Commission on the Status of Women
Report on the forty-second session
(2-13 March 1998)

E/CN.6/1998/12 - E/1998/27

The Economic and Security Council

Endorses the following conclusions adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women with respect to the four critical areas of concern addressed by the Commission at its forty-second session:


III. HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN

The Commission on the Status of Women

Reaffirms the Beijing Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, 31/ in particular chapter IV.I on the human rights of women, and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, 32/

Recommends that the Commission on Human Rights give particular attention to the economic and social rights of women in any discussions it may have at its fifty-fourth session on the question of the appointment and mandate of a special rapporteur on economic, social and cultural rights, or a specific aspect thereof; and invites the Secretary-General to report to the Commission on the Status of Women in 1999 on decisions taken by the Commission on Human Rights on this issue, and further recommends that the rapporteur on economic, social and cultural rights, if appointed, should make his or her reports available to the Commission on the Status of Women,

Proposes, in order to accelerate the implementation of the strategic objectives of chapter IV.I of the Platform for Action:


A. Creation and development of an environment conducive to women's enjoyment of their human rights and awareness-raising

Actions to be taken by Governments, non-governmental organizations, employers, trade unions, the private sector and other actors in civil society, as appropriate:

- Ensure universal awareness by all persons, women and men, girls and boys of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and children, including the girl child, through comprehensive human rights education in accordance with the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, and create and promote a culture of human rights, development and peace;

- Encourage and support broad-based national and community-based dialogues that include women and men, and girls and boys, from diverse backgrounds, on the meaning of human rights, on the obligations thereby created and on gender-specific discrimination and violations;

- Ensure that work, including, inter alia, work by treaty bodies within their mandates to develop an understanding of the gender dimensions of human rights, is compiled and widely disseminated, and that this gender-sensitive interpretation of human rights is fully integrated into all policies and programmes of international and regional organizations;

- Make widely available reports of United Nations mechanisms that deal with the human rights of women, such as on discrimination and violence against women, to the public, including the judiciary, parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations;

- Support, encourage and disseminate research, and collect gender- and age-disaggregated statistics on factors and multiple barriers that affect the full enjoyment by women of their economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights, including their right to development, and on violations that are particular to women, and disseminate the findings and utilize the collected data in assessing the implementation of the human rights of women;

- Develop and implement national legislation and policies prohibiting customary and traditional practices that are harmful to women and that are violations of women's human rights;

- Eradicate customary or traditional practices, particularly female genital mutilation, that are harmful to, or discriminatory against, women and that are violations of women's human rights and fundamental freedoms, through the design and implementation of awareness-raising programmes, education and training;

- Ensure that their personnel periodically receive gender training and are educated and made aware of all women's, men's and children's human rights;

- Mobilize the resources necessary and create the conditions for the full exercise of women's economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights;

- Establish and strengthen partnerships and cooperation with each other and with the United Nations system and regional organizations in order to promote more actively the full enjoyment by women of their human rights;

- Ensure that indigenous and other marginalized women's special conditions are taken fully into consideration within the framework of the human rights of women;

- Mainstream a gender perspective, as appropriate, into national immigration and asylum policies, regulations and practices in order to extend protection to those women whose claim for protection is based on gender-related persecution.


B. Legal and regulatory framework

Actions to be taken by Governments:

- Guarantee the existence of a national legal and regulatory framework, including independent national institutions, or other appropriate mechanisms, that ensure the full realization of all human rights of women and girls on the basis of equality and non- discrimination, including their right to be free from violence, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, other instruments related to human rights and international law;

- Take steps, including a gender-sensitive review of national legislation, to revoke any laws or legal procedures and eradicate practices - national or customary - that promote discrimination on the basis of sex;

- Ensure that women and children have full and equal access to effective legal remedies for violations, including domestic mechanisms, which are monitored and revised to ensure that they function without discrimination, and international mechanisms that address human rights as provided, inter alia, under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; 33/

- Promote changes that ensure that women enjoy equal opportunities in law and in practice to claim their rights through the national legal systems, including through educating them on these rights as well as ensuring availability of measures such as free or affordable legal aid, legal representation and court appeals procedures, and support existing programmes of non-governmental organizations and other agencies.


C. Policies, mechanisms and machineries

Actions to be taken by Governments:

- Ratify and accede to and ensure implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 34/ so that universal ratification of the Convention can be achieved by the year 2000;

- Limit the extent of any reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: formulate any such reservations as precisely and as narrowly as possible; ensure that no reservations are incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention or otherwise incompatible with international treaty law and regularly review those reservations with a view to withdrawing them; and withdraw reservations that are contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention or that are otherwise incompatible with international treaty law;

- Create channels of communication to promote information exchange between national institutions that address the human rights of women, and non-governmental organizations and relevant policy-making bodies of Government;

- Create gender mainstreaming mechanisms within all policy-making bodies so that women's ability to enjoy their rights is strengthened by all policies and programmes, including through gender-sensitive budgeting;

- Support efforts to create an international criminal court that integrates a gender perspective in its statute and functioning, enabling a gender-sensitive interpretation and application of the statute;

- Mainstream a gender perspective into all economic and social policies in order to promote the human rights of women and girls, including their right to development;

- Adopt measures to ensure by appropriate means that women enjoy equal opportunities to participate in decision-making processes, including parliamentary and other elected assemblies.

Actions to be taken by States parties to human rights instruments:

- Promote gender balance in the nomination and election of independent experts to treaty bodies having expertise and sensitivity in regard to gender issues in the field of human rights, giving due consideration to equitable geographical distribution and different legal systems;

- Take note of the report of the United Nations Secretariat to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 35/ and encourage similar studies by other treaty bodies, as well as by the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly, especially with respect to their effect on women's and girls' enjoyment of their human rights;

- Ensure that their periodic reports to treaty monitoring bodies mainstream a gender perspective.

Within the United Nations system:

- Urge the Commission on Human Rights to ensure that all human rights mechanisms and procedures fully incorporate a gender perspective in their work, within their respective mandates;

- The Administrative Committee on Coordination Inter-Agency Committee on Women and Gender Equality should, as planned, conduct a workshop to clarify the understanding of a rights-based approach to women's empowerment and advancement and to gender equality, drawing on the work already being done in this regard by the United Nations Development Fund for Women and others;

- The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat should strengthen and improve coordination in general human rights activities within their respective mandates and continue to prepare the joint annual work plan;

- The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Division for the Advancement of Women should continue to prepare the joint annual work plan and strengthen cooperation and coordination in human rights activities, in particular:

(a) By collaborating in the writing of reports for the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Human Rights, the first initiative of this type 36/ being welcomed;

(b) Through sharing information systematically on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, its sessions and documentation, in order to ensure that its work will be better integrated into the work of the other treaty bodies and United Nations human rights activities;

(c) Through capacity-building to implement agreed conclusions 1997/2 of the Economic and Social Council 37/ on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system, in particular training and gender-sensitization especially of human rights monitors;

- Take further steps to increase cooperation and promote integration of objectives and goals among the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Human Rights and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, as well as the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund and other United Nations funds and programmes;

- Cooperation, communication and exchange of expertise should be enhanced between the Commission on the Status of Women and other functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council, including the Commission on Human Rights, in order to more effectively promote women's human rights;

- The treaty bodies within their mandates should continue to promote a better understanding of the rights contained in international human rights instruments and their particular significance to women;

- Given the importance of general comments in clarifying the provisions of human rights treaties, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is invited to draw up joint general comments with other treaty bodies, within their respective mandates, on the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of human rights and should discuss these and other collaborative activities at the annual chairpersons meeting;

- The treaty bodies should continue to develop working methods that facilitate communications between non-governmental organizations, treaty bodies and the States parties;

- The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is commended for establishing a gender team for studying, within the mandate of the Office, the human rights of women; the team should be given the necessary support by the most senior levels of management and decision-making to carry out its work effectively;

- Specialized agencies and other bodies of the United Nations system, as well as other international financial and national trade organizations, should develop innovative ways of integrating the promotion of women's enjoyment of their human rights in all their policies and programmes.


IV. THE GIRL CHILD

The Commission on the Status of Women

Reaffirms the Beijing Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, 38/ notably chapter IV.L on the girl child, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, 39/ the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 40/ and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 41/

Proposes, in order to accelerate the implementation of the strategic objectives of chapter IV.L:


A. Promotion and protection of the human rights of the girl child

Actions to be taken by Governments, local authorities, non-governmental organizations and civil society and the United Nations system, as appropriate:

- Promote further the enjoyment by children, particularly the girl child, of their human rights, by the elaboration of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on measures for the prevention and eradication of the sale of children, child prostitution and pornography;

- Organize community-based actions, including the setting up of local committees to create awareness of, and monitor conformity with, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, with a special focus on the situation of adolescent girls and young mothers;

- Conduct awareness-raising campaigns designed to mobilize communities, including community leaders, religious organizations, parents and other family members, especially male family members, with regard to the rights of the child, giving special emphasis to the girl child, and monitor changes in attitudes;

- Conduct awareness-raising campaigns and gender training targeted at law enforcement and justice system officials with regard to the rights of children, giving special attention to the girl child;

- Eliminate traditional and customary practices that constitute son- preference through awareness-raising campaigns and gender training;

- Recognize and promote the contribution of girls and boys to development;

- Promote non-discriminatory treatment of girls and boys in the family and, in this regard, adopt measures to ensure equal access by girls and boys to food, education and health.

Actions to be taken by States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women:

- Include comprehensive information and sex- and age-disaggregated data on children in their reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and invite the treaty monitoring bodies to pay special attention to the rights of the girl child while assessing those reports;

- Ensure that any reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child are formulated as precisely and as narrowly as possible and that they are not incompatible with the object and purpose of those conventions, and review the reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child with a view to withdrawing them.


B. Education and empowerment of the girl child

Actions to be taken by Governments, educational institutions and the United Nations system, as appropriate:

- Consider drawing upon the findings and recommendations of the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Adolescent Girls and their Rights, held in Addis Ababa in October 1997;

- Consider making primary education compulsory;

- Ensure universal enrolment and retention of girls in school and ensure the continued education of pregnant adolescents and young mothers in order to guarantee basic education to the girl child;

- Encourage all levels of society, including parents, Governments and non-governmental organizations, to support the implementation of educational policies to enhance gender awareness in the community;

- Provide gender-sensitive training for school administrators, parents and all members of the school community, such as local administrators, staff, teachers, school boards and students;

- Review teaching materials, including textbooks, to promote the self- esteem of women and girls through positive self-images and revise these materials, highlighting women's effective role in society, including in decision-making, development, culture, history, sports and other social, political and economic endeavours;

- Develop programmes of sensitization on the gender perspective for staff of government offices working on educational issues concerning indigenous and rural girls, and develop educational materials adapted to their situation;

- Identify the special needs of girls in difficult circumstances, including girls from migrant families, refugee and displaced girls, girls from ethnic minorities, indigenous girls, orphaned girls, girls with disabilities and other girls with special needs, and provide the resources necessary to address their needs;

- Involve girls, including girls with special needs, and their representative organizations in the decision-making process and include them as full and active partners in identifying their own needs and in designing, planning, implementing and assessing policies and programmes to meet those needs;

- Provide training opportunities for girls to develop their skills in leadership, advocacy and conflict resolution;

- Make visible girls' and boys' unpaid work in the household by conducting research and documenting gender differences, particularly in rural communities, note the implications of household work for girls' equal access to basic and further education and career development and take measures to redress imbalances and eliminate discrimination.


C. Health needs of girls

Actions to be taken by Governments, civil society and the United Nations system, as appropriate:

- Protect the girl child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse by taking appropriate measures, including, for example, designing and implementing legislation;

- Encourage parents, coalitions of concerned organizations and individuals, especially political leaders, popular and community figures and the media, to advocate for children's health, including adolescent girls' reproductive and sexual health;

- Eradicate all customary or traditional practices, particularly female genital mutilation, that are harmful to or discriminate against women and girls and that are violations of women's human rights and obstacles to the full enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, through the design and implementation of awareness-raising programmes, education and training, as well as programmes to help the victims of such practices to overcome their trauma;

- Develop and implement national legislation and policies prohibiting customary or traditional practices that are violations of women's human rights and obstacles to the full enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms and prosecute the perpetrators of practices that are harmful to the health of women and girls;

- Make widely available information and counselling to adolescent girls and boys, especially on human relationships, reproductive and sexual health, sexually transmitted diseases and adolescent pregnancy, that are confidential and easily accessible and emphasize the equal responsibility of girls and boys;

- Improve the health care for adolescent girls by health personnel and provide the latter with appropriate training, and encourage health- care personnel to work with girls to understand their special needs;

- Recognize and protect from discrimination pregnant adolescents and young mothers and support their continued access to information, health care, nutrition, education and training;

- Support the activities of non-governmental organizations in the area of reproductive health and health orientation centres for girls;

- Enact laws concerning the minimum age for marriage and raise the minimum age for marriage when necessary in order to ensure respect for the rights of the child, as stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 42/


D. Girls in armed conflict

Actions to be taken by the United Nations and Governments:

- Incorporate information on the rights of the child in the mandates and operational guidelines of peacekeeping forces, the military and humanitarian workers and provide them with gender-sensitive training;

- Encourage girls and other individuals and communities to play a key role in reporting violations of rights of girls in armed conflict to the appropriate authorities and ensure adequate, accessible and gender-sensitive support services and counselling;

- Protect the girl child in situations of armed conflict against participation in armed conflicts, recruitment, rape and sexual exploitation, in particular through the adoption of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 43/ as recommended by the General Assembly;

- Take measures to address the special needs of girls for protection and for gender-appropriate support and counselling centres in refugee camps, and in resettlement and reintegration efforts;

- Create and respect zones of peace for children in armed conflict.


E. Trafficking, including for purpose of prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation

Actions to be taken by Governments, international organizations and civil society:

- Collect information and raise public awareness on the issue of trafficking, physical and psychological abuse, and sexual exploitation of girls in order to better design and improve preventative programmes;

- Consider implementing the recommendations of the Declaration and Agenda for Action of the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, 44/ held in Stockholm in 1996;

- Establish recovery programmes for children who have been abused or sexually exploited, with specially trained personnel to provide a safe and supportive environment.

Actions to be taken by Governments:

- Enact and enforce laws that prohibit sexual exploitation including prostitution, incest, abuse and trafficking of children, paying special attention to girls;

- Prosecute and punish persons and organizations engaged in and/or promoting the sex industry, sexual exploitation, acts of paedophilia, trafficking in organs, child pornography and sex tourism involving minors, and condemn and penalize all those offenders involved, whether local or foreign, while ensuring that children who are victims of those practices are not penalized;

- Design mechanisms and strengthen international cooperation to better protect girls and bring to justice the perpetrators of such crimes;

- Adopt measures that ensure that judicial and legal processes are sensitive to the specific needs of abused girls to prevent further traumatization or victimization.


F. Labour and the girl child

Actions to be taken by Governments, international organizations and the private sector:

- Consider ratifying and implementing international agreements that are designed to protect children, including conventions of the International Labour Organization, and bring national legislation into conformity with those agreements in order to protect the girl child;

- Ensure that girls who work have access to education and vocational training, health, food, shelter and recreation on equal and favourable conditions, and are protected from economic exploitation, sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace;

- Pay special attention to girls in the informal sector, such as domestic workers, and develop measures to protect their human rights and fundamental freedoms and prevent their economic exploitation, ill-treatment and sexual abuse;

- Raise government and public awareness as to the nature and scope of the special needs of girls employed as domestic workers and of those performing excessive domestic chores in their own households, and develop measures to prevent their economic exploitation and sexual abuse;

- Actively contribute to efforts at the 1998 session of the International Labour Conference to draw up a new international convention to eliminate the most abhorrent forms of child labour;

- Consider the implementation of the actions identified in the Agenda for Action 45/ of the 1997 Oslo Conference on Child Labour.


G. General recommendations

Actions to be taken by Governments and the United Nations system:

- Prepare programmes for the girl child as part of national action plans in order to fully implement the Beijing Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women; 46/

- The organizations of the United Nations system, in particular the United Nations Children's Fund, as the agency mandated to deal with the rights and concerns of children, should give greater attention to the girl child through Fund country programmes, using its goodwill ambassadors for raising awareness on the situation of the girl child on national, regional and international levels;

- The Secretary-General should report on the girl child to the Commission on the Status of Women prior to the five-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action;

- Base programmes and policies for the girl child on the rights of the child, the responsibilities, rights and duties of the parents and the evolving capacity of the girl child, in accordance with the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 47/