GIRLS OF WAR - Plan launches "Because I Am A Girl: State of the World's Girls 2008 report

May 15 2008: ONE in five countries in the world have used girls as child soldiers and 100,000 girls are currently fighting in conflicts around the world, a Plan report shows.

And in many conflicts, girls can find themselves forced from their homes; caring for younger brothers or sisters and at risk from rape, beatings and abduction.

These shocking revelations are included in Plan's annual Because I Am Girl report which this year focuses  on girls in war and other forms of conflict.

Plan is now calling on the United Nations to allow girls to bring complaints against their leaders if their lives have been damaged by war.

President of Liberia, and Africa’s first elected woman leader, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, says: “This report sheds an important and critical light on the often overlooked plight of girls in post-conflict countries that are rife with hostility which threatens their survival and potential.

“Urgent intervention is required to give girls a chance to lead normal lives that include obtaining an education and access to health care.”

Figures in the report reveal:
* 38 countries have used girl soldiers in armed conflict in the last two decades
* 200 million girls live in countries that are at risk of, in the midst of or emerging from armed conflict
* 90 per cent of victims of modern warfare are civilian with more and more women and children
* About 20 million girls are out of school in war zones

Girls also fair badly after the fighting stops as discrimination makes it far more difficult for them to get back into school or find jobs. The knock on effect of this not only means a girls life chances are severely limited, the economic future of the country is also severely handicapped.

This has prompted writers of the report to call on governments to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) in providing education, health care and skills training for girls.
 
It also stresses the need for the protection of girls’ rights, their involvement in decision-making and the post-conflict reconciliation in failed countries.

Download the report

Full 2008 Report (PDF, 4.8MB)

Executive Summary (PDF, 500KB)