B. Education and empowerment of the
girl child
and other girls with special needs, and provide the
resources necessary to address their needs;
• Involve girls, including girls with special needs, and
Actions to be taken by Governments, educational
institutions and the United Nations system, as
appropriate:
their representative organizations in the decision-making process and include them as full and
active partners in identifying their own needs and
in designing, planning, implementing and assessing
policies and programmes to meet those needs;
• Consider drawing upon the findings and recom-
mendations of the United Nations Expert Group
Meeting on Adolescent Girls and their Rights, held
in Addis Ababa in October 1997;
• Provide training opportunities for girls to develop their
skills in leadership, advocacy and conflict resolution;
• Make visible girls' and boys' unpaid work in the
• Consider making primary education compulsory;
household by conducting research and documenting gender differences, particularly in rural communities, note the implications of household work for
girls' equal access to basic and further education
and career development and take measures to
redress imbalances and eliminate discrimination.
• Ensure universal enrolment and retention of girls
in school and ensure the continued education of
pregnant adolescents and young mothers in order
to guarantee basic education to the girl child;
• Encourage all levels of society, including parents,
Governments and non governmental organizations,
to support the implementation of educational policies to enhance gender awareness in the community;
C. Health needs of girls
Actions to be taken by Governments, civil society
and the United Nations system, as appropriate:
• Provide gender-sensitive training for school administrators, parents and all members of the school
community, such as local administrators, staff,
teachers, school boards and students;
• Protect the girl child from all forms of sexual
exploitation and sexual abuse by taking appropriate measures, including, for example, designing and
implementing legislation;
• Review teaching materials, including textbooks,
to promote the self-esteem of women and girls
through positive self-images and revise these materials, highlighting women's effective role in society,
including in decision-making, development, culture,
history, sports and other social, political and economic endeavours;
• Encourage parents, coalitions of concerned organi-
zations and individuals, especially political leaders,
popular and community figures and the media, to
advocate for children's health, including adolescent
girls' reproductive and sexual health;
• Develop programmes of sensitization on the gender
• Eradicate all customary or traditional practices, par-
perspective for staff of government offices working on educational issues concerning indigenous
and rural girls, and develop educational materials
adapted to their situation;
ticularly female genital mutilation, that are harmful
to or discriminate against women and girls and
that are violations of women's human rights and
obstacles to the full enjoyment by women of their
human rights and fundamental freedoms, through
the design and implementation of awareness-raising programmes, education and training, as well as
programmes to help the victims of such practices
to overcome their trauma;
• Identify the special needs of girls in difficult circum-
stances, including girls from migrant families, refugee and displaced girls, girls from ethnic minorities,
indigenous girls, orphaned girls, girls with disabilities
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