- Conference
- 2017 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 12 October 2016
- Decision
- Carried
This conference notes the recent outcomes of research conducted by Plan UK into the state of girl’s rights in the UK.
This research identified that despite being the 5th richest country in the world the UK is failing to meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in turn is failing girls in this country.
The research identified
1) One in five women (22%) in the UK reported some experience of sexual touching, groping , flashing, sexual assault or rape whilst they were in around school
2) Reports of sexual offences in the UK have more than doubled in recent years to an average of 10 per school day.
3) Two thirds of reported sexual offences on school premises are girls or women.
Furthermore the research discovered that a girl’s location is critical to whether she might enjoy her rights based on life expectancy, child poverty, reproductive health and educational outcomes.
The research recognised that we rarely talk about girl’s rights and this is crucial if we are going to achieve SDGs for girls and young women regardless of where they live in the world.
These conference calls upon the National Women’s Committee to work with other relevant UNISON bodies to campaign for girl’s rights including:
• Lobbying policy makers to listen to girls and young women
• Challenge root causes of gender inequality wherever they exist
• Seeking to make SDGs as relevant here as we argue they should be elsewhere in the world.