A/HRC/44/29 trying to access health-care facilities that have not been destroyed or damaged.67 Without access to sexual and reproductive health services, women and girls are exposed to ill-health from communicable diseases and unwanted pregnancies, and face an increased risk of maternal mortality and morbidity.68 E. Impact on the right to education 24. Diversion of arms and unregulated or illicit arms transfers may also have gendered impacts on girls’ right to education.69 Armed attacks on education facilities, particularly those resulting in the abduction of girls, can create a ripple effect, setting in motion a range of negative impacts such as loss of education, child and forced marriage, early pregnancy, and the stigma associated with sexual violence and children born from rape, all of which dramatically affect the educational future of girls. 70 In instances in which armed groups have forcibly recruited children from schools and raped schoolchildren and teachers during attacks, this has resulted in significantly fewer enrolled students, particularly girls, once the schools reopen. Moreover, the death of parents and destruction of family homes, fields, animals and other means of livelihood due to armed violence have led parents to prioritize the education of boys in light of financial difficulties.71 IV. Legal framework for due diligence 25. In its resolution 41/20, the Human Rights Council recalled the principles and provisions relating to international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and the need for responsible action by States, as required by the Arms Trade Treaty and other relevant instruments. 26. In the present section, the High Commissioner builds on a prior report on arms transfers (A/HRC/35/8), which outlined the general principle of due diligence and the responsibility for aiding or assisting in the commission of an internationally wrongful act in international human rights law and public international law. 72 The High Commissioner sets forth specific due diligence principles under international human rights law that relate to diversion of arms and unregulated or illicit arms transfers. 27. International human rights law provides for the principle of due diligence, by which a State may be held responsible for its failure to take reasonable steps to prevent, investigate, punish and ensure reparations for human rights violations and abuses committed by private persons or entities, including companies and non-State armed 67 68 69 70 71 72 See the contribution of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. See the contributions of Switzerland, the Office for Disarmament Affairs, UNIDIR, UNODC, Control Arms, Project Ploughshares and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. See the contributions of Switzerland, the Office for Disarmament Affairs, UNIDIR, UNODC, Project Ploughshares and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 36 (2017) on the right of girls and women to education, para. 48. See also the contribution of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, citing Holly Cartner, “I Will Never Go Back to School”: The Impact of Attacks on Education for Nigerian Women and Girls (New York, Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, 2018). See the contribution of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, citing Holly Cartner, “All That I Have Lost”: Impact of Attacks on Education for Women and Girls in Kasai Central Province, Democratic Republic of Congo (New York, Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, 2019). In that report, the High Commissioner underscored that international human rights law provided for the principle of due diligence, by which a State may be held responsible for its failure to take reasonable steps to prevent, investigate, punish and ensure reparations for human rights violations and abuses committed by private persons or entities, including companies and non-State armed groups. The High Commissioner also clarified that, under public international law, as articulated in article 16 of the International Law Commission’s draft articles on responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts, a State that transferred arms with the knowledge that the arms would aid or assist another State to commit a serious violation of international human rights law might be held responsible for failing to exercise due diligence by taking the necessary preventive measures (A/HRC/35/8, paras. 20–21). 9