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African Youth Charter 2006, para. 1l
- Paragraph text
- 1. States Parties acknowledge the need to eliminate discrimination against girls and young women according to obligations stipulated in various international, regional and national human rights conventions and instruments designed to protect and promote women's rights. In this regard, they shall: l) Enact and enforce legislation that protect girls and young women from all forms of violence, genital mutilation, incest, rape, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, trafficking, prostitution and pornography;
- Body
- African Union
- Document type
- Regional treaty
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2006
Paragraph
Fertility, reproductive health and development 2011, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Stresses that States should eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference, which results in harmful and unethical practices regarding female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, increase public awareness of the value of the girl child, and concurrently, strengthen the girl child's self-image, self-esteem and status, and improve the welfare of the girl child, especially in regard to health, nutrition and education, and urges Governments to take the necessary measures to prevent infanticide, prenatal sex selection, trafficking in girl children and the use of girls in prostitution and pornography;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Adolescents and youth 2012, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Urges all States to develop, adopt and fully implement laws and to take other measures, such as policies and educational programmes, as appropriate, to eradicate harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and early and forced marriage, which are violations of the human rights of women and girls, and to intensify efforts, in cooperation with local women's and youth groups, to raise collective and individual awareness on how such harmful practices violate the human rights of women and girls;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
The contribution of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development to the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals 2009, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Urges Governments, in order to ensure the contribution of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development to the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, to, inter alia, protect and promote the full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms regardless of age and marital status, including by eliminating all forms of discrimination against girls and women, working more effectively to achieve equality between women and men in all areas of family responsibility and in sexual and reproductive life, empowering women and girls, promoting and protecting women's and girls' right to education at all levels, providing young people with comprehensive education on human sexuality, on sexual and reproductive health, on gender equality and on how to deal positively and responsibly with their sexuality, enacting and enforcing laws to ensure that marriage is entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses, ensuring the right of women to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence, combating all forms of violence against women, including harmful traditional and customary practices such as female genital mutilation, developing strategies to eliminate gender stereotypes in all spheres of life and achieving gender equality in political life and decision-making, which would contribute to the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2009
Paragraph
Assessment of the status of implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 2014, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Expresses deep concern about the pervasiveness of gender-based violence, in particular violence against women and girls, and reiterates the need to further intensify efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, and recognizes that violence against women and girls is one of the obstacles to achieving the empowerment of women and that women's poverty and lack of political, social and economic empowerment, as well as their marginalization, may result from their exclusion from social policies for and the benefits of sustainable development and can place them at increased risk of violence;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Health, morbidity, mortality and development 2010, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Urges Governments, in order to ensure the contribution of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development to the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, to, inter alia, protect and promote the full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms regardless of age and marital status, including by eliminating all forms of discrimination against girls and women; working more effectively to achieve equality between women and men in all areas of family responsibility and in sexual and reproductive life; empowering women and girls, promoting and protecting women's and girls' right to education at all levels; providing young people with comprehensive education on human sexuality, on sexual and reproductive health, on gender equality and on how to deal positively and responsibly with their sexuality; enacting and enforcing laws to ensure that marriage is entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses; ensuring the right of women to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence; combating all forms of violence against women, including harmful traditional and customary practices such as female genital mutilation; developing strategies to eliminate gender stereotypes in all spheres of life and achieving gender equality in political life and decision-making, which would contribute to the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Adolescents and youth 2012, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Concerned that early and forced marriage and forced sexual relationships have adverse physical, social and psychological effects on adolescent and young girls and violate their human rights, and that early childbearing and early and forced marriage reduce opportunities for adolescent and young girls to complete their education, develop employable skills and participate in community development,
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Girls
- Youth
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Fertility, reproductive health and development 2011, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Urges Governments, in order to ensure the contribution of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development to the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, to, inter alia, protect and promote full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms regardless of age and marital status, including by eliminating all forms of discrimination against girls and women, working more effectively to achieve equality between women and men in all areas of family responsibility and in sexual and reproductive life, empowering women and girls, promoting and protecting the right of women and girls to education at all levels, providing young people with comprehensive education on human sexuality, on sexual and reproductive health, on gender equality and on how to deal positively and responsibly with their sexuality, enacting and enforcing laws to ensure that marriage is entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses, ensuring the right of women to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence, combating all forms of violence against women, including harmful traditional and customary practices such as female genital mutilation, developing strategies to eliminate gender stereotypes in all spheres of life and achieving gender equality in political life and decision-making, which would contribute to the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals;
- Body
- Commission on Population and Development
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing that female genital mutilation violates, and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of the human rights of women and girls,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- 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, 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,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Urges States to take all necessary measures to protect girls and women from female genital mutilation, including by enacting and enforcing legislation to prohibit this form of violence and to end impunity;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Also urges States to develop social and psychological support services and care and to take measures to improve health, including sexual and reproductive health, in order to assist women and girls who are subjected to this violence;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon the international community, the relevant United Nations entities and civil society to actively support, through the allocation of appropriate financial resources, targeted, innovative programmes and to disseminate best practices that address the needs and priorities of girls in vulnerable situations, such as that of female genital mutilation, who have difficulty accessing services and programmes, and in this regard welcomes the commitment of ten United Nations agencies in their joint statement of 27 February 2008 to continue working towards the elimination of female genital mutilation by, inter alia, providing technical and financial assistance to achieve this goal;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- 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, 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,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Urges States to take all necessary measures, including enacting and enforcing legislation to prohibit female genital mutilation and to protect girls and women from this form of violence, and to end impunity;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 2010, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Urges Governments to strengthen and implement legal, policy, administrative and other measures for the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including harmful traditional and customary practices, female genital mutilation, domestic violence, abuse, early marriage, child and forced marriage, rape, including marital rape, and other forms of sexual violence and coerced sexual activity, battering and trafficking in women and girls, and to ensure that violence against women is addressed as an integral part of the national HIV and AIDS response;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Further urges States to provide education and training on the rights of women and girls to families, community leaders and members of all professions relevant to the protection and empowerment of women and girls, such as all levels of health-care providers, social workers, police officers, legal and judicial personnel and prosecutors, in order to increase awareness and commitment to the promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls and appropriate responses to rights violations with regard to female genital mutilation;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon the international community, the relevant United Nations entities and civil society and international financial institutions to continue to actively support, through the allocation of increased financial resources, targeted, innovative programmes and to disseminate best practices that address the needs and priorities of girls in vulnerable situations, such as that of female genital mutilation, who have difficulty accessing services and programmes and, in this regard, welcomes the commitment of ten United Nations agencies in their joint statement of 27 February 2008 to continue working towards the elimination of female genital mutilation by, inter alia, providing technical and financial assistance to achieve this goal and further welcomes the establishment of the United Nations Population Fund-United Nations Children's Fund joint programme to accelerate the abandonment of female genital mutilation;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Eliminating maternal mortality and morbidity through the empowerment of women 2012, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- Also calls upon Member States to address gender inequalities, poverty, violations of the full enjoyment of all human rights by women and girls, including during childbirth, discrimination against women and girls, including that caused by negative attitudes and gender stereotypes, and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation/cutting, that contribute to the unacceptably high and persistent global rate of maternal mortality and morbidity, bearing in mind the impact of multiple forms of discrimination; to guarantee to all women access to the highest attainable standard of health; and to ensure women's full participation in decision-making at the local, national and international levels regarding health care;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
The girl child 1998, para. c
- Paragraph text
- [Actions to be taken by Governments, civil society and the United Nations system, as appropriate:] Eradicate all customary or traditional practices, particularly 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;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1998
Paragraph
Women and health 1999, para. 2h
- Paragraph text
- [Actions to be taken by Governments, the United Nations system and civil society, as appropriate:] (h) Eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation, and other harmful traditional and customary practices affecting the health of women and girls, since such practices constitute a definite form of violence against women and girls and a serious form of violation of their human rights, including through development of appropriate policies and enactment and/or reinforcement of legislation, and ensure development of appropriate tools of education and advocacy and adopt legislation outlawing their practice by medical personnel;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome 2001, para. 1j
- Paragraph text
- [Actions to be taken by Governments, the United Nations system and civil society, as appropriate]: Strengthen concrete measures to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, including harmful traditional and customary practices, abuse and rape, battering and trafficking in women and girls, which aggravate the conditions fostering the spread of HIV/AIDS, through, inter alia, the enactment and enforcement of laws, as well as public campaigns to combat violence against women and girls;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2001
Paragraph
Women's empowerment and the link to sustainable development 2016, para. 23r
- Paragraph text
- [The Commission [...] urges Governments, at all levels [...] to take the following actions:] [Strengthening normative, legal and policy frameworks]: Adopt, review and ensure the accelerated and effective implementation of laws that criminalize violence against women and girls, as well as comprehensive, multidisciplinary and gender-sensitive preventive, protective and prosecutorial measures and services to eliminate and prevent all forms of violence against all women and girls, in public and private spaces, as well as harmful practices;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 2006, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Urges Governments to strengthen legal, policy, administrative and other measures for the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including harmful traditional and customary practices, abuse, early and forced marriage, rape, including marital rape, and other forms of sexual violence, battering and trafficking in women and girls, and to ensure that violence against women is addressed as an integral part of the national HIV/AIDS response;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2006
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 3e
- Paragraph text
- [Invites States and encourages, as appropriate, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors, and the international community:] (e) To continue to study the links between poverty, underdevelopment and certain harmful practices, such as forced marriage of the girl child, child prostitution and trafficking in persons, as well as the links between such harmful practices and customs and traditions, health, education and economic empowerment;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Urges States to provide education and training on the rights of girls to families, community leaders and members of all professions relevant to the protection and empowerment of girls, such as all levels of health-care providers, social workers, police officers, legal and judicial personnel and prosecutors, in order to increase awareness and commitment to the promotion and protection of the rights of girls and appropriate responses to rights violations with regard to female genital mutilation;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child 2007, para. 14.9.h
- Paragraph text
- [The Commission [...] urges Governments [...] to:] [14.9. Violence and discrimination] (h) Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference, which results in harmful and unethical practices regarding female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, which may have significant repercussions on society as a whole;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing that female genital mutilation violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of the human rights of women and girls,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming that harmful traditional or customary practices, including female genital mutilation, constitute a serious threat to the health of women and girls, including their psychological, sexual and reproductive health, which can increase their vulnerability to HIV and may have adverse obstetric and prenatal outcomes as well as fatal consequences, and that the abandonment of this harmful practice can be achieved only as a result of a comprehensive movement that involves all public and private stakeholders in society, including men, women and girls,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child 2007, para. 14.9.e
- Paragraph text
- [The Commission [...] urges Governments [...] to:] [14.9. Violence and discrimination] (e) Strengthen advocacy and rights-based awareness-raising programmes directed at eliminating all forms of violence and discrimination against girls by engaging girls and boys, parents and families, local community, political, religious and traditional leaders and educational institutions, and provide adequate financial support to efforts at both national and local levels to change behaviour, stereotyped attitudes and harmful practices;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls 2014, para. 42m
- Paragraph text
- [The Commission urges Governments, at all levels [...] to take the following actions:] [Realizing women's and girls' full enjoyment of all human rights]: Eliminate all harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, by reviewing, adopting, enacting and enforcing laws and regulations that prohibit such practices, creating awareness around their harmful health consequences and generating social support for the enforcement of these laws;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Women's empowerment and the link to sustainable development 2016, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The Commission strongly condemns all forms of violence against all women and girls. It expresses deep concern that discrimination and violence against women and girls, in particular against those who are most vulnerable, continues in all parts of the world and that all forms of violence against women and girls, including, inter alia, sexual and gender-based violence, domestic violence, trafficking in persons and femicide, among others, as well as harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, are impediments to the full achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, the realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all women and girls and the development of their full potential as equal partners with men and boys, as well as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Further urges States to review and, where appropriate, revise, amend or abolish all laws, regulations, policies, practices and customs, in particular female genital mutilation, that discriminate against women or have a discriminatory impact on women and girls and to ensure that provisions of multiple legal systems, where they exist, comply with international human rights obligations, commitments and principles, including the principle of non-discrimination;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 3a
- Paragraph text
- [Invites States and encourages, as appropriate, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors, and the international community:] (a) To design and implement educational programmes at all levels, and to develop information campaigns about the health-related risks, causes and consequences of forced marriage of the girl child, unprotected and premature sexual relations, and early pregnancy, as well as to develop teaching materials and textbooks, as appropriate, in order to accelerate a sociocultural change towards gender equality, in particular through sensitizing and informing women, girls, men and boys about the illegality and harmful effects of forced marriage;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, in particular the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the United Nations Development Programme and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, individually and collectively, take into account the protection and promotion of the rights of girls against female genital mutilation in their country programmes, as appropriate, and in accordance with national priorities, in order to further strengthen their efforts in this regard;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 1i
- Paragraph text
- [Urges States:] (i) To monitor progress in efforts to address forced marriage through the collection and analysis of age- and sex-disaggregated data, and to disseminate information on the causes and consequences of such marriage;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- 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 Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as their commitments to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action 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”, and of the twenty-seventh special session of the General Assembly on children;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Urges States to develop social and psychological support services and care and to take measures to improve health, including sexual and reproductive health, in order to assist women and girls who are subjected to this violence;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- Stresses that the empowerment of women and 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 Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as their commitments to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action, 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”, and of the special session of the General Assembly on children and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls 2014, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- The Commission welcomes international momentum to address the issue of child, early and forced marriage. The Commission recognizes that child, early and forced marriage is a harmful practice, and notes that its continued prevalence, among other factors, has slowed the achievement of several of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls.
