A/HRC/53/39 article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 30 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child is also central for women and girls, who are often severely affected by time poverty. States have obligations to immediately take steps to eliminate discrimination and ensure that everyone enjoys the “minimum core” of all human rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and to observe the principle of progressive realization, which entails the implementation of reliable systems to measure advancement towards the achievement of the full realization of these rights for all people. 35. There are specific and mutually reinforcing mechanisms through which poverty and inequality affect the rights of women and girls to fully enjoy an adequate standard of living and other interrelated economic, social and cultural rights. For example, the gender gap in food and nutrition insecurity has continued to grow in recent years, with 31.9 per cent of women and girls in the world being moderately or severely food insecure, compared with 27.6 per cent of men. 59 Gender inequality in access to food and nutrition is linked to discrimination in the allocation of rights to productive land, with women making up fewer than 15 per cent of agricultural land owners globally.60 Gender discrimination is also manifest in laws, policies, social norms and stereotypes that restrict women’s rights to seeds and other natural resources, agricultural inputs and labour and that privilege men’s nutritional needs over those of women and girls.61 36. In relation to the right to adequate housing, women and girls experiencing homelessness are more likely to be victims of sexual and other forms of violence, while domestic violence is one of the leading factors that pushes women and girls into homelessness.62 There is a lack of global data on women’s homelessness, but in some regions there has been a sharp increase in the number of homeless women between the ages of 18 and 29 and those aged over 64.63 Inadequate housing is also a gendered phenomenon, with women-headed households being more likely to live in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions and unable to afford water, electricity and gas, and often public transportation. This situation is particularly acute for migrant women.64 37. Menstrual poverty, which constitutes a violation of the rights to water and sanitation, remains a significant concern for large numbers of women and girls around the world, and the situation is particularly serious for those women and girls who are homeless. In submissions and consultations, it was noted that in certain countries, most women and girls are not able to afford sanitary pads and other period products – some engaging in “survival sex” to obtain them – and this menstrual poverty is heightened by policies that apply consumer and value-added taxes to period products.65 38. Many of the core elements of the right to health, recognized in article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including sexual and reproductive health and the right to a healthy environment, are also routinely violated for women and girls living in poverty. Global data on maternal mortality rates show dramatic regional and inter-country inequalities, with poor women and girls from low-income countries being 70 per cent more likely than women in high-income countries to die as a result of preventable complications arising from pregnancy, childbirth and unsafe abortion. 66 Women and girls living in poverty – in particular those with disabilities and those who are migrants or from ethnic minorities – are less likely to access routine cancer-screening services for breast and cervical cancer and they frequently cannot afford essential 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 GE.23-06173 FAO and others, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World: Repurposing Food and Agricultural Policies to Make Healthy Diets More Affordable (Rome, 2022). FAO, “The gender gap in land rights” (2018). Global Network for the Right to Food and Nutrition, Right to Food and Nutrition Watch: Women’s Power in Food Struggles (2019); and Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples Mechanism, “Voices from the ground 2”. A/HRC/43/43. Submission from the Legal Clinic of University of Murcia, with Cepaim. Ibid. Submission from the Open Space Association Deep Poverty Network Turkey. WHO, Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000 to 2020: Estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and UNDESA/Population Division. 11