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42. Treaty monitoring bodies should include the status of women and the human rights of women in
their deliberations and findings, making use of gender-specific data. States should be encouraged to
supply information on the situation of women de jure and de facto in their reports to treaty monitoring
bodies. The World Conference on Human Rights notes with satisfaction that the Commission on Human
Rights adopted at its forty-ninth session resolution 1993/46 of 8 March 1993 stating that rapporteurs
and working groups in the field of human rights should also be encouraged to do so. Steps should also
be taken by the Division for the Advancement of Women in cooperation with other United Nations
bodies, specifically the Centre for Human Rights, to ensure that the human rights activities of the
United Nations regularly address violations of women's human rights, including gender-specific abuses.
Training for United Nations human rights and humanitarian relief personnel to assist them to recognize
and deal with human rights abuses particular to women and to carry out their work without gender
bias should be encouraged.
43. The World Conference on Human Rights urges Governments and regional and international
organizations to facilitate the access of women to decision-making posts and their greater participation
in the decision-making process. It encourages further steps within the United Nations Secretariat to
appoint and promote women staff members in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, and
encourages other principal and subsidiary organs of the United Nations to guarantee the participation
of women under conditions of equality.
44. The World Conference on Human Rights welcomes the World Conference on Women to be held in
Beijing in 1995 and urges that human rights of women should play an important role in its
deliberations, in accordance with the priority themes of the World Conference on Women of equality,
development and peace.
4. The rights of the child
45. The World Conference on Human Rights reiterates the principle of "First Call for Children" and, in
this respect, underlines the importance of major national and international efforts, especially those of
the United Nations Children's Fund, for promoting respect for the rights of the child to survival,
protection, development and participation.
46. Measures should be taken to achieve universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child by 1995 and the universal signing of the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and
Development of Children and Plan of Action adopted by the World Summit for Children, as well as their
effective implementation. The World Conference on Human Rights urges States to withdraw
reservations to the Convention on the Rights of the Child contrary to the object and purpose of the
Convention or otherwise contrary to international treaty law.
47. The World Conference on Human Rights urges all nations to undertake measures to the maximum
extent of their available resources, with the support of international cooperation, to achieve the goals
in the World Summit Plan of Action. The Conference calls on States to integrate the Convention on the
Rights of the Child into their national action plans. By means of these national action plans and
through international efforts, particular priority should be placed on reducing infant and maternal
mortality rates, reducing malnutrition and illiteracy rates and providing access to safe drinking water
and to basic education. Whenever so called for, national plans of action should be devised to combat
devastating emergencies resulting from natural disasters and armed conflicts and the equally grave
problem of children in extreme poverty.
48. The World Conference on Human Rights urges all States, with the support of international
cooperation, to address the acute problem of children under especially difficult circumstances.
Exploitation and abuse of children should be actively combated, including by addressing their root
causes. Effective measures are required against female infanticide, harmful child labour, sale of
children and organs, child prostitution, child pornography, as well as other forms of sexual abuse.
49. The World Conference on Human Rights supports all measures by the United Nations and its
specialized agencies to ensure the effective protection and promotion of human rights of the girl child.
The World Conference on Human Rights urges States to repeal existing laws and regulations and
remove customs and practices which discriminate against and cause harm to the girl child.
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