Girl power…

According to the UN calendar, October 11 is International Day of the Girl Child. It has been celebrated since 2012. The goal of the day is to discover and find solutions to the problems girls face in different countries, be it premarital marriage, lack of education, ritual disruption of the sexual organs or, as in Armenia, girls’ underestimation and as a result of fetal abortions in our country. About 1300 girls are not born every year.

This year it is celebrated under the slogan “Girl Power” and the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Action Plan. In 1995, at the Fourth International Conference on Women’s Issues in Beijing, the Beijing Declaration was adopted, as well as a comprehensive action plan to expand women’s rights and opportunities in 12 problem areas, including a vision for resolving girls’ problems. And it was for the first time in the Beijing Action Plan that women’s rights issues were highlighted in the context of women’s rights.

The progress made over the past 25 years is remarkable, today girls are proving to possess unmatched strength … Today more girls attend and graduate from school, mastering the skills needed to succeed in the job market, but girls still need support to use their full potential. Today, more than 1.1 billion girls aged 15-19 live in the world. Every year 12 million girls under the age of 18 marry, 130 million girls still do not attend school, and about 15 million girls aged 15-19 are forced into sexual intercourse…

Nine Strategic Goals for Action to Protect Girls’ Rights Set in Beijing:

Eliminate all forms of discrimination against girls;

Eliminate negative cultural attitudes and habits of girls;

To promote and protect the rights of girls, as well as to raise awareness of their needs, to promote their potential;

Eliminate discrimination against girls in education, skills development and training;

Eliminate discrimination against girls in the health sector;

Eliminate the economic exploitation of children in the labor market, protect young girls in the workplace;

Eliminate violence against girls;

To promote girls’ awareness and participation in social, economic and political life;

Strengthen the role of the family in improving the status of girls.

In 2019, the International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated as a continuation of the theme launched last year to bring together the efforts of partners and stakeholders to provide the girls with strength, power, knowledge and leadership so that they can voice their problems and express their emotions. The international community needs to create more opportunities for girls’ voices to be heard…

The 16-year-old Greta Tunberg’s speech at the UN tribunal just two weeks ago is special. Greta, who is known as an environmental activist, made a bold speech at the UN Climate Summit, accusing world leaders of betraying the younger generation. The reason they ignore the consequences of the global climate crisis …