Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

A/HRC/RES/32/4View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2016.

What other versions does this mandate have?

7 versions · 2009–2016

2016A/HRC/RES/32/4Elimination of discrimination against womenLatestCompare with previous version
2015A/HRC/RES/29/4Elimination of discrimination against womenCompare with previous version
2014A/HRC/RES/26/5Elimination of discrimination against womenCompare with previous version
2013A/HRC/RES/23/7Elimination of discrimination against womenCompare with previous version
2012A/HRC/RES/20/6Elimination of discrimination against womenCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

17 topics

Accountability Anti-Discrimination Measures Data Collection Gender Discrimination Gender Equality Gender-Based Violence Harmful Traditional Practices Health Care Delivery Maternal and Child Health Reproductive Freedom Reproductive Health Right to Health Sex Education Women Women's Health Women's Rights Working Groups

What does this mandate say?

23 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice with regard to health and safety, and the work undertaken since its establishment;

Reiterates that States should take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on the basis of equality of men and women, access to health-care services, including those related to family planning, and that States should ensure for women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the postnatal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation;

Affirms that realizing human rights requires the full, effective and meaningful participation and contribution of women and girls in all aspects of life, on an equal footing with men and boys;

Calls upon States to ensure women’s and girls’ equal access to accessible, affordable, available, appropriate, effective and high-quality health care and services, and to eliminate legal, administrative, financial and social barriers that hinder women’s right to the full enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, particularly when designing policy measures, programmes and resource allocations;

Also calls upon States to ensure women’s equal right to the full enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and to promote the integration of the distinct needs of each phase of their life cycle through their differential health treatment;

Urges States to take steps to ensure that laws, policies and practices respect women’s equal right to decide autonomously in matters regarding their own lives and health, including their bodies, by repealing discriminatory laws relating to third-party authorization for health information and services, and combating gender stereotypes and behaviours that discriminate against them;

Calls upon States to promote a human rights-based approach to women’s health, and to foster a functioning health system, with adequate supplies, equipment, trained personnel and infrastructure, and an efficient system of communication, referral and transport to support women’s right to the full enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health;

Recognizes the need to pay specific attention and to take differentiated measures, including special protection and support services, when addressing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and girls;

Calls upon States to monitor and prevent unlawful forced institutionalization and overmedication, and to ensure non-discrimination in relation to women’s mental health;

Urges States to adopt effective measures and to enact laws and policies to prevent and eliminate harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage or female genital mutilation and cutting;

Also urges States to ensure the promotion and protection of the human rights of all women and their sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences, including through the development and enforcement of policies and legal frameworks, and to strengthen health systems that make quality comprehensive sexual and reproductive health-care services, commodities, information and education universally accessible and available, including, inter alia, safe and effective methods of modern contraception, emergency contraception, prevention programmes for adolescent pregnancy, maternal health care, such as skilled birth attendance and emergency obstetric care, which will reduce obstetric fistula and other complications of pregnancy and delivery, and safe abortion where such services are permitted by national law, and the prevention and treatment of reproductive tract infections, sexually transmitted infections, HIV and reproductive cancers, while recognizing that human rights include the right to have control over and to decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free from coercion, discrimination and violence;

Further urges States to ensure equal access to and equal treatment of women and men in education and health care, and to enhance women’s sexual and reproductive health as well as education, including by, inter alia, training health providers and other health-care workers on gender equality and non-discrimination, respect for women’s rights and dignity, in lifesaving obstetric care and when giving birth, especially midwives and auxiliary nurses, ensuring the affordability of medicines and treatments, avoiding the overmedicalization of women’s health, acknowledging alternative medicine, abolishing discriminatory practices that hinder women’s access to health services, and providing age-appropriate, sexual health information, education and counselling, based on scientific evidence and human rights, for women, girls, men and boys;

Urges States to take all appropriate measures to ensure equal access of women with disabilities to health services that are gender sensitive, including health-related rehabilitation;

Also urges States to adopt a holistic approach to maternal health, one of the elements of the full spectrum of women’s health, by reducing maternal mortality and morbidity by promoting access to family planning and proper prenatal care, skilled attendance at birth, postnatal care and methods of prevention, including affordable treatment and support services for sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV/AIDS, free of stigma and discrimination;

Underlines the need to take measures to exercise due diligence and accountability to ensure that health services and medications are provided in a gender-responsive and non-discriminatory way;

Stresses the need to accelerate efforts at all levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, violence on their way to or at school, in other public spaces and in health facilities;

Recommends that States collect data, prepare statistics disaggregated by age, disability and sex, and conduct multidisciplinary research reflecting specific issues related to women’s health and safety;

Reaffirms the importance of significantly increased investment to close resource gaps for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, including through the mobilization of financial resources from all sources;

Recognizes that civil society organizations, including independent women’s organizations and human rights defenders, do important work in promoting full equality in all aspects of life, including women’s health, and in eliminating violence against women and girls, and that they therefore require support for their sustainability, safety and growth;

Decides to extend the mandate of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice for a period of three years, on the same terms as provided for by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 23/7 of 13 June 2013;

Calls upon all States to cooperate with and assist the Working Group in its tasks, to supply all necessary available information requested by it and to give serious consideration to responding favourably to its requests to visit their country to enable it to fulfil its mandate effectively;

Invites relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, the treaty bodies, within their respective mandates, and civil society actors, including non-governmental organizations, as well as the private sector, to cooperate fully with the Working Group in the fulfilment of its mandate, and requests the Working Group to continue to engage with the Commission on the Status of Women, including by participating in its work and reporting, on request;

Decides to continue its consideration of this issue in conformity with its annual programme of work.

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Who created this mandate?

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What does this mandate say?

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