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 2007, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Urges Governments to strengthen legal, policy, administrative and other measures for the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including harmful traditional and customary practices, abuse, early and forced marriage, rape, including marital rape, and other forms of sexual violence, battering and trafficking in women and girls, and to ensure that violence against women is addressed as an integral part of the national HIV/AIDS response;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 2008, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Urges Governments to strengthen legal, policy, administrative and other measures for the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including harmful traditional and customary practices, female genital mutilation, abuse, early marriage and forced marriage, rape, including marital rape, and other forms of sexual violence, battering and trafficking in women and girls, and to ensure that violence against women is addressed as an integral part of the national HIV/AIDS response;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 2009, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Urges Governments to strengthen legal, policy, administrative and other measures for the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including harmful traditional and customary practices, female genital mutilation, abuse, early marriage and forced marriage, rape, including marital rape, and other forms of sexual violence, battering and trafficking in women and girls, and to ensure that violence against women is addressed as an integral part of the national HIV and AIDS response;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2009
Paragraph
Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child 2007, para. 14.4.d
- Paragraph text
- [The Commission [...] urges Governments [...] to:] [14.4. Health] (d) Develop and implement national legislation and policies prohibiting harmful customary or traditional practices, particularly female genital mutilation, that are violations of and obstacles to the full enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, and prosecute the perpetrators of such practices that are harmful to the health of women and girls;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- 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;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Further urges States to review and, where appropriate, revise, amend or abolish all laws, regulations, policies, practices and customs, in particular female genital mutilation, that discriminate against women or have a discriminatory impact on women and girls and to ensure that provisions of multiple legal systems, where they exist, comply with international human rights obligations, commitments and principles, including the principle of non-discrimination;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Concerned that forced marriage can involve threatening behaviour, abduction, imprisonment, physical, psychological and sexual violence, rape, and even murder,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming also the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 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”, the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development and their five and ten-year reviews, as well as the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the commitments relevant to the girl child made at the 2005 World Summit,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 2011, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Urges Governments to strengthen and implement legal, policy, administrative and other measures for the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including harmful traditional and customary practices, female genital mutilation, domestic violence, abuse, early marriage, child and forced marriage, rape, including marital rape, and other forms of sexual violence and coerced sexual activity, battering and trafficking in women and girls, and to ensure that violence against women is addressed as an integral part of the national HIV and AIDS response;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Eliminating maternal mortality and morbidity through the empowerment of women 2012, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Stresses the critical role of men and boys and the need to share responsibilities between women and men for reducing maternal mortality and morbidity and promoting the health of women and girls, and urges Member States, the United Nations and civil society to include in their development priorities programmes that support the critical role of men in abolishing the practice of early and forced marriage and in supporting women's access to safe conditions for pregnancy and childbirth, contributing to family planning, preventing sexually transmitted infections and HIV, ensuring adequate nutrition for women and girls within their families, including during pregnancy and lactation, and ending violence against women and girls, including harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation/cutting;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls 2014, para. 42d
- Paragraph text
- [The Commission urges Governments, at all levels [...] to take the following actions:] [Realizing women's and girls' full enjoyment of all human rights]: Implement concrete and long-term measures to transform discriminatory social norms and gender stereotypes, including those that limit women's roles to being mothers and caregivers, and eliminate harmful practices including, inter alia, female genital mutilation and honour crimes, in order to achieve gender equality and women's and girls' empowerment and the full realization of the human rights of women and girls;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Further urges States to promote gender-sensitive, empowering educational processes, by, as appropriate, reviewing and revising school curricula, educational materials and teacher-training programmes, and elaborating policies and programmes of zero tolerance for violence against girls, including female genital mutilation, and to further integrate a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences of such violence against girls into education and training curricula at all levels;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Urges States to provide education and training on the rights of girls to families, community leaders and members of all professions relevant to the protection and empowerment of girls, such as all levels of health-care providers, social workers, police officers, legal and judicial personnel and prosecutors, in order to increase awareness and commitment to the promotion and protection of the rights of girls and appropriate responses to rights violations with regard to female genital mutilation;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 2016, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon all governments to enact and intensify the implementation of laws, policies and strategies to eliminate all forms of gender-based violence and discrimination against women and girls in the public and private spheres and harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage, female genital mutilation and trafficking in persons, and ensure the full engagement of men and boys in order to reduce the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Also urges States to review and, where appropriate, revise, amend or abolish all laws, regulations, policies, practices and customs, in particular female genital mutilation, that discriminate against women and girls or have a discriminatory impact on women and girls and to ensure that provisions of multiple legal systems, where they exist, comply with international human rights obligations, commitments and principles, including the principle of non-discrimination;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- 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, rape, incest, early marriage, forced marriage, prenatal sex selection and female genital mutilation,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing also that forced marriage, among other factors, contributes to girls faring disproportionately worse than boys in terms of access to primary school in some countries,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Requests the Secretary-General, to ensure that all relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, in particular the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the United Nations Population Fund, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the World Health Organization, individually and collectively, take into account the protection and promotion of the rights of girls against female genital mutilation in their country programmes, as appropriate, and in accordance with national priorities, in order to further strengthen their efforts in this regard;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming also the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 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”, the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development and their five- and ten-year reviews, as well as the United Nations Millennium Declaration 20 and the commitments relevant to the girl child made at the 2005 World Summit,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming that harmful traditional or customary practices, including female genital mutilation, constitute a serious threat to the health of women and girls, including their psychological, sexual and reproductive health, which can increase their vulnerability to HIV and may have adverse obstetric and prenatal outcomes as well as fatal consequences, and that the abandonment of this harmful practice can be achieved only as a result of a comprehensive movement that involves all public and private stakeholders in society,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Also urges States to promote gender-sensitive, empowering educational processes by, as appropriate, reviewing and revising school curricula, educational materials and teacher-training programmes and elaborating policies and programmes of zero tolerance for violence against girls, including female genital mutilation, and to further integrate a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences of gender-based violence and discrimination against women and girls into educational and training curricula at all levels;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming also the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 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”, the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development and their five- and ten-year reviews, as well as the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the commitments relevant to women and girls made at the 2005 World Summit, and the agreed conclusions on the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women at its fifty-first session,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon States to develop, support and implement comprehensive and integrated strategies for the prevention of female genital mutilation, including the training of social workers, medical personnel, religious and community leaders and other relevant professionals and ensuring that they provide competent, supportive services and care to girls and women who are at risk and to girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation and compelling them to report to the appropriate authorities cases in which they believe girls or women are at risk;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 2014, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Also urges Governments to strengthen, implement and enforce legal, policy, administrative and other measures for preventing, eliminating and addressing the causes and consequences of all forms of violence against women and girls, including harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation, child, early and forced marriage, domestic violence, violence at work, verbal and physical abuse, rape, including marital rape, and other forms of sexual violence and coerced sexual activity, battering and trafficking in women and girls, and to ensure that linkages between violence against women and HIV are addressed as an integral part of the national HIV and AIDS response;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- 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, immigration officials, 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;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child 2007, para. 14.9.l
- Paragraph text
- [The Commission [...] urges Governments [...] to:] [14.9. Violence and discrimination] (l) Increase education and training among teachers and health service providers in identifying acts of violence against the girl child, and ensure that they also take action to eradicate all forms of violence against the girl child, including customary and traditional practices that are harmful to the health of the girl child;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming that the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, together with their Optional Protocols, constitute an important contribution to the legal framework for the protection and promotion of the human rights of girls,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 1a
- Paragraph text
- [Urges States:] (a) To enact and strictly enforce laws to ensure that marriage is entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses and, in addition, to enact and strictly enforce laws concerning the minimum legal age of consent and the minimum age for marriage and to raise the minimum age for marriage where necessary;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon States to strengthen advocacy and awareness-raising 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;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Urges States to take, within the general framework of integration policies and in consultation with affected communities, effective and specific targeted measures for refugee women and women migrants and their communities, in order to protect girl children from female genital mutilation, including when the practice occurs outside the country of residence;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Urges States to ensure the national implementation of international and regional commitments and obligations undertaken as States parties or as signatories to various international instruments protecting the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of girls and women, as well as their translation and wide distribution to the population and the judiciary;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Also encourages men and boys to continue to take positive initiatives and to work in partnership with women and girls to combat violence against women and girls, in particular female genital mutilation, through networks, peer programmes, information campaigns and training programmes;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work 2017, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- The Commission strongly condemns violence against women and girls in all its forms in public and private spaces, including harassment in the world of work, including sexual harassment, and sexual and gender-based violence, domestic violence, trafficking in persons and femicide, among others, as well as harmful practices such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, and recognizes that these forms of violence are major impediments to the achievement of women's economic empowerment and their social and economic development, often resulting in, inter alia, absenteeism, missed promotions and job losses, thereby hampering women's ability to enter, advance and remain in the labour market and make contributions commensurate with their abilities, and also recognizes that such violence can impede economic independence and impose direct and indirect short- and long-term costs on society and individuals including, as relevant, lost economic output and the psychological and physical impact thereof, as well as expenses relating to health care, the legal sector, social welfare and specialized services, and further recognizes that women's economic autonomy can expand their options for leaving abusive relationships.
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Also requests the Secretary-General to report to the fifty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women on the implementation of the present resolution by using information provided by Member States and verifiable information provided by organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and by non-governmental organizations, with a view to assessing the impact of the present resolution on the well-being of girls.
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Noting that negative discriminatory stereotypical attitudes and behaviours have direct implications for the status and treatment of girls and that such negative stereotypes impede the implementation of legislative and normative frameworks that guarantee gender equality and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 3c
- Paragraph text
- [Invites States and encourages, as appropriate, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors, and the international community:] (c) To provide appropriate protection, safe shelter, counselling, comprehensive information and education, legal aid, family planning, rehabilitation and reintegration into society to victims of such marriages;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Noting also that the report transmitted by the Secretary-General on violence against children 24 and the report of the Secretary-General on the in-depth study on all forms of violence against women, respectively, conclude that girls are at greater risk than boys of early marriage and genital mutilation, and may experience various forms of violence throughout their life cycles,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Also urges States to promote, within the general framework of integration policies, effective and specific targeted measures for refugee women and women migrants and their communities, in order to protect girl children from female genital mutilation, including when the practice occurs outside the country of residence;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Also urges States to ensure the national implementation of international and regional commitments and obligations undertaken as States parties or as signatories to various international instruments protecting the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of girls and women, as well as their translation and wide distribution to the population and the judiciary;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon States to develop policies, protocols and rules to ensure the effective implementation of national legislative frameworks on eliminating discrimination and violence against girls, in particular female genital mutilation, and to put in place adequate accountability mechanisms at the national and local levels to monitor adherence to and implementation of these legislative frameworks;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming that the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, together with their Optional Protocols, constitute an important contribution to the legal framework for the protection and promotion of the human rights of girls,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Also calls upon States to develop unified methods and standards for the collection of age-disaggregated data on all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls, including on female genital mutilation, and to develop additional indicators to effectively measure progress towards its elimination;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Encourages men and boys to continue to take positive initiatives and to work in partnership with women and girls to combat violence and discriminatory practices against women and girls, in particular female genital mutilation, through networks, peer programmes, information campaigns and training programmes;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Also requests the Secretary-General to report to the Commission on the Status of Women at its fifty-sixth session on the implementation of the present resolution, using information provided by Member States and verifiable information provided by organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and by non-governmental organizations, with a view to assessing the impact of the present resolution on the well-being of women and girls.
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The girl child 1998, para. e
- Paragraph text
- [Actions to be taken by Governments, local authorities, non-governmental organizations and civil society and the United Nations system, as appropriate:] Eliminate traditional and customary practices that constitute son- preference through awareness-raising campaigns and gender training;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 1998
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 6a
- Paragraph text
- [Invites non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors:] (a) To continue to advocate at the local, national, regional and international levels against forced marriage, including through building and strengthening networks among those who may call attention to its adverse consequences;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon the international community, the relevant United Nations entities and civil society to actively support, through the allocation of appropriate financial resources, targeted, innovative programmes and to disseminate best practices that address the needs and priorities of girls in vulnerable situations, such as that of female genital mutilation, who have difficulties accessing services and programmes;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 2b
- Paragraph text
- [Urges States and invites, as appropriate, relevant funds and programmes, agencies and entities within the United Nations system:] (b) To develop, support and implement initiatives ensuring that the rights of the girl child, as a part of all human rights, are not violated by forced marriage, forced early sexual activities or harmful traditional practices;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Also calls upon States to develop unified methods and standards for the collection of data on all forms of discrimination and violence against girls, especially forms that are underdocumented, such as female genital mutilation, and to develop additional indicators to effectively measure progress in eliminating female genital mutilation;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Also requests the Secretary-General to report to the Commission on the Status of Women at its fifty-fourth session on the implementation of the present resolution using information provided by Member States and verifiable information provided by organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and by non-governmental organizations, with a view to assessing the impact of the present resolution on the well-being of girls.
