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http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/35/5

VI. Conclusion and Recommendations

46. The experts stressed the crucial need to recognize child and forced marriage as a human rights violation and manifestation of gender-based discrimination. In this regard, they recommended that measures be adopted to address comprehensively the drivers and causes that expose women and girls to the practice. This requires, inter A/HRC/35/5 9 alia, introducing and enforcing laws and policies that promote equality for women and girls and prohibit violence against them, as well as repealing discriminatory laws, laws that have a discriminatory impact and laws that enable harmful practices. It also requires the introduction of measures to promote women’s control over their bodies and lives, including those that give them adequate access to education, sexual and reproductive health and rights, information and services. Women’s equal rights with regard to employment also must be assured. There is a need to invest in women and girls as agents of change towards the eradication of child, early and forced marriage and other harmful practices and for the full enjoyment of their fundamental human rights. Interventions should be guided by the principles of the best interest of the child and non-discrimination, and should apply to all individuals and communities, without discrimination on the grounds of origin, ethnicity or social status. There was a call to recognize and prioritize the need to engage other sectors, such as gender affairs, child protection, education, health and justice, in global, regional and subregional responses to child and forced marriage.

47. In addition to the recommendations contained in sections II to V above, in the closing session experts recommended that the international community, States members of the United Nations, civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders:

(a) Promote locally relevant, contextualized initiatives to eliminate child and forced marriage. These initiatives should be developed with the full and meaningful participation of local communities, including women and girls, religious and traditional leaders, teachers and others who have an influence in the matter;

(b) Ensure more regular independent and objective assessments of global, regional and national programmes with a view to learning from successes and failures and to documenting good practices. Women, girls and affected communities should be involved meaningfully in monitoring and evaluation processes. The impact assessments of initiatives should extend to the local level to ensure programmes respond to actual drivers and root causes of child and forced marriage and to the needs of women and girls;

(c) Provide increased support to the work of regional and subregional organizations to address child and forced marriage and opportunities to exchange lessons learned and good practices at the regional and subregional levels;

(d) Ensure greater financing of grass-roots initiatives to address child and forced marriage, particularly those amplifying the voice and agency of adolescent girls and young women. Such initiatives have an enormous potential to facilitate intergenerational dialogue and challenge the cultural norms that support harmful practices;

(e) Promote greater accountability at the international level for rights-based efforts to eliminate child and forced marriage, including through all relevant reporting mechanisms, such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the Universal Periodic Review. Strong linkages should be established between the work and recommendations of the United Nations human rights architecture, including the Human Rights Council and human rights mechanisms, and the implementation and monitoring of relevant goals and targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 5.3 to eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations;

(f) Strengthen efforts to ensure accountability at the national level, including monitoring and tracking funding for women’s rights and child protection; ensure national human rights institutions have the mandate, resources and capacity to hold States accountable for addressing the practice adequately; strengthen the role of parliamentarians to monitor the implementation of policies and allocation of resources to eliminate child and forced marriage; and protect civil society space and support the engagement of civil society organizations in the area of child and forced marriage; A/HRC/35/5 10

(g) Ensure stronger investment in providing access to quality education for girls, including secondary education, including in situations of emergencies and displacement;

(h) Combine the prohibition of child and forced marriage with better services for actual and potential victims. Provide greater investment in the appropriate enforcement of legislation and protection and support measures, including legal aid for those affected by child and forced marriage, strengthened knowledge of the judiciary of the existing national and international framework to protect girls and women from child and forced marriage and measures on training, awareness-raising and accountability to ensure adequate responses. This should also include greater investment in ensuring the availability of adequate, child-friendly and gender-sensitive services and in building the capacities of all professionals that play a role in preventing child and forced marriage and protecting victims.

Извор: WUNRN – 09.06.2017