More effort is needed to ensure that girls have actual legal protections to live independent, free lives. We fund and collaborate with organizations to make these beliefs a reality:
- All girls have a right to an education
- No girl should live as a slave or a prostitute
- No girl should be married before she is 16 years old, and no girl or woman should be married against her will
- No infant should be killed on account of her sex
- No girl should undergo female genital mutilation
National Legal Systems
There are many things advocates can do at the national level to improve the human rights of girls:
- Ensure that the constitution adequately protects girls rights
- Ensure that national laws adequately protect girls rights
- Work to improve gender equality in political leadership
- Ensure that women are voting
- Increase nations’ economic commitment to education/health care and justice
- Ensure the independence of the judiciary, increase knowledge of the judiciary
- Ensure the enforcement of laws
- Create Economic Incentives for Girls to go to school, for people to stop marrying their children off, and to stop using FGM (Female
Genital Mutilation)
NGOS/Advocacy
NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) can help bring about change in the legal systems of different countries. In the past harmful cultural practices have been overcome, such as footbinding in China, slavery, and the Indian caste system.
Legal/human rights organizations that are working to improve the laws to address the protection of girls rights:
FIDA (Federation of Women Lawyers)
International Womens Rights Action Watch (IWRAW)
Center for Egyptian Womens Legal Affairs