A/HRC/32/32
such as national wealth, income inequality, gender systems and access to education.21
Additional determinants include social norms, laws and policies and the physical
environment, as well as the online social media environment, which plays an increasingly
influential role in adolescents‘ lives.
36.
States must take legal, policy and other measures to address the underlying and
social determinants of adolescent health, including: road and environmental safety; racial
prejudice; access to education; persistence of forced and early marriage; corporal
punishment; social, economic, political, cultural and legal barriers to health services,
including sexual and reproductive health services; inadequate social protection;
institutionalization; punitive drug laws; absence of comprehensive sexuality education;
criminalization of exposure, non-disclosure of HIV status and transmission of HIV;
criminalization of same-sex relationships; and lax legal frameworks governing the sale of
tobacco, alcohol and fast foods.
37.
Measures to address the right to health should be holistic and integrated, go beyond
the provision of health services and be underpinned by cross-departmental commitment.
States should take account of and respond to the particular challenges faced by different
groups, such as younger and older adolescents, males, females and lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and intersex persons.
Right to protection from all forms of violence
38.
Exposure to violence increases during adolescence, to the point that it is a primary
cause of mortality and morbidity in the second decade.22 Violence occurs in the family, in
the community, at work or at the hands of State actors.
39.
Adolescent girls, adolescents with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
and intersex adolescents, adolescents living in institutions and adolescents from
communities with a proliferation of unregulated weapons or experiencing armed conflict
are among those particularly vulnerable to violence. The risks for girls include, for
example, exposure to sexual violence and exploitation, forced and early marriage, honour
killings and abusive practices often carried out in health-care settings, such as forced
sterilization and forced abortion for girls with disabilities, and forced virginity testing. 23
40.
Violence in intimate relationships among adolescents is also common, resulting in
both immediate and potential long-term consequences for their physical, mental and social
health. In addition to its immediate health consequences, the trauma of violence perpetrated
by an intimate partner can lead to long-term physical injuries, to both immediate and
delayed-onset health problems and to experiences of repeated revictimization. 24
41.
Lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth are at risk of “punitive” rape on the basis of
their sexual orientation or gender identity. Adolescents suffer disproportionately from the
effects of gun violence and significant numbers of adolescents face serious harm or death as
a consequence of armed conflict.
42.
The focus in the Sustainable Development Goals on tackling violence against
women and girls is welcome. However, significant levels of violence are also experienced
21
22
23
24
R.M. Viner and others, “Adolescence and the social determinants of health”.
WHO, Health for the World’s Adolescents.
See joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on harmful
practices.
C.C. Pallitto and V. Murillo, “Childhood abuse as a risk factor for adolescent pregnancy in El
Salvador”, Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 42, No. 6 (2008), pp. 580-586.
9
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