International Day of the Girl Child

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

On October. 11, 2020, UN Women celebrates The International Day of the Girl Child, a day dedicated to recognizing girls' rights to fulfill their potential and the tremendous challenges they must face to overcome the barriers of discrimination, prejudice and violence that systematically hold them back. This year’s celebration pays tribute to 25 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a roadmap and plan for achieving gender equality that was drafted, and adopted, by 189 Member States of the UN, meeting during The Fourth World Women Conference, held on Sept 4-15, 1995, in Beijing, China. In particular, the commemoration of The Beijing Platform  targets  the provisions of Chapter IV, Section L dedicated to the “The girl-child”.  

The theme My voice, our equal future, selected for this year’s celebration of The International Day of the Girl Child, also echoes the new UN Women campaign Generation Equality,  launched April 24-26, 2019 in Tunis, to bring together younger generations of women and men, feminists and activists fighting for gender equality. A campaign designed precisely to align younger generations with the visionaries of The 1995 Beijing Platform, for the purposes of realizing the Women’s Rights movement of an equal future, while leaving no one behind.

However, this year’s celebrations are also marred by the devastating impact of the COVID19 pandemic worldwide, and on women and young girls in particular (UN Women, COVID 19). An impact that has generally served to bring out, and intensify, structural inequalities of health, economy, security and social protection. Specifically, an impact that is estimated to have set the clocks back on small but significant economic development gains, particularly in the domain of education. Indeed 89% of the world’s children and youth were estimated out of school as of March 2020, with the transition to online education only serving to widen the divide between  lo-tech or no-tech populations on the one hand, and the tech-empowered on the other. 

Thus, significant gains in primary education for girls, and the narrowing of gender differences in secondary and tertiary education (goals #2 and #3 respectively), observed and reported in the UN Millenium Development Goals Report in 2015, are already estimated severely impacted. Likewise, UN Women also estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic will result in increased girl-child marriages for the purposes of alleviating economic strife, thus canceling small steps in the direction of protecting girls from marriages, dangerous to both their physical and mental health.

Similarly, UN Women,advocating on behalf of the Girl Child, estimates COVID 19 pandemic-related increases in (1):

• violence directed at women and girls, variously due to security and health issues, cramped living conditions, restrictions on movement,  deserted public places and living with an abuser;
• domestic violence, citing a 30% increase in calls, in countries such as France and Cyprus, 33% in Singapore, 25% in Argentina.
• the COVID-19 infection rates of women healthcare workers vs male healthcare worker infection rates, for example: 75.5% female vs. 24.5% male in Spain; 69% women vs. 31% in Italy.
• the number of maternal deaths and corollary increases in infant deaths within the year following the mother's death, already staggering prior to the pandemic since 810 women are estimated to die each day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. An estimated COVID19-related increase in maternal deaths, arising  in part because 40% of the world population (3 billion people) do not have handwashing facilities at home with soap and water, now also deemed crucial to preventing the spread of the pandemic.
• the economic strife of women and girls, who are generally less able to absorb the shock of economic hardship, since their position is more vulnerable prior to catastrophic events, man-made or not. Indeed, women earn less, save less, have more jobs in the informal economy, and therefore no social protection, and form the majority of single-parent households.
• conflicts that strain, or completely wipe-out medical infrastructures, not only making it impossible to handle health crises like the COVID 19 pandemic, but also eliminating whatever might have existed to handle reproductive health. Thus, for  this reason also, maternal deaths are expected to soar, especially in countries like Yemen and Syria.
• unpaid domestic and childcare work, with women and girls shouldering the effects of school closures and overburdened healthcare systems, resulting in more obstacles to seeking non-remote employment, and in girls permanently dropping out of school.   

Considering the above dampening of 2020 celebrations, the cautious hope is that such exacerbation and highlighting of the plight of women and girls will serve to illuminate a path to re-building better, and more sustainable, futures, where indeed the impatient voices of women and girls, calling for gender equality, will finally be heard. 

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Note (1)

Key figures all extracted from:  UN Women - How Covid-19 impacts women and girls.   https://interactive.unwomen.org/multimedia/explainer/covid19/en/index.html 

References

UN Women. https://www.unwomen.org/en 

UN International Day of the Girl Child.  https://www.un.org/en/observances/girl-child-day

UN Women –Beijing Declaration and Platform for action, adopted at The  Fourth World Women Conference on Women – Sept. 4-15, 1995.  https://beijing20.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/csw/pfa_e_final_web.pdf

UN Women - Generation Equality. https://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/beijing-plus-25/about

UN Women - Tunis Forum on Generation Equality, April 24-26, Tunis, Tunisia. https://tinyurl.com/y62t3lxb 

UN Women - How Covid-19 impacts women and girls.  https://interactive.unwomen.org/multimedia/explainer/covid19/en/index.html

UN Millennium Development Goals Report: Summary in 2015.   https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20Summary%20web_english.pdf

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (Oct. 30, 2000) on women, Peace and Security.   https://undocs.org/en/S/RES/1325(2000)

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).  https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdg 

UN SDG - Goal #5 – Gender Equality. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs/sdg-5-gender-equality

UN Women - Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka . https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/directorate/executive-director/ed-bio

UNICEF – International Day of the Girl Child 2018 (video). https://youtu.be/ZyCj6g0vOxA

UNICEF - International Day of the Girl Child 2019 (video). https://youtu.be/ZyCj6g0vOxA?list=RDCMUCXDenzwzeXM1TNtTuWj8C4A

UNICEF - International Day of the Girl Child 2013 (video). https://youtu.be/iOIJIEGpoPw