E/2008/27 E/CN.6/2008/11 girls to education, nutrition and physical and mental health care, in girls enjoying fewer of the rights, opportunities and benefits of childhood and adolescence than boys and in their 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, Welcoming the call for Africa free of female genital mutilation, pledged at the African Union second Pan-African Forum on Children: midterm review, held in Cairo from 29 October to 2 November 2007, as well as the adoption of the call for accelerated action on the implementation of the Plan of Action towards Africa Fit for Children (2008-2012), 30 1. Stresses that the empowerment of girls is key to breaking the cycle of discrimination and violence and for the promotion and protection of human rights, including the right to the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health, including sexual and reproductive health, and calls upon States parties to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child9 and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,16 as well as their commitments to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women,5 the Beijing Platform for Action3 and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”,4 and of the twenty-seventh special session of the General Assembly on children;14 2. Emphasizes that awareness-raising, community mobilization, education and training are needed to ensure that all key actors, Government officials, including law enforcement and judicial personnel, health-care providers, religious and community leaders, teachers, employers, media professionals and those directly working with girls, as well as parents, families and communities, work to eliminate attitudes and harmful practices that negatively affect girls; Calls upon States to strengthen advocacy and awareness-raising 3. programmes, to mobilize girls and boys to take an active part in developing preventive and elimination programmes to address harmful traditional practices, especially female genital mutilation, and to engage communities and religious leaders, educational institutions, the media and families and provide increased financial support to efforts at all levels to end those practices; Urges States to condemn all harmful traditional practices, in 4. particular female genital mutilation; 5. Calls upon States to strengthen the level of education for women and girls and the capacity of health-care systems to meet their needs in line with the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, as this is critical for empowering them and their communities to end female genital mutilation; __________________ 30 18 A/62/653, annex. 08-29062