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing that negative discriminatory stereotypical attitudes and behaviours have direct implications for the status and treatment of girls and that such negative stereotypes impede the implementation of legislative and normative frameworks that guarantee gender equality and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon States to strengthen advocacy and awareness-raising 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;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming that the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, together with their Optional Protocols, constitute an important contribution to the legal framework for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women and girls,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing that negative discriminatory stereotypical attitudes and behaviours have direct implications for the status and treatment of women and girls and that such negative stereotypes impede the implementation of legislative and normative frameworks that guarantee gender equality and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- 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;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Also urges States to complement punitive measures with awareness-raising and educational activities designed to promote a process of consensus towards the eradication of harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, and to protect and support women and girls who have been subjected to female genital mutilation and those at risk;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 2000, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Encourages Governments and civil society to support women's groups and community organizations in changing harmful traditions and practices affecting the health of women and girls and to take steps to eliminate all forms of violence against women, including rape and sexual coercion, which aggravate the conditions fostering the spread of the epidemic;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2000
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- Emphasizes that awareness-raising, community mobilization, education and training are needed to ensure that all key actors and government officials, including law enforcement and judicial personnel, health-care providers, teachers, employers, media professionals and those working directly with girls, as well as parents, families and communities, work to eliminate attitudes and harmful practices that negatively affect girls;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 1999, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Encourages Governments and the civil society to support women's groups and community organizations in changing harmful traditions and practices affecting the health of women and girls and to take steps to eliminate all forms of violence against women, including rape and sexual coercion, which aggravate the conditions fostering the spread of the epidemic;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Also calls upon States to develop unified methods and standards for data collection on all forms of discrimination and violence against girls, especially forms that are underdocumented, such as female genital mutilation, and to develop additional indicators to effectively measure progress in eliminating female genital mutilation;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon States to develop policies, protocols and rules to ensure the effective implementation of national legislative frameworks on eliminating discrimination and violence against women and girls, in particular female genital mutilation, and to put in place adequate accountability mechanisms at the national and local levels to monitor adherence to and implementation of these legislative frameworks;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Violence against women 1998, para. g
- Paragraph text
- [Actions to be taken by Governments and civil society, including non-governmental organizations:] Raise awareness and mobilize public opinion to eliminate female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional, cultural or customary practices that violate the human rights of women and girls and negatively affect their health;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1998
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing also that female genital mutilation is an irreparable, irreversible abuse that affects one hundred to one hundred and forty million women and girls alive today, and that each year a further two million girls are at risk of undergoing the procedure,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Encourages men and boys to continue to take positive initiatives and to work in partnership with women and girls to combat violence against women and girls, in particular female genital mutilation, through networks, peer programmes, information campaigns and training programmes;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing also that forced marriage of the girl child and the trend towards early sexual experience, combined with the lack of information, undermines national and international efforts to fight HIV/AIDS and to improve maternal and child health, chances for survival and welfare,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Further urges States to develop social and psychological support services and care and to take measures to improve health, including sexual and reproductive health, in order to assist women and girls who are subjected to female genital mutilation;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS 2014, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Concerned further that women and girls are physiologically more vulnerable to HIV, especially at an earlier age, than men and boys, and that this is increased by violence against women, girls and adolescents, sexual exploitation, including commercial sexual exploitation, premature and coerced sexual relations, harmful practices, such as child, early and force marriage, female genital mutilation, as well as an imbalance in the power dynamic between women and men, and unequal legal, economic and social status, including poverty,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- 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, and calls upon States parties to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as their commitment to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action 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”, and of the twenty-seventh special session of the General Assembly on children;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Also urges States to promote effective and specific targeted measures for refugee women and women migrants and their communities in order to protect girl children from female genital mutilation;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing further that forced marriage of the girl child has adverse psychological effects on girls and that early pregnancy and early motherhood entail complications during pregnancy and delivery and a risk of maternal mortality and morbidity that is much greater than average, and deeply concerned that early childbearing and limited access to the highest attainable standard of health, including sexual and reproductive health, including in the area of emergency obstetric care, cause high levels of obstetric fistula and maternal mortality and morbidity,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing that female genital mutilation violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of the human rights of women and girls,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Urges States to take all necessary measures, including enacting and enforcing legislation to prohibit female genital mutilation and to protect girls and women from this form of violence, and to end impunity;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, in particular the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the United Nations Development Programme and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, individually and collectively, take into account the protection and promotion of the rights of women and girls against female genital mutilation in their country programmes, as appropriate, and in accordance with national priorities, in order to further strengthen their efforts in this regard;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- 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, 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,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming that harmful traditional or customary practices, including female genital mutilation, constitute a serious threat to the health of women and girls, including their psychological, sexual and reproductive health, which can increase their vulnerability to HIV and may have adverse obstetric outcomes, as well as fatal consequences, and that the abandonment of this harmful practice can be achieved only as a result of a comprehensive movement that involves all public and private stakeholders in society,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Further urges States to promote gender-sensitive, empowering educational processes by, as appropriate, reviewing and revising school curricula, educational materials and teacher-training programmes and elaborating policies and programmes of zero tolerance for violence against girls, including female genital mutilation, and to further integrate a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences of such violence against girls into education and training curricula at all levels;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon States to strengthen advocacy and awareness-raising programmes and mobilize girls and boys to take active part in developing programmes to eliminate 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 these practices;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Also urges States to ensure the national implementation of international and regional commitments and obligations undertaken as States parties or as signatories to various international instruments protecting the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of girls and women, as well as their translation and wide distribution to the population and the judiciary;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2007, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Calls upon States to develop policies, protocols and rules to ensure the effective implementation of national legislative frameworks on eliminating discrimination and violence against girls, in particular female genital mutilation, and to put in place adequate accountability mechanisms at national and local levels to monitor adherence to, and implementation of, these legislative frameworks;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 1g
- Paragraph text
- [Urges States:] (g) To develop and implement at all levels a multisectoral, multidisciplinary, comprehensive and integrated strategy of prevention of forced marriage and support to victims who have entered into such marriage, including the training of, inter alia, health workers, teachers, law enforcement officials, military personnel, social workers, judicial personnel, community leaders and the media;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- 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;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Forced marriage of the girl child 2007, para. 2b
- Paragraph text
- [Urges States and invites, as appropriate, relevant funds and programmes, agencies and entities within the United Nations system:] (c) To give increased attention to national capacity-building, where necessary, in order to overcome the challenges of collecting accurate information on these practices;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Violence against women 1998, para. m
- Paragraph text
- [Actions to be taken by Governments:] Develop and implement national legislation and policies prohibiting harmful customary or traditional practices that are violations of women's and girls' human rights and obstacles to the full enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights and fundamental freedoms;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1998
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2010, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing also that female genital mutilation is an irreparable, irreversible abuse that affects one hundred to one hundred and forty million women and girls alive today, and that each year a further three million girls are at risk of undergoing the procedure,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Ending female genital mutilation 2008, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing also that female genital mutilation is an irreparable, irreversible abuse that affects one hundred to one hundred and forty million women and girls alive today, and that each year a further three million girls are at risk of undergoing the procedure,
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- Resolution
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 55f
- Paragraph text
- [The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions adopt or amend legislation with a view to effectively addressing and eliminating harmful practices. In doing so, they should ensure:] That a minimum legal age of marriage for girls and boys, with or without parental consent, is established at 18 years. When a marriage at an earlier age is allowed in exceptional circumstances, the absolute minimum age must not be below 16 years, the grounds for obtaining permission must be legitimate and strictly defined by law and the marriage must be permitted only by a court of law upon the full, free and informed consent of the child or both children, who must appear in person before the court;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- In line with general recommendation No. 31 (2014) on harmful practices, States parties should eliminate harmful practices, including child and/or forced marriage, female genital mutilation and the inheritance of ancestral debt, which negatively affect the health, well-being and dignity of rural women and girls. They should eliminate discriminatory stereotypes, including those that compromise the equal rights of rural women to land, water and other natural resources. In this regard, States parties should adopt a range of measures, including outreach and support programmes, awareness-raising and media campaigns, in collaboration with traditional leaders and civil society, to eliminate harmful practices and stereotypes.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Contrary to their obligations under both Conventions, many States parties maintain legal provisions that justify, allow or lead to harmful practices, such as legislation that allows for child marriage, provides the defence of so-called honour as an exculpatory or mitigating factor for crimes committed against girls and women or enables a perpetrator of rape and/or other sexual crimes to avoid sanctions by marrying the victim.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 81b
- Paragraph text
- [The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions:] Ensure that awareness-raising programmes provide accurate information and clear and unified messages from trusted sources about the negative impact of harmful practices on women, children, in particular girls, their families and society at large. Such programmes should include social media, the Internet and community communication and dissemination tools;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions ensure that any efforts undertaken to tackle harmful practices and to challenge and change underlying social norms are holistic, community based and founded on a rights-based approach that includes the active participation of all relevant stakeholders, especially women and girls.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- 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;
- 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
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- The best interests of the child and the protection of the rights of girls and women should always be taken into consideration and the necessary conditions must be in place to enable them to express their point of view and ensure that their opinions are given due weight. Careful consideration should also be given to the potential short-term and long-term impact on children or women of the dissolution of child and/or forced marriages and the return of dowry payments and bride prices.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- The most effective efforts are inclusive and engage relevant stakeholders at all levels, especially girls and women from affected communities and boys and men. Moreover, those efforts require the active participation and support of local leaders, including through the allocation of adequate resources. Establishing or strengthening existing partnerships with relevant stakeholders, institutions, organizations and social networks (religious and traditional leaders, practitioners and civil society) can help to build bridges between constituencies.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 2017, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Violations of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, such as forced sterilization, forced abortion, forced pregnancy, criminalization of abortion, denial or delay of safe abortion and/or post-abortion care, forced continuation of pregnancy, and abuse and mistreatment of women and girls seeking sexual and reproductive health information, goods and services, are forms of gender-based violence that, depending on the circumstances, may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Child marriage, also referred to as early marriage, is any marriage where at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age. The overwhelming majority of child marriages, both formal and informal, involve girls, although at times their spouses are also under 18 years of age. A child marriage is considered to be a form of forced marriage, given that one and/or both parties have not expressed full, free and informed consent. As a matter of respecting the child's evolving capacities and autonomy in making decisions that affect her or his life, a marriage of a mature, capable child below 18 years of age may be allowed in exceptional circumstances, provided that the child is at least 16 years of age and that such decisions are made by a judge based on legitimate exceptional grounds defined by law and on the evidence of maturity, without deference to culture and tradition.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- When a woman or a girl who was subjected to or refused to undergo a practice leaves her family or community to seek refuge, her decision to return must be supported by adequate national protection mechanisms. In assisting her in making this free and informed choice, the mechanisms are required to ensure her safe return and reintegration based on the principle of her best interest, including avoiding revictimization. Such situations require close follow-up and monitoring to ensure that victims are protected and enjoy their rights in the short term and the long term.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 73d
- Paragraph text
- [The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions:] Conduct specialized awareness and training programmes for health-care providers working with immigrant communities to address the unique health-care needs of children and women who have undergone female genital mutilation or other harmful practices and provide specialized training also for professionals within child welfare services and services focused on the rights of women and the education and police and justice sectors, politicians and media personnel working with migrant girls and women.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- In States parties in which the prevalence of harmful practices is primarily limited to immigrant communities, health-care providers, teachers and childcare professionals, social workers, police officers, migration officials and the justice sector must be sensitized and trained in how to identify girls and women who have been, or are at risk of being, subjected to harmful practices and which steps can and should be taken to protect them.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain legally binding obligations that relate both in general and specifically to the elimination of harmful practices. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child have consistently drawn attention to those practices affecting women and children, primarily girls, in the execution of their monitoring mandates. It is by virtue of that overlapping mandate and the shared commitment to prevent, respond to and eliminate harmful practices, wherever and in whichever form they occur, that the Committees decided to develop the present joint general recommendation/general comment.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- The Committees acknowledge that harmful practices affect adult women, both directly and/or owing to the long-term impact of practices to which they were subjected as girls. The present joint general recommendation/general comment therefore further elaborates on the obligations of States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women with regard to the relevant provisions for the elimination of harmful practices that affect the rights of women.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- One of the first steps in combating harmful practices is through prevention. Both Committees have underlined that prevention can be best achieved through a rights-based approach to changing social and cultural norms, empowering women and girls, building the capacity of all relevant professionals who are in regular contact with victims, potential victims and perpetrators of harmful practices at all levels and raising awareness of the causes and consequences of harmful practices, including through dialogue with relevant stakeholders.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Article 5 (a) addresses the elimination of discriminatory stereotypes and practices, which are often more prevalent in rural areas. Rural women and girls are often disadvantaged by harmful practices (see CEDAW/C/GC/31-CRC/C/GC/18, para. 9), such as child and/or forced marriage, polygamy and female genital mutilation, which endanger their health and well-being and may push them to migrate in order to escape such practices, potentially exposing them to other risks. They are also disadvantaged by practices such as the inheritance of ancestral debt, which perpetuates cycles of poverty, and by discriminatory stereotypes and related practices that prevent them from enjoying rights over land, water and natural resources, such as male primogeniture and property grabbing from widows.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Many other practices having been identified as harmful practices are all strongly connected to and reinforce socially constructed gender roles and systems of patriarchal power relations and sometimes reflect negative perceptions of or discriminatory beliefs regarding certain disadvantaged groups of women and children, including individuals with disabilities or albinism. The practices include, but are not limited to, neglect of girls (linked to the preferential care and treatment of boys), extreme dietary restrictions, including during pregnancy (force-feeding, food taboos), virginity testing and related practices, binding, scarring, branding/infliction of tribal marks, corporal punishment, stoning, violent initiation rites, widowhood practices, accusations of witchcraft, infanticide and incest. They also include body modifications that are performed for the purpose of beauty or marriageability of girls and women (such as fattening, isolation, the use of lip discs and neck elongation with neck rings) or in an attempt to protect girls from early pregnancy or from being subjected to sexual harassment and violence (such as breast ironing). In addition, many women and children increasingly undergo medical treatment and/or plastic surgery to comply with social norms of the body, rather than for medical or health reasons, and many are also pressured to be fashionably thin, which has resulted in an epidemic of eating and health disorders.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
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.
