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Adolescent health and development in the context of the Convention of the Rights of the Child 2003, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- In light of articles 3, 6, 12, 19 and 24 (3) of the Convention, States parties should take all effective measures to eliminate all acts and activities which threaten the right to life of adolescents, including honour killings. The Committee strongly urges States parties to develop and implement awareness-raising campaigns, education programmes and legislation aimed at changing prevailing attitudes, and address gender roles and stereotypes that contribute to harmful traditional practices. Further, States parties should facilitate the establishment of multidisciplinary information and advice centres regarding the harmful aspects of some traditional practices, including early marriage and female genital mutilation.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Year
- 2003
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in the area of health and safety, with a focus on the instrumentalization of women's bodies 2016, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Many girls are exposed to a wide variety of practices which are harmful to their health and well-being, such as female genital mutilation, discrimination in food allocation resulting in malnutrition and discrimination in access to professional health care. Furthermore, early marriage and adolescent pregnancy have a long-lasting impact on girls' physical integrity and mental health. Pregnancy and childbirth are together the second leading cause of death among 15- to 19-year-old girls globally, putting them at the highest risk of dying or suffering serious lifelong injuries as a result of pregnancy. For example, up to 65 per cent of women with obstetric fistula, which is a severely disabling condition and often results in social exclusion, develop this condition as adolescents.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Reflection on a 6-year tenure as Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography 2014, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- Similarly, the expansion of the Internet and social networking has had an impact on children's social norms. The exposure of children to child pornography inspires and influences their sexual practices and affects their behaviour. Prevailing standards and peer pressure has led adolescents to share sexualized images of themselves, making them vulnerable to abuse and potentially redefining some of the social limits of acceptability of child pornography.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Women and health 1999, para. 12b
- Paragraph text
- [States parties should report on their understanding of how policies and measures on health care address the health rights of women from the perspective of women's needs and interests and how it addresses distinctive features and factors that differ for women in comparison to men, such as:] Socio-economic factors that vary for women in general and some groups of women in particular. For example, unequal power relationships between women and men in the home and workplace may negatively affect women's nutrition and health. They may also be exposed to different forms of violence which can affect their health. Girl children and adolescent girls are often vulnerable to sexual abuse by older men and family members, placing them at risk of physical and psychological harm and unwanted and early pregnancy. Some cultural or traditional practices such as female genital mutilation also carry a high risk of death and disability;
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Adolescent health and development in the context of the Convention of the Rights of the Child 2003, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- The Convention defines the civil rights and freedoms of children and adolescents in its articles 13 to 17. These are fundamental in guaranteeing the right to health and development of adolescents. Article 17 states that the child has the right to "access information and material from a diversity of national and international sources, especially those aimed at the promotion of his or her social, spiritual and moral well-being and physical and mental health". The right of adolescents to access appropriate information is crucial if States parties are to promote cost effective measures, including through laws, policies and programmes, with regard to numerous health related situations, including those covered in articles 24 and 33 such as family planning, prevention of accidents, protection from harmful traditional practices, including early marriages and female genital mutilation, and the abuse of alcohol, tobacco and other harmful substances.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Year
- 2003
Paragraph
Adolescent health and development in the context of the Convention of the Rights of the Child 2003, para. 39g
- Paragraph text
- [In exercising their obligations in relation to the health and development of adolescents, States parties shall always take fully into account the four general principles of the Convention. It is the view of the Committee that States parties must take all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures for the realization and monitoring of the rights of adolescents to health and development as recognized in the Convention. To this end, States parties must notably fulfil the following obligations:] To protect adolescents from all harmful traditional practices, such as early marriages, honour killings and female genital mutilation;
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Year
- 2003
Paragraph
The right of the child to freedom of expression 2014, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- In India, members of the Adolescent Girls' Clubs against Child Marriage network help to persuade families not to marry their daughters off at a young age by educating people about the harmful consequences of early marriage. They offer a lifeline not only to girls who want to resist family pressure, but also to parents afraid that going against gender-based expectations will leave their daughters ostracized.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Tackling the demand for the sexual exploitation of children 2016, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- A major enabler of demand is the perception of youth, consent and virginity. Indeed, the attraction of preferential offenders who are not paedophiles to adolescents often stems from social and cultural constructs. The obsession with virginity owing to notions of purity and health is, for example, a source of demand for the sexual exploitation of children. There are thus in several regions of the world those who specifically seek to have intercourse with virgins. Concurrently, a child who has lost his or her virginity is considered in negative terms and devalued, thus being more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Besides, the definition of a child, although set at any person under 18 in international law, varies from one culture to another and is strongly related to his or her sexual maturity. There is further confusion as a result of the varying ages of sexual consent across the world. Preferential and situational offenders will thus justify their actions by affirming, based on their personal belief or on the degree of social tolerance, that their victim was not a child or consented to his or her exploitation.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Comprehensive prevention strategies against sale and sexual exploitation of children 2013, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Social norms within children's own communities - through their peers - can also constitute significant risk factors. In the context of exchanges with peers or of relationships, children, especially adolescents, may be tempted to put so-called "self generated indecent images" online, which may then be further disseminated through social media. Children may also make themselves vulnerable through online behaviours that are then exploited by criminals through grooming on the Internet and blackmailing online. Consumerism may draw children into exploitative situations so that they are able to buy specific goods. Early sexualization, conveyed through media and peers, may contribute to risky attitudes and distort perceptions by both children and adults of the criminal nature of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- As with domestic violence, it is difficult to obtain accurate figures of the numbers of girls and women in servile marriage. Statistics for early marriage, however, can be used as an indication. According to UNICEF, adolescent marriages (where one or both spouses are below the age of 19 years) commonly occur in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In those regions, most marriages take place between the ages of 15 and 18 years. UNICEF suggests that early marriages are often considered to be a way to protect girls, and even sometimes boys, from sexual predation, promiscuity and social ostracism. In some communities, parents perceive girls as wealth.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Boys
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- In its general comment No. 4, the Committee on the Rights of the Child strongly urges States parties to develop and implement legislation aimed at changing prevailing attitudes, and address gender roles and stereotypes that contribute to harmful traditional practices. It also calls upon States parties to protect adolescents from all harmful traditional practices, such as early marriage, and recommends that they review and, where necessary, reform their legislation and practice to increase the minimum age for marriage with and without parental consent to 18 years, for both girls and boys.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Special consideration is to be given to girls (including the girl child and adolescent girls, where appropriate) because they face specific barriers to gaining access to justice. They often lack the social or legal capacity to make significant decisions about their lives in areas relating to education, health and sexual and reproductive rights. They may be forced into marriage or subjected to other harmful practices and various forms of violence.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- In many cultures, girls are considered adults after their first menstruation and may drop out of school, marry and start having children. Increased knowledge of menstruation by both men and women, combined with strategies to lift social taboos on menstruation, may prevent girls from being considered as adults ready for marriage but, rather, as young adolescents going through a normal phase of their development.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
13 shown of 13 entities