficiency virus, which have a serious impact on the quality of her life and leave her open to further discrimination, Convinced that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance reveal themselves in a differentiated manner for women and girls and can be among the factors leading to a deterioration in their living conditions, poverty, violence, multiple forms of discrimination and limitation or denial of their human rights, _______________ 9 Resolution S-23/2, annex, and resolution S-23/3, annex. Resolution S-21/2, annex. 11 Resolution S-24/2, annex. 12 See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Final Report of the World Education Forum, Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 April 2000 (Paris, 2000). 13 A/51/385, annex. 14 See A/S-27/12, annex. 15 A/55/467-S/2000/973, annex. 10 2

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