- 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
Equality in marriage and family relations 1994, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- In the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, held at Vienna from 14 to 25 June 1993, States are urged to repeal existing laws and regulations and to remove customs and practices which discriminate against and cause harm to the girl child. Article 16 (2) and the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child preclude States parties from permitting or giving validity to a marriage between persons who have not attained their majority. In the context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, "a child means every human being below the age of 18 years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". Notwithstanding this definition, and bearing in mind the provisions of the Vienna Declaration, the Committee considers that the minimum age for marriage should be 18 years for both man and woman. When men and women marry, they assume important responsibilities. Consequently, marriage should not be permitted before they have attained full maturity and capacity to act. According to the World Health Organization, when minors, particularly girls, marry and have children, their health can be adversely affected and their education is impeded. As a result their economic autonomy is restricted.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1994
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- The payment of dowries and bride prices, which varies among practising communities, may increase the vulnerability of women and girls to violence and to other harmful practices. The husband or his family members may engage in acts of physical or psychological violence, including murder, burning and acid attacks, for failure to fulfil expectations regarding the payment of a dowry or its size. In some cases, families will agree to the temporary "marriage" of their daughter in exchange for financial gains, also referred to as a contractual marriage, which is a form of trafficking in human beings. States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography have explicit obligations with regard to child and/or forced marriages that include dowry payments or bride prices because they could constitute a sale of children as defined in article 2 (a) of the Protocol. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has repeatedly stressed that allowing marriage to be arranged by such payment or preferment violates the right to freely choose a spouse and has in its general recommendation No. 29 outlined that such practice should not be required for a marriage to be valid and that such agreements should not be recognized by a State party as enforceable.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Women and health 1999, para. 15d
- Paragraph text
- [The obligation to protect rights relating to women's health requires States parties, their agents and officials to take action to prevent and impose sanctions for violations of rights by private persons and organizations. Since gender-based violence is a critical health issue for women, States parties should ensure:] The enactment and effective enforcement of laws that prohibit female genital mutilation and marriage of girl children.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 83
- Paragraph text
- National protection systems or, in their absence, traditional structures should be mandated to be child friendly and gender sensitive and adequately resourced to provide all necessary protection services to women and girls who face a high risk of being subjected to violence, including girls running away to avoid being subjected to female genital mutilation, forced marriage or crimes committed in the name of so-called honour. Consideration should be given to the establishment of an easy-to-remember, free, around-the-clock helpline that is available and known nationwide. Appropriate safety and security measures for victims must be available, including specifically designed temporary shelters or specialized services within shelters for victims of violence. Given that perpetrators of harmful practices are often the spouse of the victim, a family member or a member of the victim's community, protective services should seek to relocate victims outside their immediate community if there is reason to believe that they may be unsafe. Unsupervised visits must be avoided, especially when the issue may be considered one of so-called honour. Psychosocial support must also be available to treat the immediate and long-term psychological trauma of victims, which may include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 69f
- Paragraph text
- [The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions:] Engage men and boys in creating an enabling environment that supports the empowerment of women and girls.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- Moreover, the Committees recognize that boys are also the victims of violence, harmful practices and bias and that their rights must be addressed for their protection and to prevent gender-based violence and the perpetuation of bias and gender inequality later in their lives. Accordingly, reference is made herein to the obligations of States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child regarding harmful practices stemming from discrimination that affect boys' enjoyment of their rights.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- The causes of harmful practices are multidimensional and include stereotyped sex- and gender-based roles, the presumed superiority or inferiority of either of the sexes, attempts to exert control over the bodies and sexuality of women and girls, social inequalities and the prevalence of male-dominated power structures. Efforts to change the practices must address those underlying systemic and structural causes of traditional, re-emerging and emerging harmful practices, empower girls and women and boys and men to contribute to the transformation of traditional cultural attitudes that condone harmful practices, act as agents of such change and strengthen the capacity of communities to support such processes.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- The efforts to combat harmful practices notwithstanding, the overall number of women and girls affected remains extremely high and may be increasing, including, for example, in conflict situations and as a result of technological developments such as the widespread use of social media. Through the examination of State parties' reports, the Committees have noted that there is often continued adherence to harmful practices by members of practising communities who have moved to destination countries through migration or to seek asylum. Social norms and cultural beliefs supporting such harmful practices persist and are at times emphasized by a community in an attempt to preserve its cultural identity in a new environment, in particular in destination countries where gender roles provide women and girls with greater personal freedom.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Female genital mutilation, female circumcision or female genital cutting is the practice of partially or wholly removing the external female genitalia or otherwise injuring the female genital organs for non-medical or non-health reasons. In the context of the present joint general recommendation/general comment, it is referred to as female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation is performed in every region and, within some cultures, is a requirement for marriage and believed to be an effective method of controlling the sexuality of women and girls. It may have various immediate and/or long-term health consequences, including severe pain, shock, infections and complications during childbirth (affecting both the mother and the child), long-term gynaecological problems such as fistula, psychological effects and death. The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund estimate that between 100 million and 140 million girls and women worldwide have been subjected to a type of female genital mutilation.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- In some contexts, children are betrothed or married very young and, in many cases, young girls are forced to marry a man who may be decades older. In 2012, the United Nations Children's Fund reported that almost 400 million women between 20 and 49 years of age around the world had been married or had entered into a union before reaching 18 years of age. The Committees have therefore been paying particular attention to cases in which girls have been married against their full, free and informed consent, such as when they have been married too young to be physically and psychologically ready for adult life or to make conscious and informed decisions and thus not ready to consent to marriage. Other examples include cases in which guardians have the legal authority to consent to marriage of girls in accordance with customary or statutory law and in which girls are thus married contrary to the right to freely enter into marriage.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Child marriage is often accompanied by early and frequent pregnancy and childbirth, resulting in higher than average maternal morbidity and mortality rates. Pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for girls between 15 and 19 years of age, whether married or unmarried, around the world. Infant mortality among the children of very young mothers is higher (sometimes as much as two times higher) than among those of older mothers. In cases of child and/or forced marriage, in particular where the husband is significantly older than the wife, and where girls have limited education, the girls generally have limited decision-making power in relation to their own lives. Child marriage also contributes to higher rates of school dropout, especially among girls, forced exclusion from school and an increased risk of domestic violence, in addition to limiting the enjoyment of the right to freedom of movement.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Polygamy is contrary to the dignity of women and girls and infringes on their human rights and freedoms, including equality and protection within the family. Polygamy varies across, and within, legal and social contexts and its impact includes harm to the health of wives, understood as physical, mental and social well-being, the material harm and deprivation that wives are liable to suffer and emotional and material harm to children, often with serious consequences for their welfare.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Both women and girls find themselves in polygamous unions, with evidence showing that girls are much more likely to be married or betrothed to much older men, increasing the risk of violence and violations of their rights. The coexistence of statutory laws with religious, personal status and traditional customary laws and practices often contributes to the persistence of the practice. In some States parties, however, polygamy is authorized by civil law. Constitutional and other provisions that protect the right to culture and religion have also at times been used to justify laws and practices that allow for polygamous unions.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Crimes committed in the name of so-called honour are acts of violence that are disproportionately, although not exclusively, committed against girls and women because family members consider that some suspected, perceived or actual behaviour will bring dishonour to the family or community. Such forms of behaviour include entering into sexual relations before marriage, refusing to agree to an arranged marriage, entering into a marriage without parental consent, committing adultery, seeking divorce, dressing in a way that is viewed as unacceptable to the community, working outside the home or generally failing to conform to stereotyped gender roles. Crimes in the name of so-called honour may also be committed against girls and women because they have been victims of sexual violence.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- Victims seeking justice for violations of their rights as a result of harmful practices often face stigmatization, a risk of revictimization, harassment and possible retribution. Steps must therefore be taken to ensure that the rights of girls and women are protected throughout the legal process, in accordance with articles 2 (c) and 15 (2) and (3) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and that children are enabled to effectively engage in court proceedings as part of their right to be heard under article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- States parties should take steps to prevent and prohibit child and/or forced marriage among rural women and girls, including through the reform and enforcement of laws prohibiting such practices in rural areas, media campaigns, particularly aimed at raising the awareness of men, the provision of school-based prevention programmes, including comprehensive age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health education, as well as the provision of social and health services for rural married girls and girls at risk of child and/or forced marriage. In addition, States parties should discourage and prohibit the practice of polygamy, which may be more common in rural areas.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CRC) 2014, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child consistently note that harmful practices are deeply rooted in social attitudes according to which women and girls are regarded as inferior to men and boys based on stereotyped roles. They also highlight the gender dimension of violence and indicate that sex- and gender-based attitudes and stereotypes, power imbalances, inequalities and discrimination perpetuate the widespread existence of practices that often involve violence or coercion. It is also important to recall that the Committees are concerned that the practices are also used to justify gender-based violence as a form of "protection" or control of women and children in the home or community, at school or in other educational settings and institutions and in wider society. Moreover, the Committees draw States parties' attention to the fact that sex- and gender-based discrimination intersects with other factors that affect women and girls, in particular those who belong to, or are perceived as belonging to, disadvantaged groups, and who are therefore at a higher risk of becoming victims of harmful practices.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Women and girls with disabilities 2016, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Women with disabilities are subjected to the same harmful practices committed against women without disabilities such as forced marriage, female genital mutilation, crimes committed in the name of so called honour, dowry related violence, widowhood practices and accusations of witchcraft . The consequences of harmful practices goes far beyond social exclusion. It reinforces harmful gender stereotypes, perpetuates inequalities and contributes to discrimination against women and girls. They can result in physical, and psychological violence and economic exploitation. Harmful practice based on patriarchal interpretations of culture cannot be evoked to justify violence against women and girls with disabilities. In addition, women and girls with disabilities are particularly at risk of 'virgin testing' and, regarding HIV/AIDS misbeliefs, "virgin rapes" .
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Women and girls with disabilities 2016, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Certain forms of violence, exploitation or abuse may be considered as cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment and breaches a number of international human rights treaties. Among these are forced, coerced and otherwise involuntary pregnancy or sterilisation ; as well as any other medical procedure or intervention performed without free and informed consent, including those related to contraception and abortion; the invasive and irreversible surgical practises including psychosurgery, female genital mutilation or surgery or treatment performed on intersex children without their informed consent; the administration of electroshocks, chemical, physical or mechanical restraints; isolation or seclusion.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Women and girls with disabilities 2016, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Girls with disabilities are particularly at risk of harmful practices, which are justified by invoking sociocultural and religious customs and values. For example, girls with disabilities are more likely to die through "mercy killings" than boys with disabilities because their families are unwilling or lack the support to raise a girl with an impairment . Other examples of harmful practices include: infanticide , accusations of "spirit possession" and restrictions in feeding and nutrition. In addition, the marriage of girls with disabilities, especially girls with intellectual disabilities, is justified under the pretext of providing future security, care and finance for her. In turn, child marriage contributes to higher rates of school drop-out as well as early and frequent childbirth. The social isolation, segregation and exploitation of girls with disabilities inside the family, includes: exclusion from family activities, prevention from leaving home, forced unpaid housework and being forbidden from attending school.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Women and girls with disabilities 2016, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- In practice, the choices of women with disabilities, especially women with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities are often ignored, their decisions are often substituted by third parties, including legal representatives, service providers, guardians and family members, thus violating their rights under article 12 . All women with disabilities must be able to exercise their legal capacity by taking their own decisions, with support when desired with regard to medical and/or therapeutic treatment, including decisions on: retaining their fertility, reproductive autonomy, their right to choose the number and spacing of children, to consent and accept a statement of fatherhood, and the right to establish relationships. Restricting or removing legal capacity can facilitate forced interventions, such as: sterilisation, abortion, contraception, female genital mutilation, or surgery, or treatment performed on intersex children without their informed consent and forced detention in institutions .
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Women and girls with disabilities 2016, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- The Committee notes that contributions from its half day of general discussion on women and girls with disabilities which took place during its 9th session in April 2013, highlighted a range of topics and identified three main subjects of concern with respect to the protection of their human rights: (1) violence, (2) sexual and reproductive health and rights and (3) discrimination. Furthermore, concluding observations issued by this Committee to date on women with disabilities express concern about: the prevalence of multiple discrimination and intersectional discrimination against women with disabilities , on account of their gender, disability and other factors which are not sufficiently addressed in legislation and policies ; the right to life , equal recognition before the law , the persistence of violence against women and girls with disabilities , including sexual violence and abuse , forced sterilization , female genital mutilation , sexual and economic exploitation ; institutionalization , the lack of or insufficient participation of women with disabilities in decision-making processes in public and political life ; the lack of inclusion of a gender perspective in disability policies , the lack of a disability rights perspective in gender policies ; and the lack of or insufficient specific measures to promote the education and employment of women with disabilities .
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Female genital mutilation, female circumcision or female genital cutting is the practice of partially or wholly removing the external female genitalia or otherwise injuring the female genital organs for non-medical or non-health reasons. In the context of the present joint general recommendation/general comment, it is referred to as female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation is performed in every region and, within some cultures, is a requirement for marriage and believed to be an effective method of controlling the sexuality of women and girls. It may have various immediate and/or long-term health consequences, including severe pain, shock, infections and complications during childbirth (affecting both the mother and the child), long-term gynaecological problems such as fistula, psychological effects and death. The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund estimate that between 100 million and 140 million girls and women worldwide have been subjected to a type of female genital mutilation.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Child marriage, also referred to as early marriage, is any marriage where at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age. The overwhelming majority of child marriages, both formal and informal, involve girls, although at times their spouses are also under 18 years of age. A child marriage is considered to be a form of forced marriage, given that one and/or both parties have not expressed full, free and informed consent. As a matter of respecting the child's evolving capacities and autonomy in making decisions that affect her or his life, a marriage of a mature, capable child below 18 years of age may be allowed in exceptional circumstances, provided that the child is at least 16 years of age and that such decisions are made by a judge based on legitimate exceptional grounds defined by law and on the evidence of maturity, without deference to culture and tradition.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- In some contexts, children are betrothed or married very young and, in many cases, young girls are forced to marry a man who may be decades older. In 2012, the United Nations Children's Fund reported that almost 400 million women between 20 and 49 years of age around the world had been married or had entered into a union before reaching 18 years of age. The Committees have therefore been paying particular attention to cases in which girls have been married against their full, free and informed consent, such as when they have been married too young to be physically and psychologically ready for adult life or to make conscious and informed decisions and thus not ready to consent to marriage. Other examples include cases in which guardians have the legal authority to consent to marriage of girls in accordance with customary or statutory law and in which girls are thus married contrary to the right to freely enter into marriage.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Child marriage is often accompanied by early and frequent pregnancy and childbirth, resulting in higher than average maternal morbidity and mortality rates. Pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for girls between 15 and 19 years of age, whether married or unmarried, around the world. Infant mortality among the children of very young mothers is higher (sometimes as much as two times higher) than among those of older mothers. In cases of child and/or forced marriage, in particular where the husband is significantly older than the wife, and where girls have limited education, the girls generally have limited decision-making power in relation to their own lives. Child marriage also contributes to higher rates of school dropout, especially among girls, forced exclusion from school and an increased risk of domestic violence, in addition to limiting the enjoyment of the right to freedom of movement.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- One of the first steps in combating harmful practices is through prevention. Both Committees have underlined that prevention can be best achieved through a rights-based approach to changing social and cultural norms, empowering women and girls, building the capacity of all relevant professionals who are in regular contact with victims, potential victims and perpetrators of harmful practices at all levels and raising awareness of the causes and consequences of harmful practices, including through dialogue with relevant stakeholders.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- The best interests of the child and the protection of the rights of girls and women should always be taken into consideration and the necessary conditions must be in place to enable them to express their point of view and ensure that their opinions are given due weight. Careful consideration should also be given to the potential short-term and long-term impact on children or women of the dissolution of child and/or forced marriages and the return of dowry payments and bride prices.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- The Committees acknowledge that harmful practices affect adult women, both directly and/or owing to the long-term impact of practices to which they were subjected as girls. The present joint general recommendation/general comment therefore further elaborates on the obligations of States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women with regard to the relevant provisions for the elimination of harmful practices that affect the rights of women.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- The efforts to combat harmful practices notwithstanding, the overall number of women and girls affected remains extremely high and may be increasing, including, for example, in conflict situations and as a result of technological developments such as the widespread use of social media. Through the examination of State parties' reports, the Committees have noted that there is often continued adherence to harmful practices by members of practising communities who have moved to destination countries through migration or to seek asylum. Social norms and cultural beliefs supporting such harmful practices persist and are at times emphasized by a community in an attempt to preserve its cultural identity in a new environment, in particular in destination countries where gender roles provide women and girls with greater personal freedom.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- The causes of harmful practices are multidimensional and include stereotyped sex- and gender-based roles, the presumed superiority or inferiority of either of the sexes, attempts to exert control over the bodies and sexuality of women and girls, social inequalities and the prevalence of male-dominated power structures. Efforts to change the practices must address those underlying systemic and structural causes of traditional, re-emerging and emerging harmful practices, empower girls and women and boys and men to contribute to the transformation of traditional cultural attitudes that condone harmful practices, act as agents of such change and strengthen the capacity of communities to support such processes.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 73d
