A/HRC/38/L.1/Rev.1
of Women and other United Nations agencies and bodies that consider the issue of
discrimination against women and girls,
Recalling further the inclusion of both gender equality and the empowerment of all
women and girls as a stand-alone goal and its mainstreaming into all goals and targets of
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the adoption of the Addis Ababa
Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development,
Underscoring the fact that international human rights law prohibits discrimination,
inter alia on the basis of sex and gender, and that national legislation should adhere to each
State’s international obligations,
Recalling that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and
interrelated, that gender equality must be promoted in a comprehensive and systematic
manner, and that persistent discrimination within families and societies has a debilitating
impact on the equal enjoyment of human rights by women and girls in all aspects of life,
and affirming that no State can be indifferent to the violations of human rights anywhere in
the world,
Reaffirming women’s and girls’ economic and social rights, and emphasizing the
significant role that women play in economic development and in the eradication of
poverty, and that sustainable development will only be achievable with women’s economic
empowerment and independence, and equal economic rights of women and men, and,
where applicable, girls and boys, to economic and productive resources, including
ownership and control of land, natural and other productive resources, property,
inheritance, and financial services, including microfinance, equal opportunities for women
for full and productive employment and decent work, and equal pay for equal work or work
of equal value, legal advice and support, vocational training, information and
communications technology and markets, and by removing barriers to women’s full, equal
and meaningful participation in local, national and international economies,
Emphasizing the importance of women’s and girls’ access to justice and of fostering
a responsive justice system that advances and ensures the application of women’s and girls’
equal rights and opportunities and their full, equal and meaningful participation for
achieving the 2030 Agenda,
Recognizing the contribution of families to sustainable development, and
acknowledging the benefit of implementing family-oriented policies aimed at, inter alia,
eliminating poverty, protecting them from violence, exclusion and involuntary separation,
achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, the full
participation of women in society, a work-family balance and the self-sufficiency of the
family unit, and that the equal sharing of family responsibilities creates an enabling
environment for the empowerment of all women and girls,
Deeply concerned that discrimination against women and girls persists in all
cultures, with different levels of intensity and differing impact,1 and by the fact that many
women and girls everywhere, particularly those with disabilities and those who are
marginalized or in a vulnerable situation, face multiple and intersecting forms of
discrimination and are still subject to discriminatory laws, policies and harmful practices,
inter alia, female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage, and that de jure
and de facto equality has not been achieved,
Regretting that specious justifications based on tradition or cultural or religious
interpretations contrary to the international obligation to eliminate all forms of
discrimination against women and girls are used to keep women and girls from taking an
equal place in society and families or from exercising full control over their bodies and
their personhood,
Expressing concern at persistent gender gaps and the increase in gender segregation
by sector in the labour market, created by discrimination based on patriarchal social norms,
1
2
See A/HRC/38/46.