Empowerment of girls to be agents of change: qualitative research on young adolescent girls in their role as Girls Right Defender

Abstract

Although there have been several milestones in achieving girls rights, girls still remain to be the largest group in the world excluded from their rights. Millions of girls are disadvantaged in health, education, work and family life. In order to defend, promote and protect the rights of girls several civil society actors are trying to contribute to the compliance of their rights. One important actor of civil society are (child) human rights defenders, which includes girls who are taking action to promote their rights themselves. However, the space of civil society is shrinking which not only limits the civic engagement of child human right defenders but can also violate their rights and cause unsafe situations. Therefore, the aim of this research was to examine if and how girls who are defending for their rights experience the shrinking space for civil society within their activities and which factors of empowerment can be influenced for the girls to be or to get (more) empowered. The results show that the girls experience the ability to agency. However, they do not always experience accessibility to these aspects of agency. The girls’ rights defenders sometimes face difficulties in making decisions, expressing their opinions because some norms on societal level within Georgia and Sierra Leone are oppressing the freedom of decision-making and the freedom of expression. This affects their resource of bodily integrity, because it makes them feel unsafe in their activities. Therefore, in conclusion it seems that decision making, bodily integrity, and norms as characteristics of agency, resources and institutional structures can be and should be influenced in order for the girls’ rights defenders to be empowered.