The Girl Child

A/RES/54/148No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 112Promotion and protection of the rights of children, published in 2000.

What other versions does this mandate have?

19 versions · 1996–2023

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/78/188

2023A/RES/78/188The girl childLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/146The girl childCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/74/134The girl childCompare with previous version
2018A/RES/72/154The girl childCompare with previous version
2016A/RES/70/138The girl childCompare with previous version

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

What does this mandate say?

17 operative paragraphs

Stresses the need for full and urgent implementation of the rights of the girl child as guaranteed to her under all human rights instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child3 and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,4 as well as the need for universal ratification of those instruments;

Urges all States to take all necessary measures and to institute legal reforms to ensure the full and equal enjoyment by the girl child of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, to take effective action against violations of those rights and freedoms and to base programmes and policies for the girl child on the rights of the child;

Urges States to enact and to enforce strictly laws to ensure that marriage is entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses, to enact and to enforce strictly laws concerning the minimum legal age of consent and the minimum age for marriage and to raise the minimum age for marriage where necessary;

Urges all States to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women as well as the commitment to implement the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women;

Also urges all States to enact and to enforce legislation to protect girls from all forms of violence, including female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, female genital mutilation, rape, domestic violence, incest, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, child prostitution and child pornography, and to develop age-appropriate safe and confidential programmes and medical, social and psychological support services to assist girls who are subjected to violence;

Calls upon all States and international and non-governmental organizations, individually and collectively, to implement further the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, in particular the strategic objectives relating to the girl child;

Urges States to take special measures for the protection of children, in particular to protect girls from rape and other forms of sexual abuse and gender-based violence in situations of armed conflict, paying special attention to refugee and displaced girls and taking into account the special needs of the girl child in the delivery of humanitarian assistance;

Also urges States to formulate comprehensive, multidisciplinary and coordinated national plans, programmes or strategies to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, which should be widely disseminated and should provide targets and timetables for implementation, as well as effective domestic enforcement procedures through the establishment of monitoring mechanisms involving all parties concerned, including consultations with women’s organizations, giving attention to the recommendations relating to the girl child of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women, its causes and consequences;

Calls upon Governments, civil society, including the media, and non-governmental organizations to promote human rights education and the full respect for and enjoyment of the human rights of the girl child, inter alia, through the translation, production and dissemination of age-appropriate information materials on those rights to all sectors of society, in particular to children;

Requests the Secretary-General, as Chairman of the Administrative Committee on Coordination, to ensure that all organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, individually and collectively, in particular the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the World Health Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, take into account the rights and the particular needs of the girl child in the country programme of cooperation in accordance with the national priorities, including through the United Nations Development Assistance Framework;

Requests all human rights treaty bodies, special procedures and other human rights mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights and its Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights to adopt regularly and systematically a gender perspective in the implementation of their mandates and to include in their reports information on the qualitative analysis of violations of the human rights of women and girls, and encourages the strengthening of cooperation and coordination in that regard;

Calls upon States and international and non-governmental organizations to mobilize all necessary resources, support and efforts to realize the goals, strategic objectives and actions set out in the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women;

Stresses the importance of a substantive assessment of the implementation of the Platform for Action with a life-cycle perspective so as to identify gaps and obstacles in the implementation process and to develop further actions for the achievement of the goals of the Platform for Action;

Calls upon Governments, the United Nations system, in particular the Division for the Advancement of Women of the Secretariat, non-governmental organizations and women’s organizations to ensure that, in the preparation for the special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, the needs and the rights of the girl child are duly taken into account and integrated into all activities;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the needs and the rights of the girl child are specifically assessed in the five-year review of the implementation of the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, to be held in June 2000;

Also requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Bank, to ensure that the needs and the rights of the girl child are given special attention in all preparatory processes at the national, regional and international levels, including the Education for All 2000 Assessment and the agenda of the World Education Forum, to be held in April 2000;

Further requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the needs and the rights of the girl child are integrated into the preparatory work for the special session of the General Assembly on the follow-up to the World Summit for Children in 2001, inter alia, by providing the General Assembly with a comprehensive report drawing on the experiences and outcomes of the five-year reviews of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women and the World Summit for Social Development, and the World Education Forum.

Paragraph content is machine-extracted from UN documents. For authoritative content, please refer to the official UN document.

No headings found in this document.

The Girl Child

Who created this mandate?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What does this mandate say?

Table of contents