VIVAT New York is an active member of many NGO Committees, Task Forces, and Working Groups. One such group in which VIVAT is a participant is the NGO Comminttee on UNICEF Working Group on Girls (WGG). Through VIVAT’s membership and collaboration with the WGG, we promote the rights of girls in their communities, and encouraging the participation, visibility, and empowerment of girls. Below is a brief summary of the WGG’s recent actions.
The July, 2010 issue of Action for Girls the newsletter of the Working Group on Girls and its International Network for Girls is now available.
WGG Prepares Fact Sheet on Girls and MDGs – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend the Millennium Development Goals Summit on 20-22 September 2010 in New York City to accelerate progress toward the achievement of the MDGs by 2015. To prepare for the Summit in September, on 14-15 June the General Assembly held Informal Interactive Hearings with representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations, which provided the governments with clear, concise statements on how to move forward to achieve the MDGs. WGG distributed to the participants a fact sheet on the eight MDGs entitled “Out of the MDG Shadows: Girls and Why They Matter” http://www.girlsrights.org/Fact_Sheets.html. For each of the eight MDGs the fact sheet lists Gaps in Progress and Recommendations.
Climate Change Affects the Girl Child – It is an acknowledged fact that when climate change strikes, people living in poverty, 70% of whom are women, are in the frontlines. Girls, however, are rarely mentioned in these accounts of climate change. Why?
Ritha Baraka, Social Worker from the Congo, Speaks at WGG – Ritha Baraka, a social worker at Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), spoke about her work with raped and sexually abused women and girls at the WGG meeting on 6 May 2010. Speaking with Baraka were Scott Blanding and Greg Heller (Women in War Zones), who have made a film about sexual violence against women in war zones that features Panzi Hospital.
Girls Respond to CSW 54 – Dozens of girls from all over the world had the opportunity in March 2010 to attend the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York City. Thanks to the NGOs that sponsored their participation, they were able to talk with girls with the same interests coming from different cultures and having different backgrounds. Together they built a web of contacts and connections, learned about their human rights as girls, and improved their skills of advocacy at the United Nations.
STEM Will Be Theme of CSW in 2011 – The 55th session of the CSW in 2011 (28 February through 11 March) will have as its theme: “Access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s access to full employment and decent work.”
Visit http://www.girlsrights.org/Newsletter.html to read, download or print a copy.
