International Day of the Girl Child 2025: The Girl I Am, The Change I Lead
“We, the girls from rural areas, want to exercise our rights online permanently, efficiently and securely. Just as I have had the possibility thanks to this empowerment project, all girls need to be able to learn about secure platforms that help empower us and enable us to choose who we want to be in the future.”
Luciana, 13 years old, from a rural farming community in Peru.
Extract from her intervention in the Online Event “The Commitment of the Human Rights Council to Youth and Human Rights: Addressing the Digital Divide, Online Threats and Mental Health”
Every year, on 11 October, we celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child to honor the voices, dreams, leadership, and achievements of girls everywhere. Established by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/170 (2011), it recognizes girls’ rights and raise awareness of the challenges they face to promote and fulfill their human rights. This day, is more than a symbolic event, is a call to action.
Today, millions of girls are standing at the frontlines of crisis, confronted by poverty, inequality, climate change, conflict, and displacement. Girls aged 15-19 are twice as likely as boys to be out of education, employment or training and, in
fragile settings, girls are nearly 90% more likely to be out of school than their peers in stable contexts. 1 in 5 young women aged 20-24 were married as children and self-harm has been one of the leading causes of death among adolescent girls. Conflict, displacement, and humanitarian crisis only deepen gender inequalities, child marriage, sexual violence, and maternal mortality of girls. Too many girls remain excluded from education, denied healthcare, and vulnerable to violence and harmful practices. And, too often, their voices remain unheard. And yet, hope is not lost.
Around the world, investments in girls’ education, healthcare, and leadership have already transformed lives and created positive effects for entire societies. Girls, in fact, are also leading change in their communities with courage and creativity. From rural villages to urban centers, girls are organizing, mobilizing, and raising their voices as they are leading climate strikes, creating community networks, and challenging gender-based violence.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2025, reminds us that girls are not only in need of protection, but they are leaders of transformation. When girls are empowered and included in decision-making processes, their voices enrich policymaking, their leadership strengthens communities, and their potential and contribution can transform societies.
This is why IIMA and VIDES joined forces with other partners to implement, from 2023 to 2025, the project “A Multi-Congregational Observatory to advance girls’ rights in 6 countries in the post-pandemic: A joint effort to close the digital divide and guarantee girls’ mental health”.
Advocacy and training programs were run for girls and young women from Ecuador, Kenya, India, Nepal, Peru, and South Sudan to gain critical skills to engage with the UN system for the protection of human rights, with particular focus on children’s and youth rights. Through mentoring and tailored guidance, young girls have been empowered to strengthen their leadership, build confidence, and develop advocacy skills. As a result, these girls are emerging as young leaders, voicing their proposals, influencing decision-making processes, and becoming key agents of change within their communities, contributing to a fairer and more inclusive future.