What is our girls’ vision for the future?

By Fr Myron J. Pereira

INDIA is an unfortunate country in which it is very unsafe to be a woman, especially a young woman, so great is the incidence of rape, sexual trafficking and child labor.

Yet, we refuse to despair.

Every year UNESCO honours the many ways in which girls transform how we live, learn and campaign for a just world.

We keep today, Oct 11, the International Day of the Girl Child, 12 years since its inception in 2012. This year’s theme is “Girls’ Vision for the Future.”

It aims to raise the diversity of girls’ voices and their vision for a re-imagined future, emphasizing their rights and empowerment.

Today’s generation of girls

Today’s generation of girls is disproportionately affected by global crises of climate, conflict, poverty, and pushback on hard-won gains for human rights and gender equality.

Too many girls are still denied their rights, restricting their choices and limiting their futures. Yet, recent analysis shows that girls are not only courageous in the face of crisis, but hopeful for the future. Every day, they are taking action to realize a vision of a world in which all girls are protected, respected and empowered.

But girls cannot realize this vision alone. They need allies who listen to and respond to their needs. With the right support, resources and opportunities, the potential of the world’s more than 1.1 billion girls is limitless.

And when girls lead, the impact is immediate and wide-reaching: families, communities and economies are all stronger, and our future brighter.

It is time to listen to girls, to invest in proven solutions that will accelerate progress toward a future in which every girl can fulfill her potential.

Did you know that investing in girls is not only the right thing to do for them, but it also brings positive impacts to their families, communities, and societies as a whole? Based on the priorities of young people worldwide for promoting adolescent girls’ rights, there are solutions rooted in partnerships that can transform girls’ lives and secure their futures.

Background

In 1995 at the World Conference on Women in Beijing, countries unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action — the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing the rights of not only women but girls as well.

The Beijing Declaration is the first to specifically call out girls’ rights. On Dec 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare Oct. 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.

The International Day of the Girl Child focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.

Adolescent girls have the right to a safe, educated, and healthy life, not only during these critical formative years but also as they mature into women.

If effectively supported during their adolescent years, girls have the potential to change the world — both as the empowered girls of today and as tomorrow’s workers, mothers, entrepreneurs, mentors, household heads, and political leaders.

An investment in realizing the power of adolescent girls upholds their rights today and promises a more equitable and prosperous future, one in which half of humanity is an equal partner in solving the problems of climate change, political conflict, economic growth, disease prevention, and global sustainability.

Girls are breaking boundaries and barriers posed by stereotypes and exclusion, including those directed at children with disabilities and those living in marginalized communities.

As entrepreneurs, innovators and initiators of global movements, girls are creating a world that is relevant for them and future generations.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders in 2015, embody a roadmap for progress that is sustainable and leaves no one behind.

Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is integral to each of the 17 goals. Only by ensuring the rights of women and girls across all the goals will we get to justice and inclusion, economies that work for all, and sustaining our shared environment now and for future generations.

The girl child and the environment

Vanessa Nakate, an activist from Kampala, Uganda focuses on the most significant global issue of our time: the environment.

“Climate change is more than statistics, it’s more than data points. It’s more than net-zero targets. It’s about the people, it’s about the people who are being impacted right now,” says the 25-year-old.

Trapped in poverty, there are many communities around the world that continue to lose what little they have in their relentless struggle to cope with the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

It is estimated that climate change can push up to 130 million people into poverty over the next 10 years, unraveling many hard-won development gains.

“Many communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis are already experiencing loss and damage. Communities cannot adapt to extinction, communities cannot adapt to starvation. The climate crisis is pushing so many people in places where they cannot adapt anymore.”

Vanessa, like many compassionate activists and advocates, believes that there needs to be a separate fund to help people recover the loss and damage they suffer from the consequences of the crisis.

“These are some of the injustices of the climate crisis — those who didn’t cause the climate crisis, those who aren’t responsible for the rising global emissions — they’re the ones on the frontlines. But their voices are not being listened to. And they’re the ones who don’t get climate finance for mitigation, or adaptation, or finance for loss and damage.

“In the end, you know, we cannot eat coal, we cannot drink oil. And, again, something else that one of my activist friends says a lot, money is useless on a dead planet.”

It’s true. Young women — like Greta Thunberg, Malaika Yousufzai, and Vanessa Nakate are transforming how we live, learn and campaign for a just world. – UCA News