A/RES/64/145 noting that the burden of the global financial and economic crisis, the energy crisis, the food crisis and the continuing food insecurity as a result of various factors is felt directly by households, especially those depending on income from the informal sector, and particularly by women and girls, Recognizing also that girl children are often at greater risk of being exposed to and encountering various forms of discrimination and violence, which continue to hinder efforts towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and reaffirming the need to achieve gender equality to ensure a just and equitable world for girls, including through partnering with men and boys, as an important strategy for advancing the rights of the girl child, Recognizing further that progress has been made in the passage of national legislation that affirms the equality of girls and boys and that corresponding measures have not been taken to effectively implement such legislation, and recognizing the continuing existence of discrimination against women and girls throughout the world and that addressing this situation will require additional efforts to strengthen policy implementation, including through international cooperation, Recognizing that the empowerment of girls is key in breaking the cycle of discrimination and violence and in promoting and protecting the full and effective enjoyment of their human rights, and further recognizing that empowering girls requires the active support and engagement of their parents, legal guardians, families, boys and men, as well as the wider community, Deeply concerned about all forms of violence against children, in particular about phenomena that disproportionately affect girls, such as commercial sexual exploitation and child pornography, child and forced marriage, rape and domestic violence, and, in addition, about the corresponding lack of accountability and impunity, which reflect discriminatory norms reinforcing the lower status of girls in society, Deeply concerned also 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, and to quality 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 leaving them more vulnerable than boys to the consequences of unprotected and premature sexual relations and often being subjected to various forms of cultural, social, sexual and economic exploitation and violence, abuse, rape, incest, honour-related crimes and harmful traditional practices, such as female infanticide, child and forced marriages, prenatal sex selection and female genital mutilation, Deeply concerned further that female genital mutilation violates and impairs the full enjoyment of the human rights of women and girls and that it is an irreparable and irreversible harmful practice that affects between 100 million and 140 million women and girls alive today, and that each year over 3 million girls are at risk of undergoing the harmful procedure, Deeply concerned that the goal of ending female genital mutilation by 2010, set out in the document entitled “A world fit for children”, will go unmet, Deeply concerned also that, in situations of poverty, war and armed conflict, girl children are among those most affected and furthermore become the victims of sexual violence, abuse and exploitation and sexually transmitted infections and diseases, including HIV and AIDS, which have a serious impact on the quality of their lives and leave them open to further discrimination, violence and neglect, thus limiting their potential for full development, 3