Child, early and forced marriage
A/RES/79/158
12. Urges Governments, while addressing child, early and forced marriage, to
confront family poverty and social exclusion through investing in family -friendly and
family-oriented policies addressing the multidimensional aspects of poverty and
aimed at achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls,
including by extending coverage of social protection, inter alia, through nationally
appropriate social protection systems and measures for all girls, focusing on early
childhood, primary and secondary education and training for future employment, and
on health, social security, livelihoods and social cohesion, paying special attention to
age- and gender-responsive social protection measures, child allowances for parents
and guidance to build their positive parenting knowledge and skills, pension benefits
for older persons, and protecting, supporting and empowering children, including
girls, in child-headed households;
13. Also urges Governments, with the collaboration of relevant stakeholders,
to tackle poverty, including the feminization of poverty, the lack of economic
opportunities for women throughout their life course and other entrenched economic
incentives that act as drivers of child, early and forced marriage, including by
ensuring the rights of all women and girls to inheritance and property, without
discrimination of any kind, including in relation to marital status, their equal access
with men and boys to social protection, childcare services and direct financial
services, to support the right of girls to receive and continue their education, including
through their continued enrolment in school during pregnancy and re -enrolment in
school after childbirth, to develop livelihood opportunities through access to inclusive
and equitable quality education, including technical and vocational education, and
training and life skills education, including entrepreneurship and financial and digital
literacy, and to promote freedom of movement, women’s equal access to full and
productive employment and decent work, including waged and salaried work, as well
as equal political participation and rights to inherit and own land;
14. Urges Member States to ensure access to social services, justice and
education for women who were married in childhood and for girls who are married,
are pregnant or are mothers;
15. Calls upon States to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights
of all already married girls and women affected by this harmful practice, to eliminate
discrimination and promote women’s and girls’ equality in law and in practice,
including in all aspects of marriage and its dissolution, and to address their specific
needs, such as through targeted and tailored programmes, including social work
programmes, that provide social services to protect them from sexual and genderbased violence, increase their decision-making power, make it easier for them to seek
formal employment, increase their economic independence and financial literacy,
access quality education, skills development programmes and lifelong learning
opportunities, ensure their equal access to healthcare services and information, and
decrease their social isolation, including by establishing or strengthening childcare
services and working with communities to change discriminatory social norms;
16. Also calls upon States to promote and protect the right of women and girls
to equal access to education through enhanced emphasis on free and quality primary
and secondary education, including catch-up and literacy education for those who
have not received formal education, have left school early or were forced to leave
school, including because of marriage, pregnancy, childbirth and/or childcare
responsibilities, which empowers young women and girls to make informed decisions
about their lives, employment, economic opportunities and health, including through
scientifically accurate and age-appropriate comprehensive education that is relevant
to cultural contexts, that provides adolescent girls and boys and young women and
men, in and out of school, consistent with their evolving capacities, and with
appropriate direction and guidance from parents and legal guardians, with the best
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