Plan International - Girls' Rights Platform - Girls' rights are human rights: Positioning girls at the heart of the international agenda

Requests the Secretary-General to provide to Member States training guidelines and materials on the protection, rights and the particular needs of women, as well as on the importance of involving women in all peacekeeping and peace-building measures, invites Member States to incorporate these elements as well as HIV/AIDS awareness training into their national training programmes for military and civilian police personnel in preparation for deployment, and further requests the Secretary-General to ensure that civilian personnel of peacekeeping operations receive similar training;

[Calls upon Governments of countries of origin, transit and destination and regional and international organizations, as appropriate, to implement the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women by:] Allocating resources to provide comprehensive programmes designed to heal and rehabilitate into society victims of trafficking, including through job training, legal assistance and confidential health care and by taking measures to cooperate with non-governmental organizations to provide for the social, medical and psychological care of the victims of trafficking;

[Also welcomes actions undertaken by Governments to implement the provisions on trafficking in women and girls contained in the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, and calls upon Governments, particularly those of countries of origin, transit and destination, as well as regional and international organizations, as appropriate, to undertake immediate action or to strengthen efforts in their implementation by:] Allocating resources to provide comprehensive programmes designed to heal and rehabilitate into society victims of trafficking, including through job training, legal assistance and confidential health care, and by taking measures to cooperate with non-governmental organizations to provide for the social, medical and psychological care of the victims of trafficking;

Emphasizes the need for technical and financial assistance to those developing countries working to achieve the elimination of traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls from United Nations funds and programmes, international and regional financial institutions and bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as the need for assistance to non-governmental organizations and community-based groups active in this field from the international community;

[Calls upon all States:] To ratify or accede to, if they have not yet done so, the relevant human rights treaties, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to consider signing and ratifying or acceding to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and to respect and implement fully their obligations under any such treaties to which they are parties;

Expresses its concern at the overall expansion and feminization of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the fact that women and girls bear a disproportionate share of the burden imposed by HIV/AIDS, that they are more easily infected, that they play a key role in care and that they have become more vulnerable to violence, stigmatization and discrimination, poverty and marginalization from their families and communities as a result of HIV/AIDS, and calls upon Governments and the international community to intensify efforts towards achieving the goal of universal access to comprehensive HIV prevention programmes, treatment, care and support by 2010 and of having halted and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015;

[Urges States to take action to eliminate all forms of violence against women by means of a more systematic, comprehensive, multisectoral and sustained approach, adequately supported and facilitated by strong institutional mechanisms and financing, through national action plans, including those supported by international cooperation and, where appropriate, national development plans, including poverty eradication strategies and programme-based and sector-wide approaches, and to this end:] To strengthen national health and social infrastructure to reinforce measures to promote women's equal access to public health and address the health consequences of violence against women, including by providing support to victims;

[Urges States to take action to eliminate all forms of violence against women by means of a more systematic, comprehensive, multisectoral and sustained approach, adequately supported and facilitated by strong institutional mechanisms and financing, through national action plans, including those supported by international cooperation and, where appropriate, national development plans, including poverty eradication strategies and programme-based and sector-wide approaches, and to this end:] To recognize that gender inequalities and all forms of violence against women and girls increase their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and ensure that women can exercise their right to have control over, and decide freely and responsibly on, matters related to their sexuality in order to increase their ability to protect themselves from HIV infection, including their sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence;

[Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector:] To provide essential health services, equipment and supplies and skills training and income-generating projects to young women and girls so that they can break out of a cycle of poverty;

[Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector:] To strengthen the capacity of health systems to provide the essential services needed to prevent obstetric fistula and to treat those cases that do occur by providing the continuum of services, including family planning, prenatal care, skilled birth attendance, emergency obstetric care and post-partum care, to young women and girls, including those living in poverty and in underserved rural areas where obstetric fistula is most common;

Calls upon States to take all necessary measures to ensure the right of women and girls to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, including sexual and reproductive health, and develop sustainable health systems and social services, with a view to ensuring access to such systems and services without discrimination, while paying special attention to adequate food and nutrition, water and sanitation, family planning information, increasing knowledge and awareness and securing appropriate prenatal and post-natal care for the prevention of obstetric fistula;

[Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector:] To provide essential health services, equipment and supplies and skills training and income-generating projects to women and girls so that they can break out of a cycle of poverty;

[Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector:] To provide health education, rehabilitation and socio-economic reintegration counselling, including medical counselling, as key components of post-operative care to all women after fistula treatment, including to those with irreparable cases;

[Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector:] To bring obstetric fistula to the attention of policymakers and communities, thereby reducing the stigma and discrimination associated with it and helping women and girls suffering from obstetric fistula so that they can overcome abandonment and social exclusion together with the psychosocial implications thereof, inter alia, through the support of social reintegration projects;

[Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector:] To educate individual women and men, girls and boys, communities, policymakers and health professionals about how obstetric fistula can be prevented and treated, and increase awareness of the needs of pregnant women and girls, as well as of those who have undergone surgical fistula repair, including their right to the highest attainable standard of health, by working with community and religious leaders, traditional birth attendants, women and girls who have suffered from fistula, the media, radio stations, influential public figures and policymakers, support the training of doctors, midwives, nurses and other health workers in lifesaving obstetric care, and include training on fistula repair, treatment and care as a standard element of the training curricula of health professionals;

Calls upon Governments to enable persons with disabilities to participate as agents and beneficiaries of development, in particular in all efforts aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals, by ensuring that programmes and policies, namely on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development, are inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities;

