The 2024 International Day of the Girl theme is ‘Girls’ vision for the future’.
This year’s theme conveys both the need for urgent action and persistent hope, driven by the power of girls’ voices and vision for the future.
Today’s generation of girls is disproportionately affected by global crises of climate, conflict, poverty and pushback on hard won gains for human rights and gender equality. Too many girls are still denied their rights, restricting their choices and limiting their futures.
Yet, recent analysis shows that girls are not only courageous in the face of crisis, but hopeful for the future. Every day, they are taking action to realize a vision of a world in which all girls are protected, respected and empowered.
But girls cannot realize this vision alone. They need allies who listen to and respond to their needs.
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.
It is time to listen to girls, to invest in proven solutions that will accelerate progress towards a future in which every girl can fulfil her potential.
Did you know?
- Nearly 1 in 5 girls are still not completing lower-secondary and nearly 4 in 10 girls are not completing upper-secondary school today.
- Around 90 per cent of adolescent girls and young women do not use the internet in low-income countries, while their male peers are twice as likely to be online.
- Globally, girls aged 5-14 spend 160 million more hours every day on unpaid care and domestic work than boys of the same age.
- Adolescent girls continue to account for 3 in 4 new HIV infections among adolescents.
- Nearly 1 in 4 married/partnered adolescent girls aged 15-19 have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner at least once in their lifetime.
- Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 100 million girls were at risk of child marriage in the next decade. And now over the next ten years, up to 10 million more girls worldwide will be at risk of marrying as children because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In today’s 2nd reading, the apostle Paul, writing to the first Christians of Rome (Romans 15:4-9), speaks of:
2022 Theme: End racism. Build peace.
This date marks the International Small Arms Destruction Day, a date initiated by the United Nations in 2001 to remind the threat that the excessive and destabilizing accumulation of and illicit traffic in small arms and light weapons pose to peace and security, and highlights the importance of destroying surplus weapons as a key measure to reduce illicit arms flows and build safer societies where citizens can develop their full potential.
Every year, thousands of men and women the world over put their lives in danger working in Humanitarian causes all over the world. Working in the most poverty and illness stricken third world countries the world over, often in areas of great social violence, these dedicated heroes put their lives on the line, and sometimes lose them in the pursuit of their goals. World Humanitarian Day is when we remember these heroes and their sacrifices.