The girl child
A/RES/72/154
15. Also urges States to ensure that the applicable conventions of the
International Labour Organization relating to the employment of girls and boys are
respected and effectively enforced and that girls who are employed have equal access
to decent work and equal pay for equal work or work of equal v alue, are protected
from economic and sexual exploitation, discrimination, sexual harassment, violence
and abuse in the workplace, are aware of their rights and have access to formal and
non-formal education, skills development and technical and vocational training, and
urges States to develop gender-sensitive measures, including national action plans,
where appropriate, to eliminate child labour and its worst forms, commercial sexual
exploitation, hazardous forms of child labour, trafficking and slavery -like practices,
including forced and bonded labour, and recruitment or use of children in armed
conflict in violation of applicable international law, and to recognize that girls,
including in child-headed households, face greater risks in this regard;
16. Calls upon States, with the support of relevant stakeholders, including the
private sector, civil society, non-governmental organizations and community-based
organizations, as appropriate, to take all measures necessary to ensure the right of
girls to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, including sexual
and reproductive health, and to develop sustainable health systems, strengthen
existing ones to ensure primary health care with an integrated HIV response and make
them more accessible to adolescent girls;
17. Also calls upon States to strengthen the capacity of national health
systems, and in this regard invites the international community to assist national
efforts, upon request, including by allocating adequate resources in order t o provide
the essential services needed to prevent obstetric fistula and to treat those cases that
occur by providing the continuum of services, including family planning, prenatal
and postnatal care, skilled birth attendance, emergency obstetric care and post-partum
care, to adolescent girls, including those living in poverty and in underserved rural
areas where obstetric fistula is most common;
18. Urges all States to enact, uphold and strictly enforce laws and policies
aimed at preventing and ending child, early and forced marriage and protecting those
at risk and to ensure that marriage is entered into only with the informed, free and full
consent of the intending spouses, to enact and strictly enforce laws concerning the
minimum legal age of consent and the minimum age for marriage, to raise the
minimum age for marriage, engage all relevant stakeholders, including girls, where
necessary, and ensure that these laws are well known, to further develop and
implement holistic, comprehensive and coordinated policies, plans of action and
programmes and to support already married girls and adolescents and ensure the
provision of viable alternatives and institutional support, especially educational
opportunities for girls, to ensure the survival, protection, dev elopment and
advancement of the girl child in order to promote and protect the full enjoyment of
her human rights and to ensure equal opportunities for girls, including by making
such plans an integral part of her total development process;
19. Urges States to enact, as appropriate, and implement legislation to protect,
support and empower children living in child-headed households, in particular those
headed by girls, that includes provisions to ensure their physical, psychosocial and
economic well-being, including protecting their property and inheritance rights, access
to health-care services, nutrition, clean water, including safe drinking water, sanitation
and hygiene, shelter, education, scholarships and training opportunities, and that their
family is protected and assisted in staying together, including through, where
appropriate, social protection programmes and economic support;
20. Also urges States to forge partnerships with relevant stakeholders,
particularly by working with and involving communities in developing programmes
and mechanisms designed to ensure the safety and protection as well as the
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