Message from Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the Occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child
联合国教科文组织总干事奥德蕾·阿祖莱国际女童日致辞
11 October 2018
2018年10月11日
This year's International Day of the Girl Child is focusing on empowerment through education. Girls' education is a fundamental right; it is also a powerful lever for development.
今年国际女童日的主题是通过教育增强权能。女童教育是一项基本权利，也是发展的有力杠杆。
Girls' education is at the intersection of two of the most important challenges of our time: education and gender equality. A collective consciousness is rising to ensure that the right to quality education for all girls becomes a reality. Strong signals of high-level political commitment were apparent at the United Nations General Assembly in New York a fortnight ago, as well as at the first G20 meeting dedicated to education, held in Argentina last month. The recent Commonwealth initiative to establish a high-level Platform for Girls' Education is an additional sign of this new global awareness.
女童教育处于我们时代两大挑战即教育和性别平等的交叉点上。在使所有女童都能切实享有获得优质教育的权利方面，目前正在形成某种集体意识。15天前在纽约召开的联合国大会和上个月在阿根廷召开的首次以教育为主题的G20峰会，都发出了高级别政治承诺的强有力信号。最近在英联邦的倡议下建立了女童教育的高级别平台，这也是全世界范围意识觉醒的一个补充信号。
The challenges are still immense. Worldwide, today, more than 130 million girls of school age are out of school. In addition, of the 600 million adolescent girls who will enter the labour market in the next decade, more than 90% live in developing countries and will work in an informal economy where unpaid work, abuse and exploitation are more prevalent.
挑战仍然十分严峻。如今，全球有超过1.3亿学龄女童没有上学。此外，在下一个十年即将进入劳动力市场的6亿少女中，超过90%生活在发展中国家，她们将在盛行无薪劳动、虐待和剥削的非正规经济部门中工作。
That is why UNESCO, the United Nations lead agency for education in the context of the 2030 Agenda, is working with the international community so that girls can benefit from 12 years of basic education free of charge. It is committed to ensuring that States include in school curricula issues relating to gender equality, health and sexuality, so as to break with the social habits and collective representations that impede girls' freedom and constitute barriers to their intellectual formation and social and professional integration.
因此，作为《2030年议程》框架内的联合国系统教育牵头机构，教科文组织与国际社会一道，致力于使女童得以接受十二年的免费基础教育。教科文组织也致力于推动各国在教育计划中纳入与性别平等、健康和性有关的问题，以便冲破阻碍女童自由、妨碍她们接受知识培养、社会融入和职业融入的社会习俗和偏见成见。
The integration of girls in the changing world of work includes in particular improved access to science and technology careers, where they are too often underrepresented.
女性要想融入日新月异的职场，尤其要提高进入科技领域的机会，这些领域的女性比例往往过低。
In order to encourage innovative teaching that helps girls to acquire the self-confidence they need and that will reduce gender inequalities, UNESCO established in 2015, with the support of the Government of China, a Prize for Girls' and Women's Education. This year, the Prize is awarded to the Misr El Kheir Foundation (Egypt), for supporting girls' education in poor villages, and the Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation (Jamaica), so that it may continue its support for pregnant teenagers and young mothers in Jamaica, giving them a second chance to continue their education.
为鼓励帮助女童获得必要自信和消除性别不平等的教学创新，教科文组织在中华人民共和国政府的支持下于2015年设立了“女童和妇女教育奖”。今年，该奖项颁给了Misr El Kheir基金会（埃及），表彰其对贫困农村女童教育的支持，以及牙买加基金会妇女中心（牙买加），使其继续向怀孕少女和牙买加青年母亲提供援助，使她们再次获得接受教育的机会。
These initiatives should inspire us. Girls' education must be one of our priorities, because to a great extent the peace and prosperity of our world depend upon it.
这些举措应当给予我们鼓舞。女童教育应当成为我们的一项优先事项，因为我们社会的和平与繁荣在很大程度上取决于此。