Taking Stock on the International Day of the Girl Child

This November, the First Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children will take place in Colombia to focus on Sustainable Development Goal 16.2, which seeks to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all other forms of violence and torture against children by 2030. The goal is to accelerate progress through national-level commitments to prevent, protect, and provide resources for all children who experience violence. According to the World Health Organization, up to one billion children are victims of sexual, physical, or emotional violence every year, with girls experiencing disproportionate levels of violence. In the United States alone, one in four girls and one in thirteen boys experience child abuse. 

The ministerial follows closely on the International Day of the Girl Child, October 11, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2011 to highlight the various harms afflicting girls around the world, including multiple forms of violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation, and child labor. Girls experience sexual, physical, and emotional violence at higher rates than their male counterparts. Technological development has opened a new venue for abuse, with one in ten girls reporting online harm daily. 

Over 89.2 million adolescent girls live in conflict zones, where they experience particularly acute challenges. In addition to their exposure to violence—where more than one in four young girls experience rape or sexual assault in fragile settings—they struggle to receive education and other basic services. Half of the over 120 million girls who are out of school live in conflict-related settings like Ukraine, where Russia’s invasion has forced many children out of school or into makeshift schools in subways and basements. “I wasn’t able to participate in school for months when we were displaced. I didn’t have [a] laptop or [the] internet,” said one girl, Hanna. Eighty-seven percent of the schools in Gaza have been damaged, 625,000 children are out of school, and 11,355 children have been killed. “Because of the war, we were displaced, and there is no more education, nothing else – no studies. Our lives have turned into fetching water and gathering food. I want to learn,” commented Maryam, a young girl sheltering in Deir al-Balah. In Afghanistan, girls are forbidden from attending school past the sixth grade, and in South Sudan, a girl is more likely to die from childbirth than complete her primary school education.   

Sexual violence afflicts a staggering number of girls. A World Health Organization report from 2021 estimates that 120 million girls aged under twenty experienced sexual violence by someone other than a partner, and a new analysis calculates that one in four girls—nearly nineteen million girls—who are in a relationship experience such abuse. The data also reveals that girls from lower-income countries or experiencing poverty suffer higher rates of intimate partner violence. For example, in Sudan, reports of rape from girls as young as nine have emerged since the civil war has erupted. Additionally, girls without access to secondary education and in areas with high rates of child marriage were more susceptible to abuse from their partners.  

Child marriage is also endemic, imposing harms and costs that prevent girls from reaching their full potential. Every year, over twenty-one million girls become pregnant, and over twelve million give birth. Adolescent mothers face additional medical risks that result in higher rates of infection and maternal complications. The 2030 Accelerator Roadmap, led by Girls Not Brides, seeks to address factors that contribute to child marriage and enable policymakers to “go to the roots to dismantle the norms that keep girls captive,” according to Fanta Toure, director of the Girls First Fund.  

Seeking to empower girls to envision their future and contribute to their empowerment, the United Nations selected the theme of promoting girls’ visions for the future. UN Children’s Fund surveys show that adolescent girls are more satisfied with their lives in countries with lower levels of gender inequality. In advance of the November conference, Makadidia, a seventeen-year-old from Mali, offered her vision for the future: “With collective will and a commitment to change, we can create a future where opportunities for young girls multiply, where their dreams come true, and where equality becomes an unquestionable reality within 5 to 10 years.”