What propels you to action? Was there one event in your life that made you sit up and take notice of injustice and inequity in the world? Maybe it was a series of events, traumatic or inspirational, prodding you to open your eyes and act.

For the girls who spoke at the United Nations in New York on Friday, March 2^nd, it was lives filled with unimaginable horror and pain that pushed them to become the activists they are.

Six girls from around the world shared the distressing, sometimes harrowing, experiences of their lives with a room full of journalists, diplomats and U.N. staffers at the "Girls Speak Out" event. According to an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the event is part of the 51^st annual meeting for the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, which is focusing on discrimination and violence against girls this year.

It's hard not to heed a call to action from a sixteen-year-old Nepalese girl who says of her community in Nepal. "…People think that if you educate a girl child, it will only embarrass you." Sunita Tamang was forced to work in a match factory to help support her single mother. So she started a campaign to educate young people who are forced into work, as well as to end violence against children. Now, she works at the factory in the afternoon while she attends school in the morning and rallies U.N. staff people and diplomats to "ensure that every working child gets a free education."

A fifteen-year-old girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo prefaced her indictment of a global communities' apathy ("We regret we were forgotten by those who should help us in doing justice to us…") with the horrific details of what can scarcely be called a childhood as an eleven-year-old sex slave and soldier for a militia of "impoverished fighters" in Congo.

This event was underscored by the presence of a report that had been presented just days earlier at another event as part of the annual meeting. The report, presented by 17 year-old South African woman Quilinta Nepaul, entitled "It's Time to Listen to Us!, contained the views of over 1300 young people from over 59 countries. According to the UNICEF web site, it found that "unwritten laws hold incredible power when it comes to discrimination against girls and that many cultural practices (like payment of a dowry, forced marriages, preferences for a son over a daughter) were responsible for violations of girls' rights."

Nepaul said that access to education; severe punishment for those who commit violations against girls; the creation of gender-positive media messages and help to ensure a focus on "invisible girls" in "marginalized areas" should be priorities of all governments.

The 1995 Beijing Women's Conference was the start of a concrete plan of action to address the global status of women and girls. But discrimination and violence against girls is still rampant around the world.

Seventeen-year-old Chinyanta Chimba, from Zambia, addressing the crowd at the "Girls Speak Out" event, said that the older participants at the conference encouraged her. Chimba is president of her school club, Student Alliance for Female Education, a group that "seeks to change negative cultural and traditional practices and educate girls about HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and child rights."

Based on the theme of this year's annual meeting ("The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child"), and in preparation for the meeting, the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women held an online discussion in the summer of 2006. The "web board" features a plethora of postings from representatives of countries around the world outlining the cultural, political and social problems girls and women face. In a thread about "girls suffering from AIDS and forced marriage", one poster reflects on life in Madagascar for women:

In my country girls suffer from heavy labour and less school. They are considered as property of their father and later on of their husband. They suffer from dehumanising rites and customs:

This is the story of a teenage girl from the South of Madagascar. Like almost all the girls, her parents did not intend for her to study since the boys have priority. At the age of 12, she was betrothed to a man who gave a castrated goat, some zebus and other signs of richness. The higher the dowry, the more the girl will suffer from it. Whatever it is, whenever he decides to repudiate her later on, he will only have to give a small sum of money. The "husband" now has the power of life and death over his wife as soon as he has "bought" her.

It's hard to ignore the stories of women and girls like these; partly because their stories are so painful to read. But mostly because their stories are our stories. Clarence Darrow said, "You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free." It is certain that ending these global inequities will take a collective effort of nations—a unified endeavor of boys and girls, men and women. But if this year's annual meeting of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women is any indication, young women are the leaders of this newest charge towards change.