Working Group on
Girls
NGO Committee on
UNICEF
wggs@girlsrights.org ; www.girlsrights.org
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Parties shall
take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational
measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental
violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or
exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent, legal
guardian or any other person who has the care of the child. (Article 19,
1) States Parties undertake to
protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual
abuse…(Article34) Violence against women shall
mean: Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to
result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm, or suffering to women,
including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of
liberty, whether occurring in public or private
life. The girl child of today is the
woman of tomorrow. … Yet there exists worldwide evidence that
discrimination and violence against girls begin at the earliest stages of
life and continue unabated throughout their lives. (Article
39) Strategic objective
L.7: Eradicate violence against the girl
child. A World
Fit for Children Create, with children, a
child-friendly learning environment, in which they feel safe, are
protected from abuse, violence and discrimination, and are healthy and
encouraged to learn. Goal
2: Ensure that
all boys and girls complete a full course of primary
schooling Goal
3: Promote gender equality and empower
women WGG Violence
Group Leslie
Wright, Zonta Hourig
Babikian, Christian Children’s
Fund Clare Nolan,
Congregation of the Good
Shepherd Doris
Schapira, League
of Women
Voters Catherine
Moore, International Federation of
University Women Katherine E.
Mayer, Soroptimists
International More
Information Working
Group on Girls NGO
Committee on UNICEF UNICEF
House, Room 1142 New York,
New York
10017 wggs@girlsrights.org www.girlsrights.org The Girl Child
and
Gender-Based
Violence Despite the protections guaranteed by the Universal
Declaration on Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
gender discrimination and violence against women and girls persists
everywhere and is a growing phenomenon in many parts of the world. In spite of the promises of the
Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the
Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) and the Millennium Development Goals,
girls continue to be exploited by individuals and victimized by laws which
fail to adequately protect them.
Too, often, and in too many parts of the world, the girl child is
still denied societal protection while the perpetrators of violence
against her proceed with impunity.
Xenophobia, misogyny and related intolerances which continue to
plague women are especially lethal for girls and can lead to a life time
of poverty, denial of human rights, bodily harm and even
death. Violence the girl child takes many diverse forms
including: Pre-natal sex rejection / Infanticide / Denial of
nutrition / Denial of education / Domestic violence/ Incest /Rape /
Commercial sexual exploitation /Trafficking for labor and sexual
exploitation / Use as objects in prostitution and pornography /Slavery /
Recruitment as child soldiers /Sexual exploitation by military systems /
Social discrimination /Economic discrimination/ Denial of access to health
care / Subject to harmful traditional practice /First exposure to
environmental hazards in cooking fires, etc / Use in child labor /
Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS / Denial of employment opportunities / Hazardous work / Inferior treatment/ Female genital mutilation
/Fistula/ Early marriage / Forced marriage /Failure of protective law/
Judicial use of physical punishment
/ Extra judicial execution/ Torture
/ Psychological punishment / Etc. Facts to Consider ♀
Gender violence
against girls and women is deeply ingrained in cultures around the world.
♀
Poverty persists as
feminized phenomena across the globe. Where people are poor, over 70% tend
to be women. ♀
The majority of the 121
million out of school children are girls. This
can be attributed to such factors as customary attitudes, child labor,
early marriages, lack of funds and lack of adequate schooling facilities,
teenage pregnancies and gender inequalities in society at large as well as
in the family. ♀
The World Health Organization (WHO)
estimates that 40 million
children below the
age of 15 suffer from abuse and neglect, and require health and social
care. Most of them are
girls. ♀
Girls suffer higher
mortality rates linked to
gender-related norms and customs such as infanticide, or fetal sex
selection. ♀
Currently fifty percent of all
new HIV/AIDS sufferers are young people between the ages of 15-24 and over
sixty percent are girls. ♀
Girls are the main procurers of fuel and water
collection. ♀
In some areas of
the world men outnumber women by five or more in every 100 as a result of
violence and gender discrimination that results in death. ♀
120 million
women have undergone some form of female genital mutilation; another 2
million are at risk each year. ♀
2 million girls
between ages 5 and 15 are introduced each year into commercial sexual
exploitation. ♀
More than 15
million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth each year as a result of early
marriage and early pregnancy. This can severely curtail educational and
employment opportunities; it has a long-term adverse impact on them and
their children's quality of life. ♀
Millions of girls work as
domestic servants and unpaid household help and are especially vulnerable
to exploitation and abuse. ♀
Gender discrimination can
underpin early marriage where abuse is
common. ♀
Due to the
debilitating effect of discrimination, Girls themselves internalize gender stereotypes
and strengthen the perverse cycle of
violence. Actions to Eliminate Violence Against the Girl
Child ·
Ratify
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women or withdraw any reservations to that Convention; ·
Enact and enforce legislation to protect the safety
and security of girls from all forms of violence at work, including
training programs and support programs, and take measures to eliminate
incidents of sexual harassment of girls in educational and other
institutions (BPfA); ·
Take legislative, administrative, social and
educational measures to protect the girl child, in the household and in
society, from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse,
neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including
sexual abuse (BPfA) ·
Undertake gender sensitization training for those
involved in healing and rehabilitation and other assistance programs for
girls who are victims of violence and promote programs of information,
support and training for such girls;
(BPfA) ·
Ensure data is disaggregated by age and gender in
all statistical gathering. ·
Require
gender-sensitivity education and training for all males and females at all
levels of elementary and secondary schooling. ·
Initiate
programs to expose and critique patriarchal traditional structures &
systems that under gird gender-based violence. ·
Ensure girls participate in all decisions related
to policies and programs designed for their protection and
empowerment. Source and
Resources ♀
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/
♀
www.unicef.org/programme/education/index/html
♀
www.undp.org/gender/docs/mdgs-genderlens.pdf
/ ♀
www.unfpa.org
♀
http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm/ ♀
http://www.crin.org/violence/index.asp Prepared November
2005
Convention for Elimination of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW)
Recognizing that violence
against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations
between men and women, which have led to domination over and
discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full
advancement of women, and that violence against women is one of the
crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate
position . .
.
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
MDGS
Forms of
Violence Against the Girl Child