International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated annually on 11th of October to highlight and draw attention to the challenges that girls are facing, and also to focus on their human rights and empowerment.
International Day of the Girl Child is an international observance day declared by the United Nations; it is also called the Day of Girls and the International Day of the Girl. October 11, 2012, was the maiden edition of the Girl Child. The observation supports more opportunity for girls and increases awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide. This inequality includes areas such as access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, and protection from discrimination, domestic violence, and forced child marriage.
The celebration of the day also reflects the successful emergence of girls and young women as a distinct personnel in development policy, programming, campaigning and political issues.International Day of Girls was formally proposed as a resolution by Canada in the United Nations General Assembly. Rona Ambrose, Canada’s Minister for the Status of Women, sponsored the resolution in support of the initiative at the 55th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly voted to pass a resolution adopting October 11, 2012 as the inaugural International Day of Girls. The resolution states that the Day of Girls recognizes the empowerment and investment in girls, which are critical for economic growth, the achievement of all Millennium Development Goals, including the eradication of poverty, as well as the active participation in decision-making processes and the active support and engagement of their parents, legal guardians, families and care providers, as well as boys, men and the wider community.
Each year’s Day of Girls has a theme while the first was ending child marriage, the second in 2013 was innovating for girls’ education,the third in 2014 was Empowering Adolescent Girls; Ending the Cycle of Violence, the fourth in 2015 was The Power of Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030. The 2016 theme was Girls’ Progress = Goals’ Progress: What Counts for Girls, the 2017 topic was Empower Girls: Before during and after crises, and the theme for 2018 was With Her: A Skilled Girl Force.
The theme of the International Day of the Girl Child 2019 is Girl Force: Unscripted and Unstoppable. Women have led global movements on issues ranging from sexual and reproductive health rights to equal pay.Now, they are focusing on career, they are not being forced to marry at a young age. Several movements are organized for adolescent girls and tackling issues related to education inequality, gender-based violence, climate change, self-esteem, and girls’ rights to enter places of worship or public spaces during menstruation. Girls are proving that they are Unscripted and Unstoppable.