Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol thereto: situation of women and girls with disabilities A/RES/72/162 4. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the situation of women and girls with disabilities and the status of the Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto 11 and the report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the rights of persons with disabilities; 12 5. Emphasizes the importance of mainstreaming disability issues as an integral part of relevant sustainable development strategies, and encourages States to apply a human rights-based approach and to intensify their efforts to advance the rights of persons with disabilities in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 10 consistent with their international obligations; 6. Urges States to take steps to eliminate multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities through repealing discriminatory laws, policies and practices and to take all effective measures to ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all rights stipulated in the Convention; 7. Calls upon States to adopt effective measures to provide women and girls with disabilities access to the support they may require to exercise their legal capacity to have the freedom to make their own choices on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life; 8. Also calls upon States to strengthen efforts to empower women and girls with disabilities and enhance their participation and promote leadership in society through taking measures to address all barriers that prevent or restrict the full and equal participation of women and girls with disabilities, including in the government and public sector, the private sector, civil society and all branches and bodies of the national monitoring system of the Convention, and working to ensure that women and girls with disabilities are closely consulted and actively involved, through their representative organizations, in the design, implementation and monitoring of all legislation, policies and programmes which have an impact on their lives; 9. Encourages States to review and repeal any law or policy that restricts persons with disabilities, including women with disabilities, from their effective and full participation in political and public life on a n equal basis with others, including forming and joining organizations and networks of women in general and of women with disabilities; 10. Also encourages States to provide support to existing organizations and promote the creation of organizations, including civil society organizations, and networks of women and girls with disabilities, and to promote and support women with disabilities in taking leadership roles in public decision-making bodies at all levels, recognizing the importance for States of hav ing an open, inclusive and transparent engagement with civil society in the implementation of measures on women and girls with disabilities; 11. Calls upon States to strengthen and intensify efforts to take deliberate, concrete and targeted steps to fully realize the equal enjoyment of the right to education, including ensuring access to an inclusive education system at all levels for all women and girls with disabilities, eliminating legal, administrative, financial, structural, social and cultural barriers that hinder their equal enjoyment of the right to education on an equal basis with others, and to facilitate their full and equal participation in education by taking appropriate steps through the provision of information in accessible and alternative communication formats, reasonable accommodation and other support as required; __________________ 11 12 4/7 A/72/227. A/72/133. 17-22971