The National Council of Women has welcomed the UN’s decision to declare October 11 as the International Day of the Girl.

Having an International Day for Girls would promote girls’ rights, highlight gender inequalities and address the various forms of discrimination and abuse suffered by girls around the globe.

In many developing countries, girls married before they turned 15 and had to drop out of school before they had a chance to receive the education they deserved, the council said.

In the last half century alone, more women and girls died as a result of gender discrimination than all the men who died in all the battles of the 20th century, the NCW claimed.