International Day of the Girl Child (11/10)

October 11 marks International Day of the Girl Child, which was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 2011 (resolution 66/170) in recognition of the rights of girls.

This date calls for a focus on the need to address the challenges facing girls around the world and to promote the empowerment of girls and the enjoyment of their rights.

Adolescent girls have the right to safety, education and health not only during critical development, but also as they grow older and become women. With effective support during adolescence, girls can realize their potential and change the world for the better by becoming mothers, workers, entrepreneurs, mentors, heads of households and political leaders.

Today, there are 1 billion young people in the world, including 600 million adolescent girls. They all have enormous potential to transform our future. However, every day in any corner of the world they face discrimination and harassment.

Thus, almost every fourth girl in the world aged 15-19 years has neither work, education, nor vocational training, compared to 1 in 10 boys of the same age. By 2021, about 47 million women and girls were destitute as a result of COVID-19. In addition, one in three women in the world has been subjected to physical or sexual violence. According to some reports, violence against women and girls, and especially domestic violence, has increased dramatically as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to UNESCO, since 1995, the global school enrolment rate for girls has increased from 73% to 89%, with the greatest improvements in countries in Africa, South Asia and especially India. Three times as many women enter universities as two decades ago. However, despite progress, in many countries gender continues to play an important role in enrollment. Some 2.2 billion people under the age of 25 still do not have access to the Internet at home. As a result of the gender gap, women and girls are deprived of opportunities to access education, find better-paid jobs and start new businesses.

Investments (social, economic and political) in empowering adolescent girls ensure that their rights are respected today and promise a fairer and more prosperous future, one in which the fair half of humanity is an equal partner in addressing climate change, resolving political conflict, ensuring economic growth, disease prevention and sustainable development.

Over the past 15 years, the global community has made significant progress in improving the lives of girls in early childhood. However, there is clearly insufficient investment in solving the problems that girls face as they enter the second decade of their lives. It's about getting quality secondary and higher education, being able to avoid childhood marriage, providing them with information and services related to puberty and reproductive health, and being able to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and gender-based violence.

Investment is needed to break the vicious circle in which one generation inherits poverty, violence, social exclusion and discrimination from another generation and achieve fair and sustainable development results.

The day is set in recognition of girls' rights and the challenges they face around the world (Photo: Muellek, licensed by Shutterstock.com)

Therefore, every year events within the Day are dedicated to a specific topic. Girls' Day was first celebrated in 2012 and was dedicated to the pressing issue of — child marriage for many countries around the world, which constitutes a violation of fundamental human rights and negatively affects all aspects of girls' lives, depriving them of childhood and threatening the health and lives of girls.

In subsequent years, the Day's events focused on current topics such as: «An innovative approach to girls' education», «Empowering teenage girls: ending the cycle of violence», «Invest today to help contribute to the development of our world tomorrow», «Improving the situation of girls means progress towards achieving goals: what is important for girls», «The power of girls: spontaneous and unstoppable», «My voice, our equal future», «Our time has come — our rights, our future» and others.

Today, on this international date, all states are encouraged to hold thematic events to discuss possible ways to solve girls' problems.



Postcard «11 October — International Girls' Day» Story «Unloved daughters»

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