At CSW 55 the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGS), Soroptimist International, World Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and UN Women joined together to highlight the importance of ending violence against girls and women, and the leading role that girls and young women must play in this.

The four organization formed a panel to speak out on ‘Uniting Against Violence; a girl-centred approach’. The panellists gave policy suggestions, case studies and calls to action that emphasised the importance of a girl centred approach to ending violence, and the specific challenges that girls around the world face.

Maria Jose Alcala (Senior Programme Advisor, Ending Violence Against Women Section, UN WOMEN), spoke about the commitment of UN WOMEN to put an end to violence against girls and young women. The three organizations presented case studies and how girls and young women have taken action to create safe spaces and opportunities for all of us. WAGGGS introduced examples from Canada, Sweden, Rwanda and the global poster competition as part of the Secretary-General’s UniTe campaign to 'Say NO to Violence against women’. During the session proposals and examples of best practice were pulled out from each of the panellists and the audience to include in an outcome document sharing ideas and policy suggestions to help us all move forward (See attached document).

WAGGGS will launch a new campaign this year to ‘end violence against girls’. WAGGGS believes that the future for girls must be one that is free of violence and the fear of violence, and will be using their network of 10 million members in 145 countries to take action for real change for girls and young women across the world.

Nefeli Themeli, WAGGGS youth delegate from Greece, ended the session by saying:
‘We are taking action today to put an end to violence, one of the issues that most affects us as girls and young women. We know that together we can make the world a safer place for everyone. As girls and young women, you may call us the leaders of tomorrow, but we are also the leaders of today’