Calls upon States to accelerate progress in order to achieve Millennium Development Goal 5 and its two targets by addressing reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health in a comprehensive manner, inter alia, through the provision of family planning, prenatal care, skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric and newborn care, postnatal care, and methods of prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and infections, such as HIV, within strengthened health systems that provide equal access to affordable, equitable and high-quality integrated health-care services and include community-based preventive and clinical care, as also reflected in the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, entitled “Keeping the promise: united to achieve the Millennium Development Goals”, and the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, in particular the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), the World Health Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 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 mutilations in their country programmes, as appropriate and in accordance with national priorities, in order to further strengthen their efforts in this regard;

[Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector:] To provide essential health-care services, equipment and supplies and skills training and income-generating projects to women and girls so that they can break out of the cycle of poverty;

Encourages all States to take action to address gender inequality and discrimination against women, in particular where they contribute to the malnutrition of women and girls, including measures to ensure the full and equal realization of the right to food and ensuring that women have equal access to resources, including income, land and water and their ownership and agricultural inputs, as well as full and equal access to health care, education, science and technology, to enable them to feed themselves and their families, and in this regard stresses the need to empower women and strengthen their role in decision-making;

[Urges Member States, in collaboration with the organizations of the United Nations system, and civil society, as appropriate, to continue their efforts to implement the outcome of and to ensure an integrated and coordinated follow-up to the relevant United Nations conferences and summits, including their reviews, and to attach greater importance to the improvement of the situation of rural women, including indigenous women, in their national, regional and global development strategies by, inter alia:] Investing in and strengthening efforts to meet the basic needs of rural women, including needs relating to their food and nutrition security and that of their families, and to promote adequate standards of living for them as well as decent conditions for work and access to local, regional and global markets through improved availability, access to and use of critical rural infrastructure, such as energy and transport, science and technology, local services, capacity-building and human resources development measures and the provision of a safe and reliable water supply and sanitation, nutritional programmes, affordable housing programmes, education and literacy programmes and health and social support measures, including in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, reproductive rights, in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and their review outcomes, HIV prevention, treatment, care, including psychosocial aspects, and support services;

[Urges Member States, in collaboration with the organizations of the United Nations system, and civil society, as appropriate, to continue their efforts to implement the outcome of and to ensure an integrated and coordinated follow-up to the relevant United Nations conferences and summits, including their reviews, and to attach greater importance to the improvement of the situation of rural women, including indigenous women, in their national, regional and global development strategies by, inter alia:] Promoting the rights of women and girls with disabilities in rural areas, including by ensuring access on an equal basis to productive employment and decent work, economic and financial resources and disability-sensitive infrastructure and services, in particular in relation to health and education, as well as by ensuring that their priorities and needs are fully incorporated into policies and programmes, inter alia, through their participation in decision-making processes;

Urges multilateral donors, and invites international financial institutions, within their respective mandates, and regional development banks to review and implement policies to support national efforts to ensure that a higher proportion of resources reaches young women and girls, in particular in rural and remote areas;

Urges Governments to promote and protect the human rights of all women, including their right 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, and to adopt and accelerate the implementation of laws, policies and programmes that protect and enable the enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including reproductive rights, in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences;

Also urges States to complement punitive measures with awareness-raising and educational activities designed to promote a process of consensus towards the elimination of female genital mutilations, and further urges States to protect and support women and girls who have been subjected to female genital mutilations and those at risk, including by developing social and psychological support services and care, and to explore other remedies, as appropriate, and take measures to improve their health, including sexual and reproductive health, in order to assist women and girls who are subjected to the practice;

[Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and the specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector:] To ensure that all women and girls who have undergone fistula treatment, including the forgotten women and girls with incurable or inoperable fistula, are provided with and have access to comprehensive health-care services, holistic social integration services and careful follow-up, including counselling, education, family planning and socioeconomic empowerment, for as long as needed, through, inter alia, skills development and income-generating activities, so that they can overcome abandonment and social exclusion, and to develop linkages with civil society organizations and women's and girls' empowerment programmes so as to help to achieve this goal;

[Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and the specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector:] To educate individual women and men, girls and boys, communities, policymakers and health professionals about how obstetric fistula can be prevented and treated, and increase awareness of the needs of pregnant women and girls, as well as of those who have undergone surgical fistula repair, including their right to the highest attainable standard of health, including sexual and reproductive health, by working with community and religious leaders, traditional birth attendants, women and girls who have suffered from fistula, the media, social workers, civil society, women's organizations, influential public figures and policymakers;

[Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and the specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector:] To make greater investments in strengthening health systems, ensuring adequately trained and skilled human resources, especially midwives, obstetricians, gynaecologists and doctors, and providing support for the development and maintenance of infrastructure, as well as investments in referral mechanisms, equipment and supply chains, to improve maternal and newborn health-care services and ensure that women and girls have access to the full continuum of care, with functional quality control and monitoring mechanisms in place for all areas of service delivery;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, in particular the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), the World Health Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 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 mutilations in their country programmes, as appropriate and in accordance with national priorities, in order to further strengthen their efforts in this regard;

Also calls upon Governments to recognize the right of women migrant workers and their accompanying children, regardless of their immigration status, to have access without discrimination to emergency health care, including in times of humanitarian crises, natural disasters and other emergency situations, and in this regard to ensure that women migrant workers are not discriminated against on the grounds of pregnancy and childbirth and, in accordance with national legislation, to address the vulnerabilities to HIV experienced by migrant populations and support their access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support;