WUNRN
The Working Group on Girls – Full 2-PAGE Document:
http://girlsrights.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/WGG-Post-2015-Position-Paper.pdf
The Working Group on Girls (WGG) is a coalition of over 80 national and international non-governmental organizations with representation at the United Nations dedicated to: promoting the human rights of the girl child in all areas and stages of her life, advancing the inclusion and status of girls, and assisting them to develop their full potential as women.
What Girls Want in a Post-2015
Agenda
Girls’ rights play a critical
role in realizing a transformative development agenda. When the rights of girls
are recognized, their needs met, and their voices amplified, girls have the
potential to drive change in their local communities, nations, and the world.
Investing in girls is smart economics1, catalyzing sustainable development, enhancing
productivity, and building more representative institutions and policies. In
looking ahead to the Post-2015 Agenda, empowered girls are central to every
sustainable solution.
The Working Group on Girls at
the United Nations (WGG) is a coalition of 80 international organizations
working directly with girls around the world. In the Post-2015 Agenda, the WGG:
•
Affirms
the consensus on goals related to girls in the UN reports2 that emerged from global consultations contributing to the
Post-2015 Global Development Agenda,
•
Supports
the report published by UN Women3 advocating specific
gender targets in the Post-
2015
Agenda, and
•
Welcomes
the attention to girls’
issues in
the Secretary General’s Report to the UN General
Assembly,
“A Life of Dignity for All: Accelerating Progress Towards the Millennium
Development
Goals and Advancing the United Nations Development Agenda Beyond 2015”.4
The WGG calls for a
stand-alone goal for girls, and proposes the following targets and indicators:
GOAL: EMPOWER GIRLS AND
ENSURE GIRLS’ RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY Target 1: Implement the full spectrum
of girls’ human rights
a)
Guarantee girls’
rights
according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Section L
“The
Girl Child”
of the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the Convention to
Eliminate
All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
b)
Eliminate discrimination against girls in political, economic and public life.
c)
Facilitate girls’
participation
and decision-making on issues that affect them. d) Ensure the equal rights of
girls to inherit property and open a bank account.
Target 2: Eradicate violence
and the root causes of violence against girls
a)
Challenge discriminatory social norms and attitudes, and establish violence
prevention programs.
b)
Eliminate domestic violence against girls.
c)
Create laws that reject the commodification of girls’ bodies by the media and
local socialization.
d)
Monitor law enforcement response to crimes of rape and domestic abuse against
girls.
1 World Bank, “Investing in Girls and Women for a More Prosperous World”
2 High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
(Post-2015 HLP); UN Sustainable Development
Solutions Network (SDSN); UN
Global Compact (UNGC); UN Development Group (UNDG): The Global Conversation
Begins
3 A Transformative Stand-Alone Goal on Achieving Gender Equality, Women’s
Rights and Women’s Empowerment:
Imperatives and Key Components
4 A/68/202
e) Change laws that allow child, early and
forced marriage.
f)
Support governments and communities to put an end to female genital mutilation.
g) Eliminate crimes against women and girls committed in the name of honor.
h)
End the trafficking of girls, and provide protection and assistance to victims.
i) Abolish girls’
heavy and
unpaid work burden.
j)
Eradicate poverty.
Target 3: Provide quality
education and lifelong learning
a)
Enforce universal birth registration, particularly for girl children.
b)
Ensure the access and completion of girls’ education from primary through secondary, and
provide equal access to tertiary education and career training.
c)
Ensure the quality of all education (including science, technology,
engineering, and math)
by
proper teacher training, girls’ safe travel to school, and provision of
sanitary facilities.
d)
Guarantee that girls’
access to
schools is facilitated by necessary infrastructure and funding mechanisms (such
as investments in a rights-based social protection floor).
e)
Free girls from undue responsibilities for household labor.
f)
Create venues that allow girls to prepare themselves for effective
participation in family and community life.
Target 4: Ensure Healthy
Lives
a)
Eliminate sex selection.
b)
End preventable infant and under age 5 deaths by providing access to clean
drinking water, nutritious food, sanitation and access to community based
quality health services
c)
Ensure the universal vaccination of all children, including girls.
d)
End girls’
maternal
mortality by ensuring that girls are not forced into early marriage, and that a
birth attendant assists every mother.
e)
Reduce the burden of disease from HIV/AIDS by universal provision of ARV drugs.
f)
Prioritize accessibility of medications to prevent polio, tuberculosis,
malaria, and neglected tropical diseases, including medical attention for
non-communicable diseases.
In addition to the issues
above, particular attention should be paid to:
I.
Girls in conflict zones, refugee camps, in transit during migration
We call for an end to the
impunity, which prolongs rape as a weapon of war, and the impunity that results
in human trafficking and rampant abuse of refugee and migrant girls, especially
domestic workers. Laws
must be implemented; funds
allocated for prevention, and law enforcement needs specialized training to
recognize girls in these instances.
II.
Girls who are heads of households
Families who have suffered
HIV/AIDS deaths of parents or other medical emergencies, which result in the
need for adult long term care often leave girls as heads of households. While
there are many instances
of remarkable resilience and
leadership of girls in these situations, they are in need of support and a life
of childhood to the extent that is possible.
III.
Girls with differing abilities
Any persons with “disabilities”
are valuable human beings and deserve a life of dignity. It is incumbent that
they be provided with medical care, education, and decent work to the extent
that this is possible.
Copyright © WGG March 2014