At the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), with a membership of over 10 million girls and young women, the realities of this gap are heard directly through the lived experiences of our members, from local communities to the international stage.
Girls’ Voices Are Essential to International Law Yet Often Excluded
In global forums such as the UN Commission on the Status of Women(CSW), girls and young women are frequently invited to speak, participate in side events, and inspire audiences. These moments are important, symbolic, and highly visible.
However, when negotiations move into private rooms, where actual decisions are drafted, and deals are struck, young women’s voices are too often left outside the door.
Despite being directly affected by global policies on safety, rights, movement, education, and bodily autonomy, their perspectives are dismissed as too political, too costly, or too controversial.
Year after year women and girls call for change, call for an end to the impunity and institutionalised systems of oppression that allow violence against them to remain endemic; and year after year they are failed by in-action. We are tired of the empty platitudes and tick box exercises. A place at the table needs to translate into tangible action, through prevention education, resource mobilisation to support grassroots women and girls’ service provision without State interference and through strong legal and fair judicial systems that prove impunity will not be tolerated.
The result is a system where international laws consider the needs of girls and young women only when convenient, undermining the very principles of equality and participation that these laws claim to uphold.
Local Action Continues, But Global Systems Must Catch Up
Across the world, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts have long led powerful local action, from campaigning against child marriage in Malaysia to banning FGM in Malta. WAGGGS’ long-standing Stop the Violence campaign has mobilised thousands of young people to demand safer communities.
These efforts demonstrate what effective change looks like when girls are empowered and supported. But international legal systems, meant to reinforce and scale such progress, are failing to keep pace with the realities girls face.
Commitments on Paper Do Not Always Translate into Protection
Even when states sign treaties and conventions designed to protect women and girls, implementation remains uneven. In many countries, essential services mandated under international law are undermined by inadequate funding, divisive rhetoric, or discriminatory legislative proposals.
In some contexts, vulnerable groups, such as migrant women, minority women, and gender-diverse communities, are not only unprotected but actively vilified. Fear of deportation prevents survivors from reporting violence; restrictive policies limit access to safe spaces; political narratives turn communities against those most in need of support.
These realities stand in stark contrast to global commitments states have made to end discrimination and uphold gender equality.
Global Conflict Highlights the Limits of Enforcement
Beyond national borders, the failures of international law become even more visible. Around the world, violations of humanitarian and human rights law continue with limited accountability, and gender-based violence in conflict remains widespread and under-prosecuted. Discussions at global forums repeatedly highlight a sobering truth: even when laws exist, consequences often do not.
The rule of law must operate universally and not selectively. Implementation remains a persistent gap within many international and national systems, particularly as we rely on national governments to comply with their obligations. We must continue to advocate for its full realisation and use every tool available to us to move the needle towards ending inequality. International law has a specific but critical role to play. In situations where access to justice is limited, international mechanisms provide essential avenues to monitor and systematically document violations, provide international reach, bring public scrutiny to State conduct, and support actions to address it.
Without robust enforcement mechanisms, perpetrators operate with impunity, and survivors, especially girls and young women, remain unprotected.
What the 16 Days Demand from the International Community
The 16 Days of Activism are not just a campaign; they are a global demand for accountability. Ending gender-based violence requires more than statements of support; it requires:
- international laws that truly reflect the lived realities of girls and young women
- youth participation that is meaningful, valued, and sustained
- full implementation and resourcing of the commitments states make
- credible, consistent consequences when international laws are ignored and an end to State and perpetrator impunity.
These pillars are essential if the international system is to function as a genuine safeguard for women’s and girls’ rights.
A Call for Courageous Leadership
The world cannot allow the energy of the 16 Days to fade on Day 17. Real progress depends on leaders willing to uphold international law not only when it is politically easy, but especially when it is not.
Girls and young women have always been at the forefront of demanding justice, equality, and safety. It is time for the international system to match its courage and doing so by transforming commitments into lasting, enforceable protection.
(Written by Lily Raper, Global Advocacy Champion, WAGGGS)