Because I am a Girl: The State of the World's Girls 2008 (In the Shadow of War)

The 2008 Because I am a Girl report focuses on girls living in the shadow of war. It describes the situations, and responses of girls dealing with the effects of conflict.

"Children do not start wars. Yet they are most vulnerable to its deadly effects. Millions of innocent children die in conflicts, which is no fault of theirs, just because some greedy leaders rob powers with the barrel of the gun.

During such times everything freezes, no education, no drinking water, no electricity, food shortages, no shelter, and most of all some girls are raped leading to HIV/AIDS."

A 17 year old girl from Ghana.

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 focuses this year on girls in war and other forms of conflict.

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."

Download Because I am a Girl: The State of the World's Girls 2008 (In the Shadow of War)

Girls in the shadow of war: the facts

• 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.