Traditional or Customary Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Girls

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 105 Advancement of women, published in 1998.

What other versions does this mandate have?

4 versions · 1998–2002

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/56/128

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2002	A/RES/56/128	Traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls	1,795	59%Compare
2000	A/RES/54/133	Traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls	1,725	53%Compare
1999	A/RES/53/117	Traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls	1,506	23%Compare
1998	A/RES/52/99	Traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls	1,802	–

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2003

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2003	A/58/169	Traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/56/128

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 subjects

Girls Harmful Traditional Practices Information Dissemination International Instruments Laws and Regulations Technical Cooperation Women's Health Women's Rights

What’s in this document?

30 operative paragraphs

Welcomes:

The progress achieved by a number of Governments in their struggle against harmful traditional or customary practices, in particular against female genital mutilation, and encourages the Governments in question to continue and to increase their efforts aimed at the eradication of these practices;

The work carried out by the Special Rapporteur of the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on traditional practices affecting the health of women and children;

The joint statement by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund and the United Nations Population Fund on female genital mutilation, which expresses a common purpose in supporting the efforts of Governments and communities to promote and protect the health and development of women and children by promoting awareness of the problem and by educating the public, health workers and those who carry out the practice, on all its health consequences;

The appointment of a special ambassador of the United Nations Population Fund for the elimination of female genital mutilation;

The efforts undertaken by the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Development Fund for Women and other United Nations bodies, programmes and organizations to raise awareness of this issue;

The work carried out by non-governmental and community organizations in raising awareness of the harmful effects of female genital mutilation and other traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls;

The fact that the Commission on the Status of Women will address the critical areas of concern, namely, "Violence against women", "The girl child" and "Human rights of women", at its session in 1998 and "Women and health" at its session in 1999, and invites the Commission to address the issue of harmful traditional or customary practices during those sessions;

Emphasizes:

The need for Governments to analyse, from a gender perspective, all policies and programmes, particularly those relating to poverty, health and violence against women, with a view to assessing their implications for women and men;

The need for national legislation and/or measures prohibiting harmful traditional or customary practices as well as for their implementation, inter alia, through appropriate measures against those responsible;

The need to improve women's position in society and to promote their economic independence;

The importance of education and the dissemination of information in raising awareness, in all sectors of society, of the serious consequences of traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls and the responsibilities of Governments in this regard;

The necessity of involving, among others, public opinion leaders, educators, religious leaders, medical practitioners, women's health and family planning organizations and the media in publicity campaigns, with a view to promoting a collective and individual awareness of the human rights of women and girls and of how harmful traditional or customary practices violate those rights;

That information and education with regard to harmful traditional or customary practices should also be targeted at men and that they should be encouraged to be responsive to such information and education;

The importance of coordination between the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and the relevant treaty bodies, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women, its causes and consequences and the Commission on the Status of Women, including through the exchange of information, and encourages them, within their respective mandates, to continue to pay attention to traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls;

The need for financial and technical assistance for developing countries from United Nations funds and programmes, as well as from international and regional financial institutions and bilateral and multilateral donors, so as to assist Governments in combating such practices;

Calls upon all States:

To implement their international commitments in this field, inter alia, under the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,9 the Beijing Declaration11 and the Platform for Action12 of the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development10 and the Plan of Action for the Elimination of Harmful Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children;8

To ratify, if they have not yet done so, the relevant human rights treaties, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women13 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,15 and to respect and fully implement their obligations under the relevant human rights treaties to which they are parties, emphasizing the incompatibility between the continuation of these harmful traditional or customary practices and the obligations they have voluntarily undertaken through the ratification of such international human rights instruments;

To include specific information on measures taken to eliminate traditional or customary practices harmful to the health of women and girls in their reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and to the Committee on the Rights of the Child;

To intensify efforts to raise awareness of and to mobilize international and national public opinion concerning the harmful effects of female genital mutilation and other traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls, in particular through education, the dissemination of information and training, with the aim of achieving the total elimination of these practices;

To develop and implement national legislation and policies prohibiting traditional or customary practices harmful to the health of women and girls, particularly female genital mutilation;

To support women's organizations, at the national and local levels, working for the elimination of female genital mutilation and other traditional or customary practices harmful to the health of women and girls;

To cooperate closely with the Special Rapporteur of the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on traditional practices affecting the health of women and children and to submit information on such practices with a view to enabling her to assess the progress achieved and obstacles encountered in implementing the Plan of Action for the Elimination of Harmful Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children;

To cooperate closely with relevant United Nations funds, programmes and the specialized agencies, such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as with relevant non-governmental and community organizations, in a joint effort to eradicate harmful traditional or customary practices affecting women and girls;

Decides:

To invite the Commission on Human Rights to address this issue at its fifty-fourth session;

To request the Secretary-General to make the outcome of the discussions in the Commission on the Status of Women on this issue available to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-fourth session, if necessary, in the form of an oral report;

To also request the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-third session on the implementation of the present resolution.

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?

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