- Paragraph text
- [The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions:] Conduct specialized awareness and training programmes for health-care providers working with immigrant communities to address the unique health-care needs of children and women who have undergone female genital mutilation or other harmful practices and provide specialized training also for professionals within child welfare services and services focused on the rights of women and the education and police and justice sectors, politicians and media personnel working with migrant girls and women.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- The most effective efforts are inclusive and engage relevant stakeholders at all levels, especially girls and women from affected communities and boys and men. Moreover, those efforts require the active participation and support of local leaders, including through the allocation of adequate resources. Establishing or strengthening existing partnerships with relevant stakeholders, institutions, organizations and social networks (religious and traditional leaders, practitioners and civil society) can help to build bridges between constituencies.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Many other practices having been identified as harmful practices are all strongly connected to and reinforce socially constructed gender roles and systems of patriarchal power relations and sometimes reflect negative perceptions of or discriminatory beliefs regarding certain disadvantaged groups of women and children, including individuals with disabilities or albinism. The practices include, but are not limited to, neglect of girls (linked to the preferential care and treatment of boys), extreme dietary restrictions, including during pregnancy (force-feeding, food taboos), virginity testing and related practices, binding, scarring, branding/infliction of tribal marks, corporal punishment, stoning, violent initiation rites, widowhood practices, accusations of witchcraft, infanticide and incest. They also include body modifications that are performed for the purpose of beauty or marriageability of girls and women (such as fattening, isolation, the use of lip discs and neck elongation with neck rings) or in an attempt to protect girls from early pregnancy or from being subjected to sexual harassment and violence (such as breast ironing). In addition, many women and children increasingly undergo medical treatment and/or plastic surgery to comply with social norms of the body, rather than for medical or health reasons, and many are also pressured to be fashionably thin, which has resulted in an epidemic of eating and health disorders.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Contrary to their obligations under both Conventions, many States parties maintain legal provisions that justify, allow or lead to harmful practices, such as legislation that allows for child marriage, provides the defence of so-called honour as an exculpatory or mitigating factor for crimes committed against girls and women or enables a perpetrator of rape and/or other sexual crimes to avoid sanctions by marrying the victim.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- Moreover, the Committees recognize that boys are also the victims of violence, harmful practices and bias and that their rights must be addressed for their protection and to prevent gender-based violence and the perpetuation of bias and gender inequality later in their lives. Accordingly, reference is made herein to the obligations of States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child regarding harmful practices stemming from discrimination that affect boys' enjoyment of their rights.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 81b
- Paragraph text
- [The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions:] Ensure that awareness-raising programmes provide accurate information and clear and unified messages from trusted sources about the negative impact of harmful practices on women, children, in particular girls, their families and society at large. Such programmes should include social media, the Internet and community communication and dissemination tools;
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain legally binding obligations that relate both in general and specifically to the elimination of harmful practices. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child have consistently drawn attention to those practices affecting women and children, primarily girls, in the execution of their monitoring mandates. It is by virtue of that overlapping mandate and the shared commitment to prevent, respond to and eliminate harmful practices, wherever and in whichever form they occur, that the Committees decided to develop the present joint general recommendation/general comment.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Crimes committed in the name of so-called honour are acts of violence that are disproportionately, although not exclusively, committed against girls and women because family members consider that some suspected, perceived or actual behaviour will bring dishonour to the family or community. Such forms of behaviour include entering into sexual relations before marriage, refusing to agree to an arranged marriage, entering into a marriage without parental consent, committing adultery, seeking divorce, dressing in a way that is viewed as unacceptable to the community, working outside the home or generally failing to conform to stereotyped gender roles. Crimes in the name of so-called honour may also be committed against girls and women because they have been victims of sexual violence.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- When a woman or a girl who was subjected to or refused to undergo a practice leaves her family or community to seek refuge, her decision to return must be supported by adequate national protection mechanisms. In assisting her in making this free and informed choice, the mechanisms are required to ensure her safe return and reintegration based on the principle of her best interest, including avoiding revictimization. Such situations require close follow-up and monitoring to ensure that victims are protected and enjoy their rights in the short term and the long term.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- Victims seeking justice for violations of their rights as a result of harmful practices often face stigmatization, a risk of revictimization, harassment and possible retribution. Steps must therefore be taken to ensure that the rights of girls and women are protected throughout the legal process, in accordance with articles 2 (c) and 15 (2) and (3) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and that children are enabled to effectively engage in court proceedings as part of their right to be heard under article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- In States parties in which the prevalence of harmful practices is primarily limited to immigrant communities, health-care providers, teachers and childcare professionals, social workers, police officers, migration officials and the justice sector must be sensitized and trained in how to identify girls and women who have been, or are at risk of being, subjected to harmful practices and which steps can and should be taken to protect them.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence 2016, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- During adolescence, gender inequalities become more significant. Manifestations of discrimination, inequality and stereotyping against girls often intensify, leading to more serious violations of their rights, including child and forced marriage, early pregnancy, female genital mutilation, gender-based physical, mental and sexual violence, abuse, exploitation and trafficking. Cultural norms ascribing lower status to girls can increase the likelihood of confinement to the home, lack of access to secondary and tertiary education, limited opportunities for leisure, sport, recreation and income generation, lack of access to cultural life and the arts, burdensome domestic chores and childcare responsibilities. In many countries, girls report lower levels of health and life satisfaction indicators than boys, a difference that gradually increases with age.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence 2016, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Traditional concepts of masculinity and gender norms linked to violence and dominance can compromise boys' rights. These include the imposition of harmful initiation rites, exposure to violence, gangs, coercion into militia, extremist groups and trafficking. The denial of their vulnerability to physical and sexual abuse and exploitation also poses pervasive and significant barriers to boys gaining access to sexual and reproductive health information, goods and services, and a consequent lack of protective services.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 83
- Paragraph text
- National protection systems or, in their absence, traditional structures should be mandated to be child friendly and gender sensitive and adequately resourced to provide all necessary protection services to women and girls who face a high risk of being subjected to violence, including girls running away to avoid being subjected to female genital mutilation, forced marriage or crimes committed in the name of so-called honour. Consideration should be given to the establishment of an easy-to-remember, free, around-the-clock helpline that is available and known nationwide. Appropriate safety and security measures for victims must be available, including specifically designed temporary shelters or specialized services within shelters for victims of violence. Given that perpetrators of harmful practices are often the spouse of the victim, a family member or a member of the victim's community, protective services should seek to relocate victims outside their immediate community if there is reason to believe that they may be unsafe. Unsupervised visits must be avoided, especially when the issue may be considered one of so-called honour. Psychosocial support must also be available to treat the immediate and long-term psychological trauma of victims, which may include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The right of the child to freedom from all forms of violence 2011, para. 29d
- Paragraph text
- [Harmful practices. These include, but are not limited to:] Violent and degrading initiation rites; force-feeding of girls; fattening; virginity testing (inspecting girls' genitalia);
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 55f
- Paragraph text
- [The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions adopt or amend legislation with a view to effectively addressing and eliminating harmful practices. In doing so, they should ensure:] That a minimum legal age of marriage for girls and boys, with or without parental consent, is established at 18 years. When a marriage at an earlier age is allowed in exceptional circumstances, the absolute minimum age must not be below 16 years, the grounds for obtaining permission must be legitimate and strictly defined by law and the marriage must be permitted only by a court of law upon the full, free and informed consent of the child or both children, who must appear in person before the court;
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Both women and girls find themselves in polygamous unions, with evidence showing that girls are much more likely to be married or betrothed to much older men, increasing the risk of violence and violations of their rights. The coexistence of statutory laws with religious, personal status and traditional customary laws and practices often contributes to the persistence of the practice. In some States parties, however, polygamy is authorized by civil law. Constitutional and other provisions that protect the right to culture and religion have also at times been used to justify laws and practices that allow for polygamous unions.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Polygamy is contrary to the dignity of women and girls and infringes on their human rights and freedoms, including equality and protection within the family. Polygamy varies across, and within, legal and social contexts and its impact includes harm to the health of wives, understood as physical, mental and social well-being, the material harm and deprivation that wives are liable to suffer and emotional and material harm to children, often with serious consequences for their welfare.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The rights of children with disabilities 2007, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- The Committee is deeply concerned about the prevailing practice of forced sterilisation of children with disabilities, particularly girls with disabilities. This practice, which still exists, seriously violates the right of the child to her or his physical integrity and results in adverse life-long physical and mental health effects. Therefore, the Committee urges States parties to prohibit by law the forced sterilisation of children on grounds of disability.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2007
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions ensure that any efforts undertaken to tackle harmful practices and to challenge and change underlying social norms are holistic, community based and founded on a rights-based approach that includes the active participation of all relevant stakeholders, especially women and girls.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child consistently note that harmful practices are deeply rooted in social attitudes according to which women and girls are regarded as inferior to men and boys based on stereotyped roles. They also highlight the gender dimension of violence and indicate that sex- and gender-based attitudes and stereotypes, power imbalances, inequalities and discrimination perpetuate the widespread existence of practices that often involve violence or coercion. It is also important to recall that the Committees are concerned that the practices are also used to justify gender-based violence as a form of "protection" or control of women and children in the home or community, at school or in other educational settings and institutions and in wider society. Moreover, the Committees draw States parties' attention to the fact that sex- and gender-based discrimination intersects with other factors that affect women and girls, in particular those who belong to, or are perceived as belonging to, disadvantaged groups, and who are therefore at a higher risk of becoming victims of harmful practices.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- The payment of dowries and bride prices, which varies among practising communities, may increase the vulnerability of women and girls to violence and to other harmful practices. The husband or his family members may engage in acts of physical or psychological violence, including murder, burning and acid attacks, for failure to fulfil expectations regarding the payment of a dowry or its size. In some cases, families will agree to the temporary "marriage" of their daughter in exchange for financial gains, also referred to as a contractual marriage, which is a form of trafficking in human beings. States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography have explicit obligations with regard to child and/or forced marriages that include dowry payments or bride prices because they could constitute a sale of children as defined in article 2 (a) of the Protocol. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has repeatedly stressed that allowing marriage to be arranged by such payment or preferment violates the right to freely choose a spouse and has in its general recommendation No. 29 outlined that such practice should not be required for a marriage to be valid and that such agreements should not be recognized by a State party as enforceable.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Harmful practices (joint General Recommendation with CEDAW) 2014, para. 69f
- Paragraph text
- [The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions:] Engage men and boys in creating an enabling environment that supports the empowerment of women and girls.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence 2011, para. k
- Paragraph text
- Recognising, with grave concern, that women and girls are often exposed to serious forms of violence such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape, forced marriage, crimes committed in the name of so-called "honour" and genital mutilation, which constitute a serious violation of the human rights of women and girls and a major obstacle to the achievement of equality between women and men;
- Body
- Council of Europe
- Document type
- Regional treaty
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence 2011, para. b
- Paragraph text
- Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that the following intentional conducts are criminalised: (b) coercing or procuring a woman to undergo any of the acts listed in point a; c inciting, coercing or procuring a girl to undergo any of the acts listed in point a.
- Body
- Council of Europe
- Document type
- Regional treaty
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995, para. 93
- Paragraph text
- Discrimination against girls, often resulting from son preference, in access to nutrition and health-care services endangers their current and future health and well-being. Conditions that force girls into early marriage, pregnancy and child-bearing and subject them to harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation, pose grave health risks. Adolescent girls need, but too often do not have, access to necessary health and nutrition services as they mature. Counselling and access to sexual and reproductive health information and services for adolescents are still inadequate or lacking completely, and a young woman's right to privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed consent is often not considered. Adolescent girls are both biologically and psychosocially more vulnerable than boys to sexual abuse, violence and prostitution, and to the consequences of unprotected and premature sexual relations. The trend towards early sexual experience, combined with a lack of information and services, increases the risk of unwanted and too early pregnancy, HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as unsafe abortions. Early child-bearing continues to be an impediment to improvements in the educational, economic and social status of women in all parts of the world. Overall, for young women early marriage and early motherhood can severely curtail educational and employment opportunities and are likely to have a long-term, adverse impact on the quality of their lives and the lives of their children. Young men are often not educated to respect women's self-determination and to share responsibility with women in matters of sexuality and reproduction.
- Body
- Fourth World Conference on Women
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Boys
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1995
Paragraph
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The girl child of today is the woman of tomorrow. The skills, ideas and energy of the girl child are vital for full attainment of the goals of equality, development and peace. For the girl child to develop her full potential she needs to be nurtured in an enabling environment, where her spiritual, intellectual and material needs for survival, protection and development are met and her equal rights safeguarded. If women are to be equal partners with men, in every aspect of life and development, now is the time to recognize the human dignity and worth of the girl child and to ensure the full enjoyment of her human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the rights assured by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, universal ratification of which is strongly urged. Yet there exists worldwide evidence that discrimination and violence against girls begin at the earliest stages of life and continue unabated throughout their lives. They often have less access to nutrition, physical and mental health care and education and enjoy fewer rights, opportunities and benefits of childhood and adolescence than do boys. They are often subjected to various forms of sexual and economic exploitation, paedophilia, forced prostitution and possibly the sale of their organs and tissues, violence and harmful practices such as female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, incest, female genital mutilation and early marriage, including child marriage.
- Body
- Fourth World Conference on Women
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1995
Paragraph
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995, para. 259
- Paragraph text
- The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that "States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or status" (art. 2, para. 1). However, in many countries available indicators show that the girl child is discriminated against from the earliest stages of life, through her childhood and into adulthood. In some areas of the world, men outnumber women by 5 in every 100. The reasons for the discrepancy include, among other things, harmful attitudes and practices, such as female genital mutilation, son preference - which results in female infanticide and prenatal sex selection - early marriage, including child marriage, violence against women, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, discrimination against girls in food allocation and other practices related to health and well-being. As a result, fewer girls than boys survive into adulthood.
- Body
- Fourth World Conference on Women
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1995
Paragraph
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995, para. 283d
- Paragraph text
- [By Governments and, as appropriate, international and non-governmental organizations:] Enact and enforce legislation protecting girls from all forms of violence, including female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, genital mutilation, incest, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, child prostitution and child pornography, and develop age-appropriate safe and confidential programmes and medical, social and psychological support services to assist girls who are subjected to violence.
- Body
- Fourth World Conference on Women
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 1995
Paragraph
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995, para. 107a
- Paragraph text
- [By Governments, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations, the mass media, the private sector and relevant international organizations, including United Nations bodies, as appropriate:] Give priority to both formal and informal educational programmes that support and enable women to develop self-esteem, acquire knowledge, make decisions on and take responsibility for their own health, achieve mutual respect in matters concerning sexuality and fertility and educate men regarding the importance of women's health and well-being, placing special focus on programmes for both men and women that emphasize the elimination of harmful attitudes and practices, including female genital mutilation, son preference (which results in female infanticide and prenatal sex selection), early marriage, including child marriage, violence against women, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, which at times is conducive to infection with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, drug abuse, discrimination against girls and women in food allocation and other harmful attitudes and practices related to the life, health and well-being of women, and recognizing that some of these practices can be violations of human rights and ethical medical principles;
- Body
- Fourth World Conference on Women
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 1995
Paragraph
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 1995, para. 277c
- Paragraph text
- [By Governments and, as appropriate, international and non-governmental organizations:] Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference, which result in harmful and unethical practices such as prenatal sex selection and female infanticide; this is often compounded by the increasing use of technologies to determine foetal sex, resulting in abortion of female foetuses;
- Body
- Fourth World Conference on Women
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 1995
Paragraph
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- There is also the myth that intercourse with female persons with albinism can cure infertility, sexually transmitted infections and, in particular, HIV/AIDS. This has led to the rape and forced prostitution of women and girls with albinism, some of whom end up contracting various infections. Cases have been reported of young girls with albinism being prostituted by their family to customers who thereby expect to be cured of HIV/AIDS. It is believed that cases of this sort are underreported owing to various factors, including a pre-existing context of myth-led discrimination against persons with albinism, the stigma of reporting rape and the likelihood of further abuse. Such lack of reporting is bound to aggravate the already oppressed and disenfranchised situation of women and girls with albinism.
- Body
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 1994, para. 7.4
- Paragraph text
- Governments and communities should urgently take steps to stop the practice of female genital mutilation and protect women and girls from all such similar unnecessary and dangerous practices. Steps to eliminate the practice should include strong community outreach programmes involving village and religious leaders, education and counselling about its impact on girls' and women's health, and appropriate treatment and rehabilitation for girls and women who have suffered mutilation. Services should include counselling for women and men to discourage the practice.
- Body
- International Conference on Population and Development
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 1994
Paragraph
Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 1994, para. 4.16a
- Paragraph text
- [The objectives are:] To eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference, which results in harmful and unethical practices regarding female infanticide and prenatal sex selection;
- Body
- International Conference on Population and Development
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 1994
Paragraph
Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 1994, para. 4.22
- Paragraph text
- Governments are urged to prohibit female genital mutilation wherever it exists and to give vigorous support to efforts among non-governmental and community organizations and religious institutions to eliminate such practices.
- Body
- International Conference on Population and Development
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 1994
Paragraph
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child 1990, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- Child marriage and the betrothal of girls and boys shall be prohibited and effective action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to be 18 years and make registration of all marriages in an official registry compulsory.
- Body
- Organization of African Unity
- Document type
- Regional treaty
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 1990
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- In its resolution 66/140, the General Assembly reiterated its call for an end to harmful traditional or customary practices, such as early and forced marriage, and called upon States to take appropriate measures to address the root factors of child and forced marriages, including by undertaking educational activities to raise awareness regarding the negative aspects of such practices. It urged all States to enact and strictly enforce laws to ensure that marriage was entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses, and, in addition, to enact and strictly enforce laws concerning the minimum legal age of consent and the minimum age for marriage and raise the minimum age for marriage where necessary, and to develop and implement comprehensive policies, plans of action and programmes for the survival, protection, development 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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- The General Assembly also urged States to ensure that efforts to enact and implement legislation to end child and forced marriages engaged all stakeholders and agents of change and to ensure that the information on the legislation against the practice was well known and generated social support for the enforcement of such laws and legislation. States were urged to support community workshops and discussion sessions to enable communities to collectively explore ways to prevent and address child and forced marriages, provide information through stakeholders credible to the community, such as medical personnel and local, community and religious leaders, regarding the harm associated with those marriages, give greater voice to girls and ensure consistence of message throughout the entire community, and encourage the much-needed strong engagement of men and boys.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- In its general recommendation No. 24, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women specifically recommends that States parties enact and effectively enforce laws that prohibit the marriage of girls. In its general recommendation No. 21, the Committee recognizes that forced marriage may exist as a result of cultural or religious beliefs, but maintains that a woman's right to choose a spouse and enter freely into marriage is central to her life and to her dignity and equality as a human being and that this must be protected and enforced by 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
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Article 21 (2) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child states that child marriage and the betrothal of girls and boys are to be prohibited and effective action, including legislation, is to be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to be 18 years. Article 6 of the 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa states that no marriage is to take place without the free and full consent of both parties, and requires States to enact appropriate national legislative measures to guarantee that the minimum age of marriage for women is to be 18 years.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- In some communities, honour is connected with virtue, good works, righteous behaviour and obligations to one's parents, older persons and the community. Honour-related killings have often been associated with religious beliefs. These, however, are traditional or cultural practices. Among some Asian tribes, honour (or izzat) is associated with the female body and therefore women and girls must be guarded, protected and passed on to another member of the tribe. A girl or woman dishonours her family and tribe if her body is violated, even by force, and the shame can be cleansed only through her death.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Family status depends on honour. In patriarchal and patrilineal societies, maintaining the honour of the family is a woman's responsibility. The concept of women as commodities and not as human beings endowed with dignity and rights equal to those of men is deeply embedded in these societies. Women are seen as the property of men and must be obedient and passive, rather than assertive and active. Any assertive behaviour is considered to be an element that would result in an imbalance of power relations within the parameters of the family unit (E/CN.4/2002/83, para. 27). UNICEF reports that in some countries, early marriages are regarded by families as a means of protecting girls from premarital sex that would undermine their honour and that of their families.
- 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
- Families
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 86
- Paragraph text
- Girls and women who seek to leave servile marriage may be victims of acid attacks or honour-related killings. Acid attacks, which involve the use of sulphuric acid to disfigure or kill, have been reported in Asia, Europe and North and Latin America.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- As a result of cultural beliefs, girls and women with dual nationality are sometimes abducted by their families from one country and forced to marry men from their parents' country of origin. This has happened in the United Kingdom to women from Asian diaspora communities. The Governments involved have worked through consular assistance and judicial proceedings to provide victims with effective remedies. In 2005, the United Kingdom set up a forced marriage unit under the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office to tackle the issue.
- 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
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Domestic bonded labour can be linked to gender-discriminatory cultural practices. Among certain ethnic groups in Ghana and neighbouring countries, for instance, girls as young as 6-10 years old are forced into bonded labour, serving as so-called trokosi or vudusi in the household of priests at local fetish shrines. They are given by their parents to the shrine to pay the shrine for erasing a moral failing or curse attached to the parents. In addition to performing domestic chores and ritual duties at the shrine, a trokosi is usually also expected to work long hours on farmland belonging to the shrine. From puberty, she is expected to endure sexual relations with the fetish priest. Although the Government of Ghana has criminalized the practice, it has not yet been eradicated.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Youth
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The violations that occur within servile marriage cannot be viewed only as acts of violence against women and girls because, although the overwhelming majority of those in servile marriage are girls and women, boys and men are also victims. Owing to gender prejudices, it is often easier for boys and men to leave forced marriages, live as divorcees, remarry and regain control of their lives, in particular because they are usually more educated and can be financially independent. Girls and women are more vulnerable and more likely to be sexually and physically abused. The Special Rapporteur focuses herein on girls and women in servile marriage for those reasons and also because, whether by design, error or omission, there is scant information available about the impact of servile marriage on boys and men.
- 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
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 94
- Paragraph text
- Many communities believe that girls should marry and can never divorce because of cultural, religious and financial factors, among others. Consequently, families and communities resist change. In addition, there is an overwhelming belief that events within a family are private and should not be subject to outside interference. A wife who runs away is not permitted to return to her family and, if she does, she will be stigmatized for having left her husband, no matter how abusive the marriage. In some societies, it is believed that the husband has every right to discipline his wife and that there should be no interference in marital matters. The female spouse is often made to feel as thought she is at fault and must learn to be a better wife (i.e. more subservient).
- 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
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- From an early age, girls are brought up and viewed as commodities to be used to solidify family links and preserve honour, in addition to financial assets that can improve the family's economic status. Discriminatory attitudes within the family are reinforced in the community and throughout the girl's life. Complicity by other women in the family and the community strengthens the concept of women as property and embeds the perception that violence against female family members is to be tolerated and remedied privately within the family environment. From the beginning of the marriage, a spouse is treated not as an individual but as a commodity, given that his or her consent to the marriage is not required.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 88
- Paragraph text
- Women in servile marriage lack adequate protection in the light of their specific vulnerabilities arising from their gender, low social status and their age (if they are girls). Many countries lack laws criminalizing forced marriage or slavery-like practices that arise from servile marriage such as domestic servitude or marital rape, mainly because some abuses that occur in a marriage are often seen as domestic matters and outside interference is often frowned upon because it would be interference in the privacy of the home. Consequently, there is a tendency to deal with this form of slavery privately, outside the courts.
- 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
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 92
- Paragraph text
- In some cases, although laws may be in place to protect women and girls from servile marriage, the authorities fail to prosecute the perpetrators. Consequently, victims do not seek help from the police or judiciary as they fear further abuse from Government authorities or being forcibly returned to their husbands. According to a 2008 report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women, between 70 and 80 per cent of Afghan marriages are forced, and 57 per cent are child marriages where one of the spouses is under the age of 16 years. In 2009, Afghanistan enacted legislation on the elimination of violence against women, in order to criminalize servile marriage and ensure that perpetrators were brought to justice. The law does not, however, address how authorities should treat a woman who runs away to escape the offences criminalized under the law. Consequently, girls and women who flee servile marriage are arrested and often convicted of intent to have sex outside marriage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- There are several practices in which girls are forced into marriage under the guise of religious rites. For example, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has noted the existence in India of devadasi, whereby a girl, usually a Dalit, is forced to marry a deity and forced to have sex with members of the temple (CERD/C/IND/CO/19, para. 18). The Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination have addressed the deuki system in Nepal, under which girls may be offered to deities by their families or by wealthy people who buy girls from their parents to be granted wishes or heavenly favours. The girl is then called a deuki and engages in prostitution (CRC/C/15/Add.261, para. 67, and CEDAW/C/NPL/CO/4-5, para. 17).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Other forms of ritual slavery in which a girl is given to a shrine and married to the gods are practised in parts of West Africa. The girl is enslaved to atone for the real or alleged sins of a male relative. There is a belief that gods often punish a person's sin by causing the deaths of family members until the sin is pardoned. Until the early eighteenth century, livestock or other gifts were given to the priests in atonement. As girls could be used as domestic help and as sexual partners, priests began taking young virgins as reparation instead. A girl is expected to serve a priest for a certain period, depending upon the severity of the crime and the policy of the shrine. The girl's family can redeem her after that period, but the priest demands a high price. If the priest dies, the girl becomes the property of his successor. If the girl dies without her family redeeming her, her family is obligated to replace her with another virgin, meaning that the cycle can continue for generations. Enslaved girls and women are forced to live in inhumane conditions. They are expected to work in the fields and the local market and also provide sexual services to the priests. They are beaten into submission if they resist (E/CN.4/2002/83, para. 42).
- 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
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
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.
- 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.
- 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
Servile marriage 2012, para. 99
- Paragraph text
- In many countries with a legal minimum age for marriage, there are also exceptions for girls below that age. Where exceptions exist, rigorous procedures must be put in place to ensure that the marriage is in the child's best interests. Private and public institutions must be required to systematically consider how children's rights and interests are affected by their decisions and actions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- According to the Special Rapporteur on traditional practices affecting the health of women and the girl child, the practice of forced marriage deserved the close scrutiny of the international community, as it would not be eradicated until women were considered full and equal participants in the social, economic, cultural and political life of their communities (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/36, para. 82).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming forced and early marriages as slavery-like practices is important as it provides an understanding of the violations that victims endure and the kind of interventions required to prevent, monitor and prosecute servile marriage. Victim protection programmes can also be specifically tailored better to support victims of servile marriage. It moves the discussion from being about the rights of women and girls to being about abolishing slavery within communities.
- 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
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Studies have shown that an overwhelming majority of women in servile marriage were forced to be girl brides. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Niger has the highest occurrence of early marriage, followed by Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Nepal, Malawi and Ethiopia. Girls and women experience the same violations within a servile marriage and, unless otherwise stated, the violations discussed herein apply to both girls and women. Girls are, however, much more vulnerable to abuse given their lack of physical and emotional maturity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Gender inequality also contributes to servile marriage through its impact on formal legal systems. Although a woman's right to choose if, when and whom to marry is recognized in international human rights law, and although the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other treaty bodies state that the minimum age of marriage should be 18 years, several countries with high rates of early marriage also have unequal laws of consent for boys and girls. Such laws reinforce and legalize the idea that marriage is suitable for girls earlier than for boys. Patriarchal laws and practices give women and girls less negotiating power around marriage and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- If a woman refuses marriage, she can be subject to character assassination or kidnapping by the man or his family to force her into marriage or to rape her. Bride kidnapping, a practice by which a bride is forcefully abducted and married, sometimes occurs in Kyrgyzstan and is often accompanied by physical and sexual violence (CEDAW/C/KGZ/CO/3, paras. 21 and 22). In many cases, girls and women endure years of constant abuse that sometimes leads to death at the hands of their relatives, their husbands or their husbands' families. Girls and women are also encouraged or forced by their husbands or their husbands' families to commit suicide.
- 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
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Non-consensual marriage is a form of marriage where one or both parties have not consented. The lack of consent is the main principle underlying all forms of servile marriage. In some instances, the law is used to justify non-consensual marriages. For example, to protect the honour of a girl or woman, some countries can compel a rape victim to marry her rapist if the rapist so agrees. In this situation, the rapist is pardoned. Although these marriages purport to be consensual, fear of stigma and family pressure sometimes coerce rape victims into consenting to them (see E/CN.4/2002/83). Recently, the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice reported the case of Amina Filali, a Moroccan woman who committed suicide after allegedly being forced to marry her rapist. Article 475 of the Moroccan Penal Code provides that a kidnapper or seducer of a minor girl may be acquitted of rape if he marries her (A/HRC/20/28/Add.1, para. 24).
- 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
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Servile marriage and domestic servitude are two forms of contemporary slavery that disproportionately affect women and girls. In a previous report, the Special Rapporteur defined servile marriage as an arrangement "in which a spouse is reduced to a commodity over whom any or all the powers of ownership are attached" (A/HRC/21/41, summary). Practices such as polygamy and "bride price", especially when coupled with the prevalence of domestic violence, are possible indicators of servile marriage. Women's bodies are directly tied to a family's honour in many cultures, and if a girl refuses to marry, "she can be subject to character assassination or kidnapping by the man or his family to force her into marriage or to rape her" (ibid., para. 71). There is little to no legal protection for women in these situations in many countries. Some countries have gone so far as to enact legislation that acquits perpetrators of rape if they marry their victim. If a woman enters into a servile marriage, she essentially becomes a slave to her husband and his family.
- 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
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Cultural relativism is often given as an excuse for slavery-like violations such as servile marriage and sexual slavery committed against women and girls. Societies that permit servile marriage are based on an overwhelming fear of female sexuality and culturally believe that it should be curtailed and regulated.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Stigma and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2012, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- The silence and stigma surrounding menstruation makes finding solutions for menstrual hygiene management a low priority. Menstruating women and girls often lack a private place to change or wash the rags used. Menstruation has many negative cultural attitudes associated with it, including the idea that menstruating women and girls are "contaminated", "dirty", "impure" or "polluted". These manifest in practices such as the seclusion of women and girls, reduced mobility, dietary restrictions, and/or women and girls being required to use different water sources or prohibited from preparing food for others during menstruation-practices that are often deeply rooted in sociocultural and patriarchal interpretations of religious prescriptions. Even where such restrictions are not followed, women and girls may continue to harbour internalized stigma and are embarrassed to discuss menstruation. The lack of privacy for cleaning and washing, the fear of staining and smelling, and the lack of hygiene in school toilets are major reasons for being absent from school during menstruation, and have a negative impact on girls' right to education.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Practices and beliefs are different in every culture, but generally menstruation is considered to be something unclean or impure and contact between men and women during menstruation is viewed as something that should be avoided. Girls and women are sometimes not allowed to use the same toilets as men or are barred from certain locations. Girls all over the world grow up with the idea that menstruation is something they should hide and not speak about - an embarrassing event associated with shame. This powerful stigma and taboo surrounding menstruation translates into fear of leaking or staining clothes. Worldwide, women and girls prefer to hide the fact that they are menstruating. Data collected in Senegal shows that, owing to shame, menstrual material, once washed, is mainly dried in secluded, private and dark locations, such as tiled rooms or even under pillows, instead of in direct sunlight, which would reduce the risk of infection by ensuring that pathogens do not grow.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
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.
- 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
Gender equality in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation 2016, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Women fear violence by men in public toilets and open defecation sites, and along the routes leading to both. Some women and girls looking for a place to defecate have reportedly been exposed to rude remarks, brick-throwing, stabbing and rape. Gender-based violence also occurs at places to collect water, bathe and wash clothes. Abuse of boys is reportedly a common and underrecognized phenomenon, and one that receives even less attention, as shame and cultural restrictions or taboos concerning homosexuality deters boys from reporting such abuse.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
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.
- 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
Report of the SR on the right to health and Agenda 2030 2016, para. 91
- Paragraph text
- Addressing violence cuts across the Sustainable Development Goals and is critical to the realization of the right to health. The Goals envisage "a world free from fear and violence" and include specific commitments to eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres (target 5.2); to eliminate all harmful practices, including child early and forced marriage and genital mutilation (target 5.3); to significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere (target 16.1); and to end all forms of violence against and torture of children (target 16.2). The Goals also include a commitment to build capacities to prevent violence (target 16.a). In addition, several other Goals address risk factors linked to violence, including ending poverty (Goal 1), ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being (Goal 3), ensuring quality education (Goal 4), addressing inequalities (Goal 10) and making cities and settlements safe (Goal 11). As recognized in the Goals, reducing and eliminating violence is critical to transforming the world into a peaceful and inclusive global community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Rights of indigenous women and girls 2015, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- As discussed by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences in her 2007 thematic report, culture-based identity politics can be used to justify violence against women in the name of traditional practices and/or values. Practices commonly carried out in the name of tradition, such as female gender mutilation and child marriage, impact some but not all indigenous communities. The fact that those traditional practices cut across religious, geographical and ethnic characteristics demonstrate that there are multidimensional causal factors and that no one factor attributed to the identity of women makes them vulnerable. Violations suffered by indigenous women and girls must be viewed within the context of the broad spectrum of violations experienced and their specific vulnerabilities as members of indigenous communities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Rights of indigenous women and girls 2015, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 100 million and 140 million women and girls worldwide have been subjected to female gender mutilation. Female genital mutilation has been documented mainly in Africa, but also in some countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Central and South America. As recognized by WHO, there are no benefits to female genital mutilation; in fact, the procedure can have many negative consequences for women, including infection, complications in childbirth, pain, infertility and cysts, as well as their overall disempowerment within society. There is very little information about the prevalence and drivers of female genital mutilation among indigenous communities, but it is known to take place in some but not all indigenous communities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Rights of indigenous women and girls 2015, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Similarly, little disaggregated information is available about the specific dynamics of child marriage in indigenous communities, but it is known to take place in some communities. Much of the literature on child marriage demonstrates a strong link with poverty, therefore, the broader human rights violations of indigenous women and girls are likely to be strong causal factors for child marriage. Child marriage is not only a form of violence, but also a violation of the child's rights to education and family life. Child marriage can also lead to violations of the rights to life and health, as young girls often experience complications with pregnancy and childbirth, which can result in death. In addition, child marriage creates vulnerability to marital rape.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Rights of indigenous women and girls 2015, para. 79d
- Paragraph text
- [Recommendations to Member States] [With regard to violence against indigenous women and girls, Member States should:] Ensure that all forms of violence against women, including female genital mutilation and child marriage, are included as violations within criminal law;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women with disabilities 2017, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The forced sterilization of girls and young women with disabilities represents a widespread human rights violation across the globe. Girls and young women with disabilities are disproportionately subjected to forced and involuntary sterilization for different reasons, including eugenics, menstrual management and pregnancy prevention. Women with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, as well as those placed in institutions, are particularly vulnerable to forced sterilization. Despite the limited data on current practices, studies show that the sterilization of women and girls with disabilities continues to be prevalent, and up to three times higher than the rate for the general population.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women with disabilities 2017, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Girls and young women with disabilities are disproportionately affected by different forms of gender-based violence, including physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse; bullying; coercion; arbitrary deprivation of liberty; institutionalization; female infanticide; trafficking; neglect; domestic violence; and harmful practices such as child and forced marriage, female genital mutilation, forced sterilization and invasive and irreversible involuntary treatments (see A/HRC/20/5, paras. 12-27). Many of those forms of violence are a consequence of the intersection between disability and gender, and might happen while a girl or young woman with disabilities performs daily hygiene, receives treatment or is overmedicated. Gender-based violence occurs at home, in institutions, in schools, in health centres and in other public and private facilities, and perpetrators are frequently relatives, caregivers and professionals on whom the girl or young woman may depend.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women with disabilities 2017, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Girls with disabilities are also likely to be proposed for marriage in regions and communities where child marriage occurs. Indeed, families are more prone to force girls with disabilities into marriage because they see it as a way to ensure long-term security and protection for their children. In addition, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has strongly condemned the practice of female genital mutilation affecting girls and women with disabilities in a number of countries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women with disabilities 2017, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- While United Nations human rights instruments, mechanisms and agencies have recognized that the forced sterilization of persons with disabilities constitutes discrimination, a form of violence, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the practice is still legal and applied in many countries. Across the globe, many legal systems allow judges, health-care professionals, family members and guardians to consent to sterilization procedures on behalf of persons with disabilities as being in their “best interest”, particularly for girls with disabilities who are under the legal authority of their parents. The practices are often conducted on a purported precautionary basis because of the vulnerability of girls and young women with disabilities to sexual abuse, and under the fallacy that sterilization would enable girls and young women with disabilities who are “deemed unfit for parenthood” to improve their quality of life without the “burden” of a pregnancy. However, sterilization neither protects them against sexual violence or abuse nor removes the State’s obligation to protect them from such abuse. Forced sterilization is an unacceptable practice with lifelong consequences on the physical and mental integrity of girls and young women with disabilities that must be immediately eradicated and criminalized.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and young women with disabilities 2017, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- Girls and young women with disabilities have the same sexual and reproductive health and rights as other girls and young women. However they encounter significant obstacles in exercising and accessing those rights, including stigma and stereotypes, restrictive legislation and a lack of child- and disability-appropriate information and services. Moreover, poverty and/or social exclusion deprive them of the necessary knowledge to develop healthy relationships and increase the risk of sexual abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancies and harmful practices. Grave human rights violations such as forced sterilization, forced abortion and forced contraception are frequent, and the violence experienced by girls and young women with disabilities remains largely invisible.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Reflection on a 6-year tenure as Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography 2014, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Child marriage remains widespread in many countries, despite the adoption of domestic legal frameworks forbidding it. Child marriage is rooted in unequal gender status and power relations in society. In many cases, it can be regarded as a form of sale of children. The requirement to provide a dowry for younger girls can be an incentive for parents to arrange to marry their daughters at an early age. Child marriage can be used as a means to settle family debts or provide economic security to families.
- 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)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Study on illegal adoptions 2017, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Gender discrimination and violence based on moral and religious constructs regarding the social or marital status of the mother have been a key driver of illegal adoptions in several countries. In Ireland, the so-called mother and baby homes, which were managed by Catholic organizations, and other maternity institutions, were established in the 1920s to deal with unmarried pregnant women and girls and operated until the 1990s. Conditions in those institutions were deplorable and cases of violence against the women were common (e.g. abuse of expectant mothers, forced labour, neglect and detention). Before the 1952 Adoption Act, most children born out of wedlock were placed in foster care, "boarded out" or informally adopted. After passage of the Act, children were put up for formal adoption. Consent was improperly induced or forcibly obtained and documents, including illegal birth registrations, were falsified on a large scale. Furthermore, there were cases of intercountry adoptions, in particular to the United States of America, which often resulted from the same illegal practices.
- 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)
- Harmful Practices
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Infants
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Comprehensive prevention strategies against sale and sexual exploitation of children 2013, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- A number of social practices are rooted in discrimination against women. Child marriage is entrenched in social and gender norms that significantly affect the well-being of girls.
- 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
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism 2013, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- In some cases this phenomenon may be veiled in a "culturally acceptable" practice through, for instance, child marriage. In countries where early marriage is still a common practice, money can be offered to families to marry young girls, despite the marriage only lasting for the length of the stay. Visitors may also take the minor back to their country, where the child will be subjected to continual sexual exploitation.
- 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)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Youth
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Comprehensive child protection systems 2011, para. 28c
- Paragraph text
- [With regard to prohibition, comprehensive legal frameworks should:] Establish 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for girls and boys, with a prohibition on the procurement, offering, conducting of or forcing into an under-age marriage;
- 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)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Effective Implementation of the OPSC 2010, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- In some circumstances, early marriage is used as an economic survival strategy by poor families. Girls are given into marriage, often against their will and in exchange for a dowry, in order to settle the family's debts, to acquire land or even to settle disputes between families or clans.
- 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)
- Economic Rights
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 2016, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- Women and girls tend to be at risk of honour violence or killing for engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage, choosing partners without their family's approval or behaving in other ways that are considered immoral; Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons are also targeted (A/HRC/29/23). Honour killings have been documented in South-East Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East and affect 5,000-12,000 women each year. States' failure to prevent honour-based violence contravenes their obligations to combat and prevent torture and ill-treatment. This includes failure to grant asylum to persons facing the risk of honour violence in their countries of origin.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- LGBTQI+
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 2016, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Forced sterilization is an act of violence and a form of social control, and violates a person's right to be free from torture and ill-treatment. Full, free and informed consent of the patient herself is critical and can never be excused on the basis of medical necessity or emergency when obtaining consent is still possible (A/HRC/22/53). Gender often intersects with other characteristics such as race, nationality, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age and HIV status to render women and girls at risk of torture and other ill-treatment in the context of sterilization (CAT/C/CZE/CO/4-5, A/HRC/29/40/Add.2) The European Court of Human Rights found that the sterilization of a Roma woman who consented to the procedure only during delivery by caesarean section violated the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. Documented practices that may violate the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment include Government-sponsored family planning initiatives targeting economically disadvantaged and uneducated women that shortcut the process of obtaining consent, sterilization certificates required by employers and coerced sterilization of HIV-positive women in some States. Despite the fundamental rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, women and girls with disabilities are also particularly vulnerable to forced sterilization and other procedures such as imposed forms of contraception and abortion, especially when they are labelled "incompetent" and placed under guardianship (A/67/227).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- In many jurisdictions, the criminalization of abortion, "moral crimes" like adultery and extramarital relationships, and witchcraft and sorcery, among others - offences that are aimed at or that solely and disproportionately affect women, girls and persons on the basis of their perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity - besides constituting violations of international human rights law in and of themselves are also a significant factor in prison overcrowding, which has a negative impact on all aspects of detainees' lives and gives rise to ill-treatment or torture.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 2016, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Women and girls seeking reproductive health care in professional settings are often exposed to severe pain and suffering and coerced into or subjected to unwanted, degrading and humiliating procedures and examinations. In some States, such practices include requiring sex workers to undergo weekly gynaecological examinations and blood tests, and forced or coerced pregnancy testing by means of physical examination or urine testing as a precondition for attending schools and public examinations. Virginity testing and the expulsion of pregnant girls from schools, which often result in long-term harmful consequences, constitute forms of discrimination and ill-treatment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Overview of main observations of five years fact-finding and research 2010, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Domestic violence, in particular against women and children, is a widespread practice in most countries, and not enough action is taken by States to protect women and children against ill-treatment by their husbands, partners or parents. Although female genital mutilation inflicts most severe pain and long-term suffering on girls, it continues to be practised in too many African and other countries without adequate laws prohibiting it and without law enforcement bodies implementing existing laws. Trafficking in human beings, notably women and girls, is one of the most widespread and lucrative activities of organized crime. Most Governments seem to be more interested in returning victims of trafficking to their countries of origin than providing protection and reparation for them. By not acting with due diligence to protect victims of domestic violence, trafficking, female genital mutilation and similar practices, States may commit torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by acquiescence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 2016, para. 74c
- Paragraph text
- [With regard to harmful practices, the Special Rapporteur calls upon States to:] Implement and enforce uniform laws that prohibit child marriage before the age of 18, with no exceptions on the basis of parental consent or personal status laws; extend the prohibition to cover traditional and religious marriages; provide appropriate assistance to women and girls living in forced marriages, including by helping women leave the marriage with a share of matrimonial assets, custody of children and the right to remarry; and provide support to victims' dependents and members of immediate families;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 2016, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- Harmful practices are persistent practices and forms of behaviour grounded in discrimination on the basis of, inter alia, sex, gender and age, in addition to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that often involve violence and cause physical or psychological harm or suffering, including immediate or long-term consequences for the victim's dignity, physical and psychosocial integrity and development, health, education and socioeconomic status. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by harmful practices. Typically justified on the basis of social norms and cultural beliefs, tradition or religion, harmful practices are motivated in part by stereotypes about sex and gender-based roles and rooted in attempts to control individuals' bodies and sexuality. Female genital mutilation, child and forced marriage and honour-based violence are acknowledged as forms of gender-based violence that constitute ill-treatment and torture. Victims seeking justice for violations of their rights as a result of harmful practices often face stigmatization and risk revictimization, harassment and retribution. States must ensure that the rights of women and girls are guaranteed and protected at all stages of the legal processes, inter alia through legal aid, support programmes and witness protection.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 2016, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- Violence committed by family members against relatives in order to protect the family's "honour" is a common practice around the world. In some communities honour is equated with the regulation of female sexuality and with women's conformity with social norms and traditions. Women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons are the most common victims of honour-based violence, which targets female sexuality and autonomy and individuals' actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (A/61/122/Add.1 and Corr.1).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- LGBTQI+
