United Nations Resolutions on Education, Child Safety, Gender-Based Violence, and Climate ChangeUnited Nations Resolutions on Education, Child Safety, Gender-Based Violence, and Climate Change The United Nations General Assembly has adopted several resolutions addressing various human rights issues, including education, child safety, gender-based violence, and climate change. Education * One resolution mandates the UN to draft a treaty expanding the right to secondary and pre-primary education, addressing the high number of out-of-school children and adolescents, particularly at the secondary level. Child Safety * Recognizing the risks to child safety in the digital age, resolutions call for regional workshops to assess these risks and develop best practices for different geographical areas. * Another resolution focuses on technology-facilitated gender-based violence, requesting a study on its impact on women and girls. Climate Change * Two resolutions address climate and environmental concerns. One emphasizes limiting temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and its implications for vulnerable populations and gender equality. * The other focuses on the impact of plastic pollution on human rights. Right to Health * Resolutions on human rights in the context of HIV and AIDS and menstrual hygiene express concern about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health rights and the persistent gender gaps in health outcomes. Country-Specific Resolutions * The General Assembly also adopted country-specific resolutions on Colombia, Eritrea, Myanmar, and Libya. Other News * The World Council of Churches (WCC) has released a report and hosted an event highlighting the role of faith actors in promoting civic space and the impact of climate change-related losses and damage on human rights. * The WCC continues to advocate for human dignity and rights through its work in this field.
One resolution gives the UN the mandate to begin drafting a new treaty aimed at expanding the right to secondary and pre-primary education. The resolution “deeply concerned that according to UNESCO, 250 million children, adolescents and youth are out of school, mainly at the secondary school level, and according to UNICEF, almost 50 percent of preschool-age children worldwide – at least 175 million – are not enrolled in early childhood education, with costs for students or their families, social inequality and lack of infrastructure at the preschool and secondary school levels as major barriers to access to education in many countries. Girls continue to be more frequently excluded from education.
Resolutions were also adopted regarding children “child safety in the digital age,” recognizing that while the digital environment offers new opportunities for the realization of children’s rights, it also poses risks of violation or abuse of those rights. Five regional workshops will be held by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to assess risks to child safety in the digital environment and identify best practices to address these risks in different geographical areas.
The risks posed by the digital environment were further discussed in a resolution on technology-facilitated gender-based violence, which requested the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council to conduct a study on technology-facilitated gender-based violence and its impact on women and girls.
Two resolutions addressed climate and environmental concerns – one stressed the importance of pursuing efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and addressing the impact of climate change on the rights to health of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations, and the right to development, as well as gender equality, women’s empowerment and intergenerational equality. The second resolution was on plastic pollution and its impact on human rights.
With regard to the right to health, resolutions were adopted on human rights in the context of HIV and AIDS, and on menstrual hygiene. Both resolutions expressed deep concern about the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the realisation of human rights, in the context of the impact on the response to HIV/AIDS, and the compounding underlying and persistent gender gaps and inequalities.
Country-specific resolutions were adopted on Colombia, Eritrea, Myanmar and Libya.
“New report and side event highlight faith actors and their role in civic space” (WCC press release, June 20, 2024)
“Interfaith Forum to Discuss Impact of Climate-Related Losses and Damage on Human Rights at UN Meeting” (WCC press release, July 3, 2024)
Learn more about the WCC’s work in the field of “Human Dignity and Rights”
