CEDAW/C/GC/34 budgets and investment strategies at all levels. Even when they exist, laws and policies that consider rural women’s situation and foresee special measures to address it are often not implemented. 5. Globally, and with few exceptions, on every gender and development indicator for which data are available, rural women fare worse than rural men and urban women and men, 2 and rural women disproportionately experience poverty and exclusion. They face systemic discrimination in access to land and natural resources. They carry most of the unpaid work burden owing to stereotyped gender roles, inequality within the household and the lack of infrastructure and services, including with respect to food production and care work. Ev en when formally employed, they are more often engaged in work that is insecure, hazardous, poorly paid and not covered by social protection. They are less likely to be educated and are at higher risk of being trafficked and forced into labour, as well as into child and/or forced marriage and other harmful practices (see CEDAW/C/GC/31CRC/C/GC/18). They are more likely to become ill, suffer from malnutrition or die from preventable causes, and are particularly disadvantaged with respect to access to health care. 6. Rural women are also more likely to be excluded from leadership and decision-making positions at all levels. They are disproportionately affected by gender-based violence and lack access to justice and effective legal remedies. Clearly, the importance of rural women’s empowerment, self-determination and position in decision-making and governance must not be ignored. When it is, States jeopardize their own progress. III. Overarching State party obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of rural women A. Application of articles 1 and 2 7. The definition of discrimination contained in article 1 of the Convention applies to all women and concerns all forms of discriminatio n, making its application to rural women self-evident. Article 2 provides that States parties shall condemn discrimination against women in all its forms and is inextricably linked with all other substantive provisions of the Convention, including article 14. To comply with article 2 in relation to rural women, States parties must refrain from acts of commission and omission that discriminate against them. 8. Discriminatory or otherwise inadequate legal frameworks, complex legal systems, conflict and post-conflict settings, a lack of information and sociocultural constraints can combine to make justice inaccessible to rural women. Factors that contribute to discriminatory stereotypes and practices, especially in rural areas, include the parallel existence of often overlapping and conflicting statutory, customary and religious laws and authorities. Many rural women and girls live in communities in which informal justice mechanisms are used to resolve disputes. While informal justice may be more accessible to them, rules and mechanisms that __________________ 2 16-03601 See The World’s Women 2010: Trends and statistics (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.10.XVII.11). Available from unstats.un.org/unsd. 3/25