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International Women's Day is a time to celebrate women’s achievements, and to look ahead to the future progresses that can still be made. The key to a bright future is choice. Women must be free to choose the path that is right for them, a path that is free from violence, coercion or fear and allows them to move forward and realise their potential.

Education is a crucial step in empowering women to make choices. It is crucial to breaking cycles of poverty, violence and disease. Education is a human right and, therefore, every girl's right. However, 100 years since the first anniversary of International Women’s Day, and 60 years since human rights were enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, girls across the world still face many barriers to education. These barriers include gender-based violence such as:

  • Girls experience violence on the way to school, including harassment, and physical and sexual assault. Girls living in war torn countries or civil unrest are particularly vulnerable.
  • Girls experience violence at school. This can be by other students, such as being roughed up in schools grounds, teased by their classmates, threatened with sexual assault, or subject to physical or sexual assault.
  • Girls also experience violence from teachers and staff members, including sexual harassment, coercion into sexual activities and even raped.
  • In countries wracked by war, girls are at risk from armed groups and from attacks on their schools. Sexual abuse and exploitation are problems for girls living in refugee camps or displaced people's camps.
  • Certain girls face an increased risk of violence at school. Certain aspects of girls' identities, including their sexuality, status as migrants, orphans or refugees, caste, ethnicity and race, can increase their risk of abuse.
  • Although free primary education should be available to all children, schools around the world commonly charge user fees. If a family is facing financial hardship, it is more common for girls to be excluded from attending school than boys.

Violence leads to countless girls being kept out of school, dropping out, or not fully participating in school life. It causes not only pain and fear, but also lowered self-esteem, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and depression. In many cases, abuses go unreported.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that girls often choose not to report what continues to be a taboo issue in some societies, or for fear of retaliation. That leaves such acts under-reported and allows their perpetrators to go unpunished.

There is no justification for the lack of action. The issue is not about resources but political will. Governments, teachers and school authorities must work to prevent violence against girls in schools, must promptly investigate reports of abuse, impose appropriate punishments on offenders, support those who have suffered from violence to recover, and ensure that such abuses do not recur.

Join our campaign to protect girls’ rights to safety, equality and education. Make schools safe for girls.

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