E/CN.6/2024/L.3 23. The Commission recognizes that poverty, unemployment, lack of socioeconomic opportunities and pervasive gender inequality are among the underlying causes that make women and girls vulnerable to trafficking. It expresses serious concern over the significant and enduring trafficking of women and girls, recognizes that trafficking in persons disproportionately affects them, and stresses the need for Member States to enact or update national laws and establish comprehensive policies, programmes and other measures that prevent trafficking and provide for the protection of trafficked women and children, including girls, from revictimization and appropriate assistance and protection in the best interests of the child. It further stresses the importance of coordinating national measures and international cooperation to enhance the positive effects of all anti-trafficking efforts. 24. The Commission also recognizes that the empowerment of and investment in girls are critical, including for the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, and that the strengthening of their voice, agency and leadership are among key factors in breaking the cycle of gender inequality, in eliminating all forms of discrimination, violence and poverty and in promoting and protecting the full and effective enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Commission further recognizes that empowering girls requires their active participation in decision-making processes and as agents of change in their own lives and communities. 25. The Commission stresses the urgency of eliminating persistent historical and structural inequalities, including economic inequality, racism, racial discriminatio n, xenophobia and related intolerance, and recognizes the overall rise in instances of discrimination, intolerance and violence, regardless of the actors, directed against members of many religious and other communities in various parts of the world, including cases motivated by Islamophobia, antisemitism, Christianophobia and prejudices against persons of other religions or beliefs, discrimination based on stigmatization, gender stereotypes, discriminatory laws, policies and negative social norms, unequal power relations, the unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work between women and men and within the household and all forms of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence. It further acknowledges that such deprivations are among the root causes of the feminization of poverty. 26. The Commission recognizes that, despite gains in providing access to quality education, girls are still more likely than boys to remain excluded from education. It also recognizes that among the barriers to girls’ equal enjoyment of their right to education there are specific barriers that girls face, such as the feminization of poverty, child labour undertaken by girls, child, early and forced marriage, female genital mutilation, early and repeat pregnancies, all forms of violence, including gender-based violence, sexual violence, abuse and harassment on the way to and from and at school, in their technology-mediated environment, the lack of safe and adequate sanitation facilities, including for affordable menstrual hygiene management, the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work performed by girls and gender stereotypes and negative social norms that lead families and communities to place less value on the education of girls than that of boys and may influence the decision of parents to allow girls to attend school. 27. The Commission reaffirms that the commitment to continue to increase investments in inclusive, affordable and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities, including early childhood education, youth and adult literacy programmes and initiatives, digital education, cultural education, education for sustainable development, digital technologies for education, skills enhancement, affordable higher education and vocational training, is essential to help women and girls to overcome poverty and vulnerability. In this regard, it emphasizes the importance of addressing the shortage of qualified teachers and inadequate curricula, 6/27 24-05678