Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: Inclusive democracy and governance are fundamental objectives and critical foundations for sustainable development and global peace. Promotion of democracy, human rights, and governance is a reflection of fundamental American values and identity. Democracies score consistently higher than nondemocracies on a broad range of socioeconomic development indicators, including infant and child mortality, life expectancy, primary school enrollment, adult literacy, female youth literacy, female secondary school enrollment, and access to clean water.
Women’s political participation results in tangible gains for democracy, including greater responsiveness to citizen needs, increased cooperation across party and ethnic lines, and more sustainable peace. Women in leadership positions are more likely to resolve national crises without resorting to violence, sustain peace agreements over longer periods of time, advocate for social issues that benefit all, and allocate budgets to health and education. Despite comprising over 50 percent of the world’s population, women are underrepresented at all levels of public sector decision making.
At the current rate of progress, it will take over 100 years to achieve gender parity in political participