Commission on the Status of Women Fifty-fourth session

1-12 March 2010

Item 3 (a) (i) of the provisional agenda*

Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and
to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly,
entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and
peace for the twenty-first century”: implementation of
strategic objectives and action in critical areas of concern
and further actions and initiatives: review of the implementation

of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the

outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the

General Assembly and its contribution to shaping a

gender perspective towards the full realization of the

Millennium Development Goals

Statement submitted by members of the Working Group on Girls, NGO Committee on UNICEF

The Secretary-General has received the following statement, which is being circulated in accordance with paragraphs 36 and 37 of Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

Statement

Promises Made to Girls

We reaffirm the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, including Section L, whereby governments committed to: eliminate discrimination against girls; increase awareness of their needs and potential; provide equal opportunities in education and training; promote their participation in social, economic and political life; and recognize that the advancement of women is not sustainable without attention to the rights of girls.

Girls’ rights to protection and enjoyment of human rights are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Moreover, in A World Fit for Children, governments declared they were “determined to eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child throughout her life cycle and to provide special attention to her needs in order to promote and protect all her human rights. . . .”

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has repeatedly sought to end discrimination and violence against girls. The 54th session of the CSW offers a unique opportunity for member states to review progress and ensure all girls the full enjoyment of their human rights.

Promises Broken

After decades of promises, girls are still denied their political, economic, social and cultural rights and subjected to cultural and legally sanctioned behaviours that present a grave risk to their physical, psychological, spiritual and social-emotional development. If we are serious about human rights, we must acknowledge the barriers to equality that hold girls back and act to end discrimination and violence against them.

Discrimination against the girl child

1. •Research indicates that girls begin life from a position of disadvantage that continues throughout their lives. One-third are not registered at birth. Countless numbers are forced into early marriage, limiting their freedom, ending their education and increasing their risk of domestic violence and death as a consequence of early pregnancy. As a result of complications in childbirth or pregnancy 70,000 girls die annually. Many more experience serious incapacitating childbirth injuries. Girls are infected by HIV/AIDS at disproportionately high rates; three quarters of the 15-24 year-olds infected with HIV are young women and girls. Furthermore, discriminatory inheritance laws and practices condemn many to poverty.
   

1. •Educating girls is often viewed as a wasted investment. Thus, girls are less likely than boys to be enrolled in school and more likely to remain illiterate. For every 100 boys only 94 girls start school; girls are also more likely to drop out. Even when girls are enrolled, discriminatory attitudes prevail.  School curricula often reinforce prevailing gender stereotypes and girls are subjected to harassment and abuse by classmates and teachers. Consequently, girls are often unprepared and, therefore, vulnerable to social, economic and health problems.
   

Violence and economic exploitation

1. •Approximately 218 million children worldwide, ages 5- 17, engage in some form of child labor. Of these, 126 million engage in illegal, hazardous, or exploitative child labor.
   

1. •Approximately 8 million children are engaged in human trafficking, debt bondage and forced labor, forced recruitment into armed conflict; prostitution and pornography; illicit activities, such as drug production and trafficking; and other forms of practices that harm girls.
   

1. •Two million girls, ages 5 - 15, are initiated into the commercial sex industry annually. The demand for girls that drives sex trafficking is fueled by gender inequality; unrelenting demand factors; female poverty; myths and stereotypes; and financial and political crises. Girls seeking to improve their lives through employment, migration or other opportunities are often exploited by traffickers and pimps and treated as commodities to be bought, sold and repeatedly raped by the countless buyers they are required to “service.”
   

Negative cultural attitudes and practices

1. •Cultural norms, gender roles and gender stereotypes are at the root of gender inequality. Gender stereotypes and the undervalued social roles associated with the marginalized status of women heightens the vulnerability of girls.
   

1. •Cultural preference for sons has resulted in over 100 million missing girls due to female foeticide, infanticide, malnutrition and neglect. Cultural attitudes and practices have also resulted in the harmful genital cutting of more than 70 million girls and women, violating their human rights and physical and psychological integrity.
   

Recommendations

Discrimination and violence against girls will end when governments and their citizens address gender inequality.

End Discrimination

1. •Abolish laws that support discrimination against girls and women including inheritance, dowry, marriage laws and provide for birth registration.
   

1. •Fund programs to combat discrimination based on gender, age, race, ethnicity, social status, religion, disability, migrant or refugee status.
   

1. •Undertake systematic reform of education creating rights-based, gender-sensitive curricula, infrastructure and pedagogy designed to promote equality and the rights of all girls to a free education.
   

1. •Ensure that business opportunities are fair and equitable under the law and equip girls with economic tools so that they can achieve full economic empowerment.
   

1. •Launch public campaigns that seek to eliminate discrimination based on the notion of girls’ inferiority and to support positive attitudes and behaviors that encourage girls’ full partnership in the household and public spheres. Such campaigns must target the media and address the role of men and boys in establishing gender equality and  emphasize the societal benefits of girls’ empowerment.
   

1. •Collect, analyze and disseminate data disaggregated by sex, age, socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity in order to create an inclusive gender perspective for planning, implementation and monitoring of government programs and for benchmarking across nations and communities.
   

Protect Girls

1. •Develop gender-responsive budgeting that explicitly allocates monies for  programs to end violence against girls, including genital cutting, incest, prenatal sex selection,  infanticide, and trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation; education and training at all levels; and physical and mental health.
   

1. •Develop legislation that incorporates the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
   

1. •Sign, ratify and implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols.
   

1. •Invite UNICEF working in collaboration with UNODC to identify best practices across the globe that decriminalize girls in prostitution and prosecute perpetrators.
   

1. •Provide gender-sensitive, community-based reintegration programs for children who have been trafficked, commercially exploited or victimized in armed conflict.
   

Empower Girls

1. •Remove all barriers to education for girls including school fees, discriminatory attitudes and curricula and ensure their safety. Education is the right of every girl and the key to transforming her life and the life of her community.
   

1. •Increase girls’ competence through education and training that includes social, political and economic empowerment to prepare them for their critical roles in their families and communities.
   

1. •Promote the participation, visibility and empowerment of girls by creating safe spaces for them to speak and to obtain assistance. The skills, ideas and energy of all girls, especially those from disadvantaged groups, are vital for sustainable development.
   

1. •Strengthen the role of civil society, especially girls’ organizations, in tackling gender stereotypes and empowering girls to participate more fully in their families and communities.
   

1. •Partner with families and communities to address the needs of girls heading households and children without parental care, including in the context of the HIV/AIDS, to ensure that programmes are holistic and include measures to increase men and boys’ responsibility for caregiving.
   

1. •Monitor and evaluate macro-economic policies and social spending to ensure that girls’ needs are addressed.
   

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copy of this Statement

WGG Written Statement on Girls CSW 54--Final.pdf

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Tel: 212-326-2713 • Email: wggs@girlsrights.org