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Honour killings take many forms, including direct murder; stoning; women and young girls being forced to commit suicide after public denunciations of their behaviour; and women being disfigured by acid burns, leading to death. Honour crimes are also linked to other forms of family violence, and are usually committed by male family members as a means of controlling women's sexual choices and limiting their freedom of movement. Punishment usually has a collective dimension, with the family as a whole believing it to be injured by a woman's actual or perceived behaviour, and is often public in character. The visibility of the issue and the punishment also serves a social objective, namely, influencing the conduct of other women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Violence against women as a barrier to the effective realization of all human rights 2014, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Violence against women impairs and nullifies the right of women and girls to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Gender-based violence, such as intimate partner violence, sexual violence, female genital mutilation or other harmful traditional practices, forced and child marriage or cohabitation, gender-related killings, trafficking, infanticide and deliberate neglect of girls, have a severe impact on women's and girls' physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health. As stated by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, violence against women puts women's health and lives at risk. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights notes that the right to health includes both freedoms and entitlements, including the right to control one's health and body, inclusive of sexual and reproductive freedom, and the right to be free from interference, such as the right to be free from non-consensual medical treatment and experimentation (E/C.12/2000/4, para. 8).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The term femicide has been used in the context of killings of women in the private and public spheres. In some European contexts, such killings are described as "crimes of passion". In South Asia the term femicide has been adopted to encompass cultural practices in the region such as female infanticide, preadolescent mortality of girls and dowry-related deaths. The phenomena of so-called "honour killings" in the Middle East are rarely specifically labelled as acts of femicide, but some scholars have highlighted the femicidal nature of such acts and the impunity that accompanies such killings.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Violence against women: Twenty years of developments to combat violence against women 2014, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- One strategy associated with the engagement of men and boys is to appeal to the idea that women deserve respect as mothers, sisters, wives and so on. Emphasizing personal relationships is said to make it easier to understand the consequences of violence against women. This is also seen as an effective strategy in overtly patriarchal societies, in which calls to consider women as rights-bearing individuals, irrespective of their marital status, are considered too radical to attract support, even among women themselves. This implicit suggestion thus distorts the issue of women as autonomous individuals deserving of respect, and renders regard for the rights of women contingent on their status in the private sphere, which further reinforces the public/private dichotomy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Reparations to women who have been subjected to violence 2010, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- The inclusion of gross violations against women in the list of wrongdoings that will trigger reparations has to be underpinned by the notion that the same violations may entail different harms for men and women, but also for women and girls from cultural minorities. For instance, harms emanating from sexual violence - including the contraction of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, undesired pregnancies, complications due to often unsafe abortions, unwanted children, loss of reproductive capacity, fistulas and vaginal injuries, and multiple psychological disorders - are always compounded with social stigmatization and ostracism by the family and/or community, subsequent emotional distress, loss of status and the possibility to marry or have a male protector, and access communal resources. None of the reparations programmes in the post-conflict or post-authoritarian scenario has explicitly referred to forms of reproductive violence (such as forced impregnation, forced abortion or forced sterilization) as separate categories. Explicit recognition and visibility of various forms of violence and the ensuing harm is required for responsive reparation programmes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Modalities for the establishment of femicides/gender-related killings watch 2016, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Violence against women is specifically addressed in target 5.2 on the elimination of all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation. Two indicators are key: the proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by form of violence and by age group (5.2.1) and the proportion of women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to sexual violence by persons other than an intimate partner, in the previous 12 months, by age group and place of occurrence (5.2.2). Another directly relevant target is 5.3 on the elimination of all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation. Two indicators are key for this target: the percentage of women aged 20-24 who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18 (5.3.1) and the percentage of girls and women aged 15-49 who have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting, by age group (5.3.2).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Violence against women as a barrier to the effective realization of all human rights 2014, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- The right to education is affected by violence, including family violence and abuse, sexual violence at school, early and forced marriage, human trafficking and harmful traditional practices - which all prevent women and girls from realizing their right to education. Sexual harassment at school has negative physical and emotional effects and also results in decreased productivity, absenteeism from school, difficulty concentrating, declining academic performance or dropping out from school, often after becoming pregnant. As recognized by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 24/23, child, early and forced marriage prevents individuals from living their lives free from all forms of violence and has adverse consequences on the enjoyment of human rights, such as the right to education (see also A/HRC/21/41, para. 74). Girls who enter into early marriage often leave school to assume the responsibilities of caring for their spouse and home and to raise a family. This, in turn, limits young women's economic opportunities and independence and places them at greater risk of domestic violence than married women who are older and more educated.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Violence against women as a barrier to the effective realization of all human rights 2014, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- One strategy associated with the engagement of men and boys is to appeal to the idea that women deserve respect as mothers, sisters, wives and so on. Emphasizing personal relationships is said to make it easier to understand the consequences of violence against women. This is also seen as an effective strategy in overtly patriarchal societies, in which calls to consider women as rights-bearing individuals, irrespective of their marital status, are considered too radical to attract support, even among women themselves. This implicit suggestion thus distorts the issue of women as autonomous individuals deserving respect and renders regard for the rights of women contingent on their status in the private sphere, which further reinforces the public-private dichotomy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- The killing of women accused of sorcery/witchcraft has been reported as a significant phenomenon in countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands. The pattern of violations includes violent murders, physical mutilation, displacement, kidnapping and disappearances of girls and women. In many countries where women are accused of sorcery/witchcraft, they are also subjected to exorcism ceremonies involving public beating and abuse by shamans or village elders.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Gender-related killings of women 2012, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- Female infanticide has been practiced throughout history, on all continents, and by persons from all backgrounds. It remains a critical concern in a number of countries today. It is closely linked to the phenomenon of sex-selective abortion, which targets female foetuses. Female infanticide has been known to take such forms as the induced death of infants by suffocation, drowning, neglect and exposure to danger or other means.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Infants
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Continuum of violence against women from the home to the transnational sphere: the challenges of effective redress 2011, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Closely tied to domestic violence, practices that are harmful and degrading undermine the rights and status of women and girls and continue without systematic monitoring or punishment, despite the increasing existence of legal prohibitions. In some countries, early and forced marriage, polygamy and unregistered marriages continue to be of concern. The mandate considers these practices "aggravated factors" that increase vulnerability of women to violence. In Kyrgyzstan, the Special Rapporteur found correlation between early marriages (12.2 per cent of women) and unregistered marriages, on the one hand, and rising unemployment and feminization of poverty and the resurfacing of patriarchal traditions and religious conservatism, on the other. Early marriage contributes to high maternal mortality rates due to prolonged labour and other complications. Similarly, women living in unregistered marriages in Algeria experienced heightened vulnerability to violence and abuse and were reported to have difficulties in ending abusive relationships due to lack of support, alternative housing and legal protection. Despite legal restrictions in regard to polygamy, the Special Rapporteur heard accounts from women who were subjected to violence or threats of violence by husbands who wished to obtain consent to a polygamous marriage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Violence against women as a barrier to the effective realization of all human rights 2014, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Violence against women is also manifested in ways that violate women's right to voluntary and equal marriage. Forced marriages, whether coerced through kidnapping or physical or sexual violence, is a means of forcing women into unwanted and unequal marriages. As the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and its consequences, has noted, physical and sexual violence against women is used to force women and girls into servile marriages, where women are treated as commodities purchased from their families, over which any or all the powers of ownership are exercised (A/HRC/24/43, para. 10).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2013, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- Another significant gap revealed by the survey is the dearth of data on laws, policies and advocacy on the gender dimensions of violence and the legal protection of girls: 40 per cent of the respondents provide no information on this question and less than 30 per cent mention positive initiatives. Legislation in the area remains a challenge, with less than half of Governments indicating the enactment of a legal ban on harmful practices, which may fully or only partially cover female genital mutilation/cutting, child or forced marriage, witchcraft rituals, honour killings and other practices.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2016, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- The First African Girls' Summit on Ending Child Marriage in Africa was held in Lusaka in November 2015. Hosted by the African Union and the Government of Zambia, the Summit gathered Heads of State and Government, ministers responsible for gender and children, United Nations entities, development partners, civil society organizations and religious and traditional leaders, as well as young people who have experienced child marriage. The participants took stock of the progress made to end child marriage across the continent, shared evidence and good practices and renewed their commitment to bringing an end to this and other harmful practices in Africa.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2016, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Developed by the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum, the Model Law has the potential to inform action to end child marriage. This is an area where incremental progress is being achieved, for example with recent legislative developments in the Gambia and the United Republic of Tanzania. In 2015, Malawi adopted the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act, which raised the minimum age of marriage to 18 years. The social mobilization around that process and the important partnership developed with traditional leaders helped to raise awareness of the new law and achieve important results, including a landmark initiative led by a female traditional chief that resulted in the initial annulment of 330 child marriages in a single district and since then has broken up 850 child marriages and banned the sexual initiation of girls.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2017, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- There has been progress on these issues in Malawi, including the adoption in 2015 of the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act, which increased the minimum age of marriage to 18 years; the Government's commitment, in November 2016, to align the Constitution with that legislation and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; and the crucial role played by traditional leaders in mobilizing their communities to prevent the early and forced marriage of girls and to ensure their return to school to pursue their education.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2013, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Around the world, countless numbers of girls and boys fall victim to harmful practices. Often violent in nature, these practices compromise the development and education of the child, have serious and long-lasting health and psychological consequences, and may result in disability or death. At the same time, positive experiences have led to the successful abandonment of these practices and a lasting commitment by concerned communities to prevent their occurrence and safeguard the protection of children's rights.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2012, para. 20a
- Paragraph text
- [The outcomes of the expert consultation are set out in a thematic report, to be launched during the commemoration of the 2012 International Day of the Girl Child, and include the following overarching recommendations:] Legislation plays a crucial role in the social process of abandonment of harmful practices against girls and boys, and is a core dimension of States' accountability for the protection of children from violence; this includes the obligation to ensure harmonization of all legislation, including customary and religious laws, with international human rights standards, and to ensure the establishment of a legal definition of the child in compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2017, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- In October 2016, in Malawi, the Special Representative promoted the further implementation of the policy agenda launched during her previous visit undertaken in response to the findings of the 2015 violence against children survey. During the follow-up visit, she paid special attention to the prevention and abandonment of harmful practices, helping to focus national attention on the prevalence of child marriage, abuse associated with sexual initiation ceremonies, attacks against children with albinism and other practices compromising the rights of children, particularly girls.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2013, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The study on harmful practices was released to mark the first anniversary of the International Day of the Girl Child, observed on 11 October 2012. Jointly developed with Plan International, in cooperation with the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the African Union, it served as a reference with a sound perspective during the 2013 celebration of the Day of the African Child, devoted to the theme: "Eliminating harmful social and cultural practices affecting children: our collective responsibility". The study will frame additional regional initiatives to support the abandonment of harmful practices, including the consultation organized with the South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children (SAIEVAC) (an apex body of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)) in September 2013 in Bhutan.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2012, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Throughout the world, countless numbers of girls and boys fall victims to harmful practices, including female genital mutilation or cutting, early and forced marriage, degrading initiation rites, breast ironing, son preference, stoning, honour killings, forced feeding, witchcraft rituals and many other less-known forms of harmful practice. Often violent in nature, these practices compromise the development and education of the child, have serious and long-lasting health and psychological consequences, and may result in disability or death.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2013, para. 26a
- Paragraph text
- [The consultation highlighted the following issues:] The critical role of legislation, which constitutes a core dimension of States' accountability for the protection of children from violence and makes a decisive contribution to the abandonment of harmful practices against girls and boys by communities concerned;
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2015, para. 120
- Paragraph text
- In 1995, data from many countries showed that girls experienced discrimination from the earliest stages of life, through their childhood and into adulthood. Owing to violence, sexual abuse and exploitation, harmful attitudes and practices, such as female genital mutilation, son preference and child marriage, many girls do not survive into adulthood. They are neglected and their self-esteem undermined, with the risk of initiating a lifelong downward spiral of deprivation and exclusion.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2015, para. 123
- Paragraph text
- In some communities, certain incidents of violence reflect harmful beliefs towards particularly marginalized girls, including those with disabilities or albinism, who may be accused of witchcraft. As a result, those girls endure stigmatization and are the victims of serious acts of violence, neglect, abandonment, mutilation and murder.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2012, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- Less than 30 per cent of respondents indicate 18 as the minimum age for marriage, with younger ages and different thresholds for boys and girls prevalent in a large number of countries. This is an area to which the Special Representative has paid special attention, including through the consultation on children's protection from harmful practices (see paras. 17-20 above).
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2012, para. 20b
- Paragraph text
- [The outcomes of the expert consultation are set out in a thematic report, to be launched during the commemoration of the 2012 International Day of the Girl Child, and include the following overarching recommendations:] National legislation should include a clear and comprehensive prohibition of all harmful practices, secure the protection of children from all forms of violence and remove any justification of such practices that may compromise the safeguard of the best interests of the child, including their promotion in the name of honour or tradition; in this regard, the intent to cause harm is not a prerequisite for the definition of violence.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2012, para. 20c
- Paragraph text
- [The outcomes of the expert consultation are set out in a thematic report, to be launched during the commemoration of the 2012 International Day of the Girl Child, and include the following overarching recommendations:] Law reform is a long-term and ongoing process, necessary to recognize and safeguard children's rights, to fill protection gaps and address emerging practices and manifestations of violence; it needs to be supported by prevention and implementation efforts, including birth registration, awareness-raising, education and training, and mobilization of communities, including religious and local leaders and children, to promote dialogue and positive cultural values, enhance understanding about the detrimental impact of certain practices and support commitment by those concerned to the lasting abandonment of harmful attitudes and behaviour.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
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SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2012, para. 20d
- Paragraph text
- [The outcomes of the expert consultation are set out in a thematic report, to be launched during the commemoration of the 2012 International Day of the Girl Child, and include the following overarching recommendations:] Sound data collection and analysis, and cross-country and cross-regional sharing of good practices in legislation and implementation are needed to gain a deeper understanding of, and help to address, the complex dimensions associated with social conventions, beliefs and practices, as well as to inform legislative, administrative, educational, social and other measures to promote the sustained abandonment of harmful practices against children.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
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SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2015, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Cooperation with African nations and institutions has been further pursued, including through the support of the Special Representative for the African Union campaign to combat child marriage. Marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Special Representative joined the African Union, the African Child Policy Forum and UNICEF in the development of the African Report on Violence against Children. The report reviews regional progress on the study on violence against children and recommends an agenda for action to address persisting challenges. It draws on the research initiatives and household surveys undertaken in the region and it will make a significant contribution in to the Conference on the Status of Children's Rights in Africa, and the African Girls' Summit on Ending Child Marriage, both to be held in late 2015.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2015
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SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2015, para. 122
- Paragraph text
- Girls are often exposed to violence and discrimination owing to their gender, young age and powerlessness. They endure the detrimental impact of physical, mental and sexual violence in the home, at school, in the community, in institutional care and in justice institutions. Child trafficking is a crime that is on the rise and the majority of victims are girls. Despite the criminalization of female genital mutilation/cutting in many parts of the world, every year 3 million girls are at risk of enduring that practice and around 14 million girls are forcibly married, often with much older men, and exposed to high risks of sexual abuse and other forms of violence.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2015
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SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2016, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- The First African Girls' Summit on Ending Child Marriage was held in Lusaka in November 2015. Hosted by the African Union and the Government of Zambia, the summit gathered Heads of State and Government, ministers responsible for gender and children, United Nations agencies, development partners, civil society organizations and religious and traditional leaders as well as young people who have experienced child marriage. The participants took stock of the progress made to end child marriage across the continent, shared evidence and good practices and renewed their commitment to end child marriage and other harmful practices in Africa.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
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SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2012, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- Another significant gap revealed by the survey is the dearth of data on laws, policies and advocacy on the gender dimensions of violence and the legal protection of girls: 40 per cent of the respondents provide no information in that regard, and less than 30 per cent mention positive initiatives. Legislation remains a challenge, with less than half of the Governments indicating the enactment of a legal ban on harmful practices, which may fully or only partially cover female genital mutilation/cutting, child or forced marriage, witchcraft rituals, honour killings and other practices.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
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SRSG on violence against children: Annual report 2013, para. 88
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- Gender influences perceptions and attitudes towards violence, as well as the manner in which violence is perpetrated and experienced. Gender-based violence against girls includes differential access to food and services, domestic or intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, deprivation of inheritance or property and harmful practices, such as child marriage, female genital mutilation/cutting and honour killing. Gender-based violence also includes specific types of violence against men and boys, including bullying, fighting, and assault and gun crime.
- Body
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children
- Document type
- SRSG report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2013
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