A/RES/63/158
3.
Also stresses that States have the obligation to promote and protect all
human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls, that they must exercise
due diligence in order to prevent, investigate and punish the perpetrators of violence
against women and girls and to provide protection to the victims, and that failure to
do so violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of their human rights and
fundamental freedoms;
Calls upon States to take all necessary measures to ensure the right of
4.
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;
Also calls upon States to ensure that women and girls have equal access
5.
to free and compulsory primary education of good quality and that they complete
their education at that level, and to renew their efforts to improve and expand girls’
and women’s education at all levels, including at the secondary and higher levels, as
well as vocational education and technical training, in order to, inter alia, achieve
gender equality, the empowerment of women and poverty eradication;
Urges States to enact and strictly enforce laws to ensure that marriage is
6.
entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses and, in
addition, to enact and strictly enforce laws concerning the minimum legal age of
consent and the minimum age for marriage, and to raise the minimum age for
marriage where necessary;
Calls upon the international community to support the activities of the
7.
United Nations Population Fund and other partners in the global Campaign to End
Fistula, including the World Health Organization, in establishing and financing
regional fistula treatment and training centres by identifying and supporting health
facilities that have the potential to serve as centres for treatment, training and
convalescent care;
Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and
8.
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:
(a) To redouble their efforts to meet the internationally agreed goal of
improving maternal health by making maternal health services and obstetric fistula
treatment geographically and financially accessible, including by increasing access
to skilled attendance at birth and emergency obstetric care, and appropriate prenatal
and post-natal care;
(b) To develop, implement and support national and international prevention,
care and treatment and reintegration and support strategies, as appropriate, to
address effectively the condition of obstetric fistula and to develop further a
multisectoral, multidisciplinary, comprehensive and integrated approach in order to
bring about lasting solutions and put an end to obstetric fistula, maternal mortality
and related morbidities, including through ensuring access to affordable,
comprehensive, quality maternal health-care services, including skilled birth
attendance and emergency obstetric care;
3