Asia is home to more than half of the world’s 1.1 billion girls. Gender inequality in many parts of the region means that girls are often systematically disadvantaged and oppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. Girls’ development is hampered by child, early and forced marriage and high adolescent pregnancy rates. Across the region, gender- based violence against girls and women constitutes a serious and widespread rights violation, particularly with regard to domestic violence, marital rape, and trafficking in women and girls.
Written with Save The Children Asia, this thematic policy brief aims to seek and secure commitment from regional and national leaders to urgently prioritise and invest consistently in the protection of girls, who are disproportionately exposed to multitude forms of violence and their devastating consequences. It provides evidence and raises concerns of girls’ vulnerability to combined and complex risks that are further intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic.
