A/RES/61/146
accession to or ratification of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of
International Child Abduction, 17 and therefore to be in full compliance with the
Convention, and to facilitate, inter alia, the return of the child to the country in
which he or she resided immediately before the removal or retention;
11. Further calls upon States to take all necessary measures to prevent and
combat illegal adoptions and all adoptions that are not in the best interests of the
child;
Economic and social well-being of children
12. Calls upon States and the international community to create an
environment in which the well-being of the child is ensured, inter alia, by:
(a) Cooperating, supporting and participating in the global efforts for
poverty eradication at the global, regional and country levels, recognizing that
strengthened availability and effective allocation of resources are required at all
these levels, in order to ensure that all the internationally agreed development and
poverty eradication goals, including those set out in the United Nations Millennium
Declaration,5 are realized within their time framework, and reaffirming that
investments in children and the realization of their rights are among the most
effective ways to eradicate poverty;
(b) Recognizing the right to education on the basis of equal opportunity and
non-discrimination by making primary education compulsory and available free to
all children, ensuring that all children have access to education of good quality, as
well as making secondary education generally available and accessible to all, in
particular through the progressive introduction of free education, bearing in mind
that special measures to ensure equal access, including affirmative action, contribute
to achieving equal opportunity and combating exclusion, and ensuring school
attendance, in particular for girls and children from low-income families;
(c) Taking all necessary measures to ensure the right of the child to the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and developing sustainable
health systems and social services, ensuring access to such systems and services
without discrimination, paying special attention to adequate food and nutrition, to
the special needs of adolescents and to reproductive and sexual health, and securing
appropriate prenatal and post-natal care for mothers, including measures to prevent
mother-to-child transmission of HIV;
(d) Assigning priority to developing and implementing activities and
programmes aimed at treating and preventing addictions, in particular addiction to
alcohol and tobacco, and the abuse of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and
inhalants;
(e) Supporting adolescents to be able to deal positively and responsibly with
their sexuality in order to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS infection and
implementing measures to increase their capacity to protect themselves from
HIV/AIDS through, inter alia, the provision of health care, including for sexual and
reproductive health, and through preventive education that promotes gender
equality;
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