Today, the Working Group on Girls has published a new and comprehensive fact sheet: Girls with Differing Abilities. This fact sheet is available at: http://girlsrights.org/fact-sheets/

The Working Group on Girls (WGG) is dedicated to collaborating with girls to promote the rights and status of girls in all aspects of their lives. WGG has undertaken a review of the literature around girls with differing abilities and seeks to promote a paradigm shift towards full inclusion of girls with differing abilities while actively removing society’s barriers to their success. WGG’s effort in advocating for girls with differing abilities coincides with the focus of the Resolution of the Rights of the Child for the 66th session of the General Assembly. WGG seeks to highlight the UNICEF goal for children with differing abilities to reflect the unique need of girls for inclusion in mainstream society. WGG seeks to center attention on girls with differing abilities as they are more vulnerable to violence, rape and contracting HIV/AIDS, especially during times of crisis and civil unrest. They are also less likely to have opportunities to achieve their full potential in family, in school and in society at large.

WGG seeks to accomplish this work through raising awareness and advocating for key policies, to enable girls with differing abilities to reach their full potential with integration into their community. WGG promotes equal rights and equal opportunities for girls with differing abilities, and seeks to ensure that they are valued and equally accepted as people and as contributors to society. WGG objects to stigmatizing girls with differing abilities insofar as they have varying strengths, weaknesses, abilities and deficits, thus deserving equal respect and access to opportunities.

Furthermore, WGG fosters the potential leadership role of girls with differing abilities to partner with us and other stakeholders of the international UN community to help girls with differing abilities achieve their individual and collective goals and aspirations. WGG seeks to champion disability rights and promote a framework of inclusion of girls with differing abilities in all aspects of life, rather than one that focuses on their impairments.

WGG gratefully acknowledges the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), UNDESA, UNICEF, UNESCO, UN Women CSW, The World Bank, The World Health Organization (WHO), the USA Agency for International Development (USAID), International Disability Alliance (IDA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as major sources of information and support as WGG developed this paper.

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