Mandate of the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls

A/HRC/RES/59/14View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2025.

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 subjects

Gender Discrimination Gender Equality Women's Rights Working Groups

What’s in this document?

8 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the work undertaken by the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls,² and takes note of its recommendations to States with regard to their international obligations to support substantive equality by adopting appropriate measures, including temporary special measures, necessary to prevent, redress and eliminate patriarchal and gender stereotypes that cause or perpetuate discrimination in all spheres of life;

²See A/HRC/59/45.

Decides to extend the mandate of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls for a period of three years, on the same terms provided for by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 15/23 of 1 October 2010 and subsequent resolutions in which the Council extended the mandate,³ and requests the Working Group to continue to consider, and to mainstream across all its work, age and disability perspectives in the fulfilment of its mandate, and to examine the specific forms of discrimination that girls face;

³Human Rights Council resolutions 23/7, 32/4, 41/6 and 50/18.

Encourages the Working Group, within its mandate, to continue to facilitate the meaningful participation of women and girls from all geographic regions in its work, and to continue to develop practical, accessible and evidence-based advice for States aimed at, inter alia, the effective implementation of its recommendations to achieve substantive equality;

Calls upon all States to cooperate with and assist the Working Group in its task, 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, in particular the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, the treaty bodies, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, within their respective mandates, and civil society actors, including women’s and girls’ rights organizations, as well as Indigenous Peoples and 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 formally reporting to it;

Requests the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide the Working Group with all the assistance necessary to fulfil its mandate effectively, and in particular by placing adequate human, financial and material resources at the Working Group’s disposal;

Reiterates its request to the Secretary-General to ensure that the reports of the Working Group are brought to the attention of the Commission on the Status of Women and the General Assembly through a note by the Secretariat, and requests the Working Group to continue to present an oral report annually to the Commission and to the Assembly, in proximity with the reports of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences and of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women;

Decides to continue its consideration of the issue of the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls as a matter of high priority, in conformity with its programme of work, at its sixty-second session.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents