Promoting and Protecting the Human Rights of Women and Girls A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions 1.5. HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES OF SPECIAL CONCERN TO GIRLS Within the larger movement for the realization of women’s rights, history has clearly shown that it is essential to focus on the girl child in order to break down the cycle of harmful traditions and prejudices against women. Only through a comprehensive strategy to promote and protect the rights of girls, starting with the younger generation, will it be possible to build a shared and lasting approach and a wide movement of advocacy and awareness aimed at promoting the self-esteem of women and allowing for the acquisition of skills which will prepare them to participate actively in decisions and activities affecting them. Such an approach must be based on the recognition of human rights as a universal and unquestionable reality, free from gender bias. There is a need to ensure that a woman’s life-cycle does not become a vicious cycle where the evolution from childhood to adulthood is blighted by fatalism and a sense of inferiority. Only through the active involvement of girls, who are at the root of the life-cycle, is it possible to initiate a movement for change and betterment.26 The human rights issues set out above are, of course, also relevant to girls. The structural discrimination and inequality that underlines and perpetuates a lifetime of poverty and disadvantage for many millions of women begins in childhood. Laws, policies and practices that discriminate against women will inevitably include and affect girls. However, it is important to recognize that girls are subject to special vulnerabilities that reflect their sex and gender, as well as vulnerabilities associated with childhood. Primary school students in Gaza City. Photo by Arne Hoel/World Bank, reproduced under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license. 26 8 Adapted from the Committee on the Rights of the Child; Report of the 8th Session; CRC/C/38; paras. 284-285.