CEDAW/C/GC/31-CRC/C/GC/18 because they see other parents doing so and believe that others expect them to do the same. The norm or practice is often perpetuated by other women in community networks who have already undergone the procedure and exert additional pressure on younger women to conform to the practice or risk ostracism, being shunned and stigmatization. Such marginalization may include the loss of important economic and social support and social mobility. Conversely, if individuals conform to the social norm, they expect to be rewarded, for example through inclusion and praise. Changing social norms that underlie and justify harmful practices requires that such expectations be challenged and modified. 58. Social norms are interconnected, meaning that harmful practices cannot be addressed in isolation, but within a broader context based on a comprehensive understanding of how the practices are linked to other cultural and social norms and other practices. This indicates the need to adopt a rights-based approach that is founded on recognition that rights are indivisible and interdependent. 59. An underlying challenge that must be confronted is the fact that harmful practices may be perceived as having beneficial effects for the victim and members of their family and community. Consequently, there are significant limitations to any approach that targets only individual behavioural change. Instead, there is a need for a broad-based and holistic collective or community-based approach. Culturally sensitive interventions that reinforce human rights and enable practising communities to collectively explore and agree upon alternative ways to fulfil their values and honour or celebrate traditions without causing harm and violating the human rights of women and children can lead to the sustainable and large-scale elimination of the harmful practices and the collective adoption of new social rules. Public manifestations of a collective commitment to alternative practices can help to reinforce their long-term sustainability. In this regard, the active involvement of community leaders is crucial. 60. The Committees recommend that the States parties to the Conventions ensure that any efforts undertaken to tackle harmful practices and to challenge and change underlying social norms are holistic, community based and founded on a rights-based approach that includes the active participation of all relevant stakeholders, especially women and girls. 2. Empowerment of women and girls 61. States parties have an obligation to challenge and change patriarchal ideologies and structures that constrain women and girls from fully exercising their human rights and freedoms. For girls and women to overcome the social exclusion and poverty that many experience, which increase their vulnerability to exploitation, harmful practices and other forms of gender-based violence, they need to be equipped with the skills and competencies necessary to assert their rights, including to make autonomous and informed decisions and choices about their own lives. In this context, education is an important tool for empowering women and girls to claim their rights. 62. There is a clear correlation between the low educational attainment of girls and women and the prevalence of harmful practices. States parties to the Conventions have obligations to ensure the universal right to high-quality education and to create an enabling environment that allows girls and women to become agents of change (Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 28-29; Convention on 16/24 14-64765