The 2024 International Day of the Girl theme is ‘Girls’ vision for the future’.
Being a girl shouldn’t determine what you can do, where you can go and what you can become. Many girls are left behind and are confronted by extreme challenges that deny their rights, restrict their choices and limit their future.
The International Day of the Girl Child serves as a global reminder of the importance of protecting and promoting the rights of our girls. It is an occasion for us to pledge our commitment to creating an environment where every girl in the world can thrive and reach her fullest potential.
We must recognize that girls’ rights are human rights, and by protecting them we pave the way for a brighter future for all.
Girls’ should exercise and enjoy their fundamental human rights as much as their male counterparts. However, reality paints a different picture. Girls’ right to life, education, freedom of expression, protection, etc, are blatantly trampled upon and discrimination, gender-based violence are non-exhaustively the causes of the impediments to the realization of the fundamental rights afforded to girls worldwide.1
Girls suffer from intersectional, also said “multiple”, discrimination. Individuals may “define themselves, or be defined by others, according to various criteria”, such as, inter alia, “gender, sex, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity , social status, disability and religion.2
Gender- based violence affecting girls include;
- Feminicide: The killing of a girl or woman in particular by a man on account of her gender.
Femicide has unfortunately become a universal problem (UN Women, 2022). The numbers gathered to that end across the globe is staggering, with Asia accounting for an estimated 17 800 victims, followed by Africa with 17 200 victims, the Americas with 7 500 victims, Europe with 2 500 victims and Oceania with 300 victims (UN Women, 2022).3
In 2022, the UN registered 89,000 cases of intentional killing of girls and women worldwide. 4
In 2024,at least 14 women have reportedly been killed in Kenya this year in acts of gender-based violence, and in the last eight years over 500 Kenyan women have been killed by their intimate partners. Many of the cases remain unsolved.5
- Child marriage and early pregnancy
- Sexual abuse and rape
- Child trafficking and sexual exploitation
- Girls’ adversity during armed conflicts or war6
Girls’ are not only courageous in the face of challenges, but hopeful for the future. Every day, they are taking actions to realize a vision of a world in which the fundamental rights of the girl child are duly recognized and implemented by different countries across the world.
But girls cannot actualize this vision alone. They need the government and legislative bodies to listen and respond to their needs. With the right support, resources,opportunities girls will have vision for the future.
Call to action is needed to drive progress for and with girls. Actively investing in and extending helping hands to girls with the notion that girls are the vision for the future would make the world a better place.
- https://www.humanium.org/en/girls-rights/ Accessed on October 2nd
2024 ↩︎ - Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- https://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-femicide-epidemic Accessed on October 2nd 2024. ↩︎
- https://www.devex.com/news/rise-in-femicide-in-kenya-puts-technology-s-role-in-the-spotlight-106945#:~:text=At%20least%2014%20women%20have,of%20the%20cases%20remain%20unsolved.
Accessed on October 2nd 2024
↩︎ - Ibid. ↩︎
