The Girl Child

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 106 Promotion and protection of the rights of children, published in 1997.

What other versions does this mandate have?

19 versions · 1996–2023

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

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2023	A/RES/78/188	The girl child	7,836	95%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/146	The girl child	7,603	75%Compare
2020	A/RES/74/134	The girl child	5,818	100%Compare
2018	A/RES/72/154	The girl child	5,815	74%Compare
2016	A/RES/70/138	The girl child	5,428	56%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

10 reports · 2007–2025

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2025	A/80/273	The girl child and the impacts of digital and emerging technologies report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/188
2023	A/78/284	Impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on girls and the recovery from it report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/146
2021	A/76/204	Well-being and empowerment of girls living in rural areas report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/74/134
2019	A/74/246	The girl child report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/72/154
2017	A/72/218	The girl child report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/70/138

What subjects does this mandate have?

17 subjects

Child Development Child Health Child Needs Child Nutrition Education Gender Equality Gender-Based Violence Girls Harmful Traditional Practices Medium-Term Plan Political Participation Popular Participation Programmes of Action Resources Mobilization Rights of the Child Treaties Women's Advancement

What’s in this document?

20 operative paragraphs

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 and to take effective action against violations of those rights and freedoms;

Also urges all States to enact and enforce legislation protecting girls from all forms of violence, including female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, female genital mutilation, 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 set goals and to develop and implement gender-sensitive strategies to address the rights and needs of children, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to take into account the rights and particular needs of the girl child, especially in education, health and nutrition, and to eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices against the girl child;

To generate social support for the enforcement of laws on the minimum legal age for marriage, in particular by providing educational opportunities for girls;

To give attention to the rights and needs of adolescent girls, which call for special action for their protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, harmful cultural practices, teenage pregnancy and vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and for the development of life skills and self-esteem, reaffirming that the advancement and empowerment of women throughout the life cycle must begin with the girl child at all ages;

To take measures to increase awareness of the potential of the girl child and to promote gender-sensitive socialization of boys and girls from early childhood, aimed at achieving gender equality, development and peace within the family and the community;

To ensure the equal participation of girls and young women on the basis of non-discrimination and as partners with boys and young men in social, economic and political life and in the development of strategies and the implementation of action aimed at achieving gender equality, development and peace;

To strengthen and reorient health education and health services, in particular primary health care programmes, including sexual and reproductive health, and to design quality health programmes that meet the physical and mental needs of girls and attend to the needs of young expectant and nursing mothers;

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

Also urges States to eliminate all barriers so as to enable girls, without exception, to develop their full potential and skills through equal access to education and training;

Encourages States to consider ways and means to ensure the continuing education of married women, pregnant women and young mothers;

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, in line with the recommendations of the expert appointed by the Secretary-General to study the impact of armed conflict on children;

Urges States parties to fulfil the obligations they have undertaken under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to protect women and girls from all forms of violence, including domestic violence, sexual trafficking and child prostitution;

Urges States to implement measures to protect women and girls from all forms of violence, in line with the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women, its causes and consequences;¹³

¹³See E/CN.4/1996/53 and Add.1 and 2.

Requests all States to implement, on an urgent basis, measures to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation, including measures in line with those outlined in the Declaration and Agenda for Action of the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of 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 World Health Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, take into account the rights and the particular needs of the girl child, especially in education, health and nutrition, and eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices against the girl child in the implementation of the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women for the period 1996-2001;¹⁴

¹⁴E/1993/43, annex.

Calls upon the Commission on Human Rights, while considering, in accordance with the agreed conclusions 1996/1 of the Economic and Social Council,¹⁵its input to the Commission on the Status of Women on ensuring women's equal enjoyment of human rights relating to economic resources, to pay particular attention to all the human rights of the girl child;

¹⁵See A/51/3 (Part I), chap. III, sect. A; see Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-first Session, Supplement No. 3.

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;

Calls upon all States, all relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations to implement commitments to goals and actions relating to the girl child and to report on initiatives and progress to the Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-second session, pursuant to the decision of the Commission to review the progress made in the implementation of the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women relating to the girl child in 1998.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents