A/RES/52/99 Page 4 (g) The fact that the Commission on the Status of Women will address the critical areas of concern, namely, "Violence against women", "The girl child" and "Human rights of women", at its session in 1998 and "Women and health" at its session in 1999, and invites the Commission to address the issue of harmful traditional or customary practices during those sessions; 2. Emphasizes: (a) The need for Governments to analyse, from a gender perspective, all policies and programmes, particularly those relating to poverty, health and violence against women, with a view to assessing their implications for women and men; (b) The need for national legislation and/or measures prohibiting harmful traditional or customary practices as well as for their implementation, inter alia, through appropriate measures against those responsible; (c) The need to improve women's position in society and to promote their economic independence; (d) The importance of education and the dissemination of information in raising awareness, in all sectors of society, of the serious consequences of traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls and the responsibilities of Governments in this regard; (e) The necessity of involving, among others, public opinion leaders, educators, religious leaders, medical practitioners, women's health and family planning organizations and the media in publicity campaigns, with a view to promoting a collective and individual awareness of the human rights of women and girls and of how harmful traditional or customary practices violate those rights; (f) That information and education with regard to harmful traditional or customary practices should also be targeted at men and that they should be encouraged to be responsive to such information and education; (g) The importance of coordination between the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and the relevant treaty bodies, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women, its causes and consequences and the Commission on the Status of Women, including through the exchange of information, and encourages them, within their respective mandates, to continue to pay attention to traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls; (h) The need for financial and technical assistance for developing countries from United Nations funds and programmes, as well as from international and regional financial institutions and bilateral and multilateral donors, so as to assist Governments in combating such practices; 3. Calls upon all States: (a) To implement their international commitments in this field, inter alia, under the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,9 the Beijing Declaration11 and the Platform for Action12 of the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development10 and the Plan of Action for the Elimination of Harmful Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children;8 (b) To ratify, if they have not yet done so, the relevant human rights treaties, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women13 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,15 and to respect and fully implement their obligations under the relevant human rights treaties to which they are parties, emphasizing the incompatibility between the continuation of these harmful /...