Welcome to the UN website of the
online discussion on “The elimination of all forms of
discrimination and violence against the girl
child”.
The online discussion, which will be
conducted in English, will run for four weeks from 14 August
to 8 September 2006. Each of the first three weeks of the
discussion will be devoted to one theme, while the last week will
provide the opportunity to raise additional issues and wrap up. You
will be notified by email from the Moderator of the start of the
discussion.
The purpose of the online
discussion is to contribute to an understanding of the causes and
consequences of all forms of discrimination and violence against the
girl child and to identify good practices and strategies required to
accelerate the elimination of these violations of the human rights
of girls. Contributions to the online discussion will provide the
background information to a meeting of experts convened by the
Division for the Advancement of Women in collaboration with UNICEF
at the UNICEF Innocenti Centre in Florence, Italy from 25 to 28
September 2006, to discuss this theme.
The online discussion and the
Expert Group Meeting are part of the preparatory process for the
51st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March
2007, which will consider “The elimination of all forms of
discrimination and violence against the girl child” as its
priority theme.
We encourage you to share your
ideas and experiences as an input to further development of global
policy in this area. There are two ways to participate in the
discussion. You may post a message by clicking the “post message”
button on the website or you may reply to the email messages sent to
the group by the Moderator. The messages will remain available for
viewing on the website during and after the dates of the discussion.
The issue of the girl child was
firmly placed on the international agenda by the 1990 Declaration of
the World Summit for Children. At the Summit, the international
community acknowledged that equal rights of girls and equal
participation of women in the social, cultural, economic and
political life of societies were a prerequisite for successful and
sustainable development. The twenty-seventh special session of the
General Assembly on children recognized that the achievement of
development goals for children, particularly girls, was contingent
upon, inter alia, women’s empowerment.
The Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) contain mutually
reinforcing principles to ensure protection and fulfillment of the
rights of girls and to end gender-based discrimination.
The Beijing Platform for Action
recognized that discrimination and violence against girls begin at
the earliest stages of life and continue unabated throughout their
lives. Girls often have less access to nutrition, physical and
mental health care and education and enjoy fewer rights,
opportunities and benefits of childhood and adolescence than boys.
They are often subjected to various forms of exploitation, including
sexual exploitation violence and harmful practices such as female
infanticide and prenatal sex selection, incest, female genital
mutilation/cutting, early marriage and forced marriage.
The report of the
Secretary-General on the ten-year review of the implementation of
the Beijing Platform for Action in 2005 concluded that progress has
been made by many countries in the advancement of the girl child, in
particular in the recognition of the human rights of the girl child
through the adoption of appropriate legislation, and in increasing
access to primary education. It noted, however, that further efforts
were needed, inter alia, to ensure equal access to secondary
education and to job opportunities, to eradicate sex work by
children, to ensure reintegration of the girl child after armed
conflicts, and to collect data on the situation of the girl child.
The consideration of the theme of
the girl child at the 51st session of the Commission on the Status
of Women in 2007 will bring the issue of the girl child high on the
agenda of Member States of the United Nations. Informed by findings
from a multitude of sources, including contributions made to this
online discussion, the Commission will make concrete recommendations
to accelerate the elimination of all forms of discrimination and
violence against the girl child.
Background Information in: Chinese
| Russian | Spanish
The online discussion is
scheduled to begin on 14 August 2006 and to continue for four weeks.
Each of the first three weeks of the discussion will be devoted to
one theme, while the last week will provide the opportunity to raise
additional issues and wrap up. Please discuss achievements and
remaining gaps and challenges in all areas. Kindly also
provide examples of concrete experiences, lessons learned and good
practices. The themes for the first three weeks will be as
follows:
Week One: August 14 –
Protection of the girl child; girls in vulnerable
situations
The protection of both girls and boys
from discrimination and violence is a prerequisite for their healthy
development and full participation in society. Girls are vulnerable
to commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking, gender-based
violence, such as rape during armed conflict, as well as harmful
traditional practices, early marriages and forces marriages. Some of
the questions to be addressed include:
- Based on your experience, what are the main
issues concerning the protection of the girl child?
- Are there specific groups of girls who are
being left out and whose needs are not addressed, or specific
issues that warrant increased attention by the international
community?
- What situations exacerbate girls’
vulnerability to discrimination and violence, and in what ways?
- How can the effectiveness of existing legal
instruments such as CEDAW and CRC in protecting girls from
violence and discrimination be increased?
Week Two: 21 August –
Empowerment of the girl child
The empowerment of
girls is critical to the achievement of equality. Empowerment will
be advanced if girls fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental
freedoms, including the right to development, if they are empowered
to participate fully and equally in all spheres of society and are
protected and free from all forms of violence, abuse and
discrimination. Girls’ empowerment can be enhanced through
access to all levels of education; access to good quality health
care and services; and equal participation with boys in all spheres
of society. Girls need to be able to participate actively,
effectively and equally with boys at all levels of social, economic,
political and cultural leadership. Therefore, it is important to
ensure that girls are given the same opportunities as boys to
participate in and learn about the social, economic and political
functioning of society, and take part in decision-making processes.
Removing obstacles and strengthening the capacity of girls to build
their self-esteem and take on leadership roles, including through
the use of information technology and mechanisms such as
micro-credit, are central to their empowerment.
- Which policies, programmes and initiatives,
have been successful in empowering girls?
- What are the essential elements that need to
be in place in order to ensure the empowerment of girls?
- Which factors constrain the empowerment of
girls?
- What measures have been successful in
building girls’ self-esteem?
- How can men and boys be more effectively
involved in promoting girls’ empowerment?
Week Three: 28 August
– Monitoring progress; data and statistics on the girl
child
Effectively measuring progress in eliminating
discrimination and violence against the girl child will require
increased attention to data needs, including sex and age
disaggregated data. Increased data on the girl child is also needed
to ensure the adequate development of policies and programmes to
address their specific needs. The UN publication The World’s
Women 2005: Progress in Statistics (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/Demographic/products/indwm/wwpub.htm)
reported a mixed record on the availability of data disaggregated by
sex and age. It called for increased collaboration between
international and regional organizations and agencies, national
statistics offices and academic and research institutions to review
concepts, definitions and methods of collecting data, including the
development of appropriate indicators.
- How can the international community work
together to provide incentives for the collection of data on the
girl child?
- What are the areas of information about the
girl child in which we presently have the greatest gaps?
- Are existing indicators adequate? If not,
how could they be improved?
- In which areas is lack of data disaggregated
by sex a problem?
- What suggestions can be made for improving
measurement of progress in eliminating violence and discrimination
against the girl child?
Week Four: 4
September – 8 September – Other issues and wrap up
- What issues, if any, have not been
sufficiently addressed in the online discussion?
- What are the most critical areas that need
attention at the global policy level to eliminate discrimination
and violence against the girl child?
To register, please click here
to fill out an online registration form. You are encouraged to
register before 11 August 2006. You will
receive an email with your online discussion username and password
before the start of the online discussion.
If you have any questions or
experience problems when registering, please contact Mr. Rajkumar
Cheney Krishnan (cheneykrishnan@un.org)
The ground
rules for the online discussion are the
following. Messages must:
- Be identifiable. Please include your name
and organization (if any) at the end of your message. Messages
without this information will not be posted;
- Pertain to the subject of the week;
- Be in English;
- Be limited to three paragraphs or 500 words;
- Have no attachments; all text has to be in
the body of the posted message;
- Contain no insulting language or statements.