Children's champion Graça Machel calls for action on girls' rights abuses

In an era that coined the term 'girl power' millions of girls are being condemned to a life of inequality and poverty.

It is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue. In May 2007 Plan UK launched a massive worldwide campaign, "Because I am a Girl", which aims to transform their lives.

The campaign started with the publication of a report on the disturbing situation, pulling together global statistics highlighting the extent of female foeticide, early marriage, abuse and violence and the lack of education given to girls in the world's poorer countries.

Because I am a Girl: The State of the World's Girls, a series of global reports on girls to be published every year until 2015 by Plan. The 2007 report warns that the Millennium Development Goals agreed by world leaders are likely to fail girls living in poverty.

Global statistics highlighted in the report paint a bleak picture of some of the challenges facing girls and young women growing up in the world's most impoverished regions:

• Girls aged 15-19 account for 50% of victims of sexual assault worldwide
• Birth complications and unsafe abortions are the leading cause of death for young women aged 15-19
• Seventy per cent of the 1.5billion people living on less than a dollar a day are female
• Stunted growth in estimated 450million women as a result of childhood malnutrition
• Approximately 7.3million young women are living with HIV/AIDS, in comparison to 4.3million men
• Two thirds of 15-19-year-olds newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are female
• Sixty two million girls are out of primary school

"To stop this inhuman attitude towards girls, there should be stringent laws against the practice of child marriages, and both the governments and the civil societies should initiate campaigns in every community on the evil consequences of child marriages."
Savitha, aged 14, from India.

Children's champion Graça Machel welcomed the launch of the campaign and called for world leaders to be made accountable for tackling gender inequality. She said: "This study shows our failure to make an equal, more just world has resulted in the most intolerable of situations. To discriminate on the basis of sex and gender is morally indefensible; economically, politically and socially unsupportable.

"None of the Millennium Development Goals will be achieved without gender equality. We cannot let another minute go by without acting decisively and urgently. Unless we do, we will be condemning millions of girls to a life of poverty and hardship."

Ms Machel's comments were backed by Plan's UK Chief Executive Marie Staunton who urged the international community to make the fight against gender discrimination a priority. Ms Staunton said: "Investing in girls yields real returns even to the poorest countries. World Bank Research shows that if one percent more girls have secondary education, annual per capita income growth is boosted by 0.3% on average."

Join the "Because I am a Girl" campaign - visit Plan's campaign website