Advocating for the rights of girls everywhere
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, our future brighter.
Answering the big questions about girl's rights
How are we taking action with and for girls?
Save the Children have been working with girls to realise their rights for over 100 years.
Girls worldwide are uniting to create change in their communities, even in the most challenging environments.
Save the Children supports this by partnering with girl-led groups on their terms. We've collaborated with girls in fragile regions like Yemen and oPT, as well as Bolivia, Colombia, Nigeria, and adapted programs for younger girls in China, Indonesia, Mexico, and Vietnam.
Together with girls at risk of being forced into early marriage, we speak with influential leaders in their communities, who can help them to change harmful customs and oppose child marriages.
Girls rights in action around the world
Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone, about one-third of girls are married before the age of 18, robbing them of their childhoods and opportunities to learn, grow, play, and develop.
This year, women and girls across Sierra Leone, joined by Save the Children, successfully campaigned for an historic bill to be passed which criminalises child marriage.
This new bill restores the futures of nearly four million children across Sierra Leone.
Jordan
In 2022 Save the children opened an Adolescent Girls Empowerment Centre at Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan.
The centre is run by and for young women and girls.
It offers many classes to young women and girls from art therapy, self-defence and language lessons, to yoga and advocacy workshops.
“Every day something changes in me,” says shy 16-year-old, Shehab: “My knowledge is increasing, and I'm keeping something to help others.”
Nepal
Save the Children and its local partner, Sabal Nepal, formed the first girls' cricket team to combat child marriage.
Ria* not only started playing cricket but also became the chairperson of her Child Club: a group of young campaigners set up by Save the Children.
These efforts changed her parents' views and those of the community.
They have now declared their ward as child marriage free.
What we're calling for
We're calling on world leaders to recognise fragility as a critical risk for girls, and act now to protect girls from child marriage and other abuses of their rights.
Decrease risk factors
All countries should act now to decrease these risk factors for fragility and abuses of girls’ rights like child marriage.
Tackle risk head on
Governments, donors, the UN, humanitarian agencies and NGOs must recognise fragility as a critical risk factor for girls and build new, fully-funded coalitions to tackle it.
Ensure governments take full responsibility
Efforts to address risk factors for fragility and its consequences must ultimately enable governments to take full responsibility for ensuring the rights of all people within their country, especially the girls most at risk.
Supporting girls empowerment
Through meaningful participation in decision-making; mobilising families and communities as allies for gender equality; providing improved and inclusive gender-responsive access to services; conducting research and budget analysis to inform technical guidance on good practice programming, laws and policies; and advocating to ensure governments and other decision-makers are accountable to girls.
You can read the report here: Global Girlhood Report 2024: Fragile Future
Opinion and thought starters on girl's rights
Two blogs from staff at Save the Children.
What does progress look like around the world?
With the right support, girls everywhere are showing us what they're made of, and it's amazing to see.
Girls rights: What are the main issues?
In fragile countries, girls face an increased risk of child marriage due to being out of school, unintended pregnancy or gender-based violence.
What is a fragile country?
A country can become fragile when it's affected by crises like wars and climate disasters.
Systems that are supposed to protect people like law enforcement and healthcare are weakened, leaving girls more vulnerable to poverty, violence, and child marriage. Governments in fragile countries face the dual challenge of needing to do more to protect girl’s rights, at a time when they are least able to deliver that support .
International Day of the Girl: Our Girlhood report 2024
Investigating the devastating link between child marriage and fragile states - and addressing the potential solutions.
