With more than 600 million girls growing up in the often unkind developing world, the United Nations has chosen back in 2011 to set a date for the worldwide Day of the Girl Child.
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A United Nations resolution established and designated this day to promote the rights of girls and address the unique challenges they face.
Girls everywhere should be able to lead lives free from fear and violence.
The country is therefore nearly a right setting for this week’s Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health’s board meeting in Lusaka, which coincides with the global Day of the Girl Child that was marked on October 11.
In December, the Ministry will launch the end child marriage project to kick start activities aimed at ending child marriage in Ghana.
The group, which is a pan-African non-governmental women’s rights organisation committed to the promotion and protection of the rights of women and children, is also calling for critical investments in the present and future of girls by investing in high quality education, skills training, access to technology and other learning initiatives that prepare girls for life, jobs and leadership.
It also requires ensuring their sexual health and reproductive rights.
Just after the adoption last month of the global goals for sustainable development, world leaders heard a ringing call from Nobel Peace Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was flanked in the General Assembly Hall by young people from around the world.
Suhakam calls for a review of the programmes with an emphasis on the lasting psychological consequences of early marriage and advises that Malaysians, including children, have a right to information and services to protect their sexual health. “By showcasing the diverse dreams and aspirations of girls around the world at the age of 15, we are highlighting to world leaders how becoming a bride can bring an abrupt stop to a girl’s future, particularly when she has to give up on her education and bear children before she is physically and psychologically ready”. HRCM urged that the adolescent girls of today should be at the same level as boys in the nation’s social, economic, technical and political fields of tomorrow.
HRCM made the declaration in a statement released on occasion of the global Day of the Girl Child 2015.
Numerous underlying causes of child marriage – including social norms that devalue women and girls – apply across all the countries.
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“If we ensure that adolescent girls today have access to good nutrition and education, delay marriages and pregnancies, then by 2030, more girls will reach their full potential and Ghana will be closer to the UN’s Zero Hunger goal which aims at eliminating hunger in our lifetime”, said Mutinta Chimuka, WFP Representative and Country Director in Ghana.
