Girls' rights are human rights

Girls continue to be the largest excluded group in the world. They face discrimination and abuse simply for being young and female. At all stages of their early lives up to adulthood, girls face distinct disadvantages that are directly related to this double discrimination.

Progress on achieving girls’ rights has stalled over the past decade. New research from Plan International reveals the extent to which international law overlooks girls’ rights, effectively rendering girls invisible. Rarely are girls mentioned as a specific demographic in international law and where they are, there is a failure to fully reflect the barriers that they face.

Too often girls are falling between the dominant agendas of women’s and children’s rights. Gender-neutral and age-neutral approaches are shaping international law-making, shifting attention away from girls.

Plan International recognises that millions of girls are disproportionately disadvantaged in education, health, work and family life – particularly in the world’s poorest countries. When factors like poverty, ethnicity or disability intersect and where gender stereotyping and unequal power relations prevail, girls’ disadvantage is magnified.

Our major new report Girls’ Rights are Human Rights and wide-ranging online resource and legal database, the Girls’ Rights Platform, aim to strengthen girls’ position in international law and to highlight their challenges. This new research is part of our broader global campaign to achieve equality for all girls.

Original source and full report: Plan International
Published on 7 February 2018