Article 2 of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasizes that all children have fundamental rights and freedoms with being subjected to discriminatory attitudes irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status. Despite this, girl children face more discrimination globally in many fields, especially education, healthcare, and participation to social life. As a matter of fact, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres emphasized that girls are almost twice as likely as boys to miss out on education or training and one in five girls globally is married before the age of 18, saying that UN Sustainable Development Goals are not fulfilling its promises regarding girl children. (1)

Moreover, globally, cases of violence targeting girls emerge as a problem which threaten their fundamental rights and freedoms. While the aforementioned cases of violence target girls' physical integrity and right to life, they also negatively impact other parts of the society. Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, its causes and consequences Reem Alsalem, described this situation as "No society can be truly prosperous if women and girls do not have the right to equality and freedom from violence."

In order to raise awareness on all these issues, Turkey, Canada and Peru submitted a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly to designate October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child; the draft resolution was unanimously accepted by the General Assembly. This special day gives us the opportunity to address the girl children in our country, as well as the world, face and to protect their rights.

As Human Rights and Equality Institution of Türkiye, main mission of which is to protect the right to equal treatment of persons on the basis of human dignity and prevention of discrimination in exercising the legally acknowledged rights and freedoms, we hope for a world where all girl children have all rights on the basis of equal opportunity.

Respectfully announced to the public.