A/HRC/19/73 18. The vulnerability of children is closely connected to the vulnerability of women. Gender plays an important role which cannot be overstated: pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, girl children are highly vulnerable to malnutrition. A malnourished mother is likely to give birth to a baby of low birthweight susceptible to disease and premature death.35 It is contended that “malnourished girls, in particular, risk becoming yet another malnourished mother, thus contributing to the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition”. 36 From a human rights perspective, we must question those cultural practices that place limits on women‟s access to nutrition and food, clean water and sanitation and education and expose them as forms of gender discrimination. 37 Such discriminatory practices may also be responsible for malnutrition in girl children and later in women, and thus for the propagation of a cycle of malnutrition. Access to nutritious food for a mother and her child is as important as access to information about adequate feeding practices.38 Even in developed contexts breastfeeding mothers face hurdles, such as societal pressure not to breastfeed in public and the lack of proper facilities that enable breastfeeding at the workplace.39 At the same time, the lack of paid maternity leave or maternity leave that does not cover the WHO-recommended six months of exclusive breastfeeding often leaves no choice to young mothers but to return to work and to stop/reduce breastfeeding. 40 Furthermore, as the Human Rights Council underlines in its resolution 16/27, nondiscriminatory access to resources, including income, land and water and their ownership, and to education, science and technology are vital for women to be able to feed themselves and their families. 19. As the above paragraphs bear witness, the relationship between malnutrition and childhood diseases is one that more often than not rests on poverty; and poverty itself is often traceable to either de jure or de facto discrimination in society and the family itself (see A/HRC/16/40). The strong link between malnutrition and childhood diseases stems from poor access to sufficient or sufficiently nutritious food, adequate and timely health care, safe water and sanitation facilities, education, access to information, decent work and livelihood opportunities, and adequate and sanitary shelter and housing. This lack of access is a saga about the human rights of children and adults that are not being fulfilled. A UNICEF publication from 2000 summarizes: “The success the world has had in protecting children‟s rights and realizing human potential is captured far more eloquently in flesh and bone than in concrete or steel, far more tellingly in the height of children than in that of skyscrapers.”41 20. The observation remains valid today against the reality of 195 million malnourished children worldwide susceptible to acute and chronic paediatric diseases and medical complications, such as noma. 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 8 Blössner, De Onis, Malnutrition: quantifying the health impact, p. 1. Ibid, p. 3. A/HRC/16/40, para. 61; report of the OHCHR on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights, A/HRC/14/39, para. 18; I. Rae, Women and the Right to Food: International Law and State Practice (FAO, Rome 2008), pp. 12–14. B. Teshome et al., “Magnitude and determinants of stunting in children under- five years of age in food surplus region of Ethiopia: The case of West Gojam Zone”, Ethiopian Journal of Health Development, vol. 23, No. 2, 2009, pp. 98–106. Science Daily, “Even Part-Time Work Can Have A Negative Effect On Breastfeeding Rates, Says New Study”, 29 April 2008; A.R. Cooklin et al., “Maternal employment and breastfeeding: results from the longitudinal study of Australian children”, Acta paediatrica, vol. 97, No. 5, 8 February 2008, pp. 620–623. Ibid. UNICEF, The Progress of Nations 2000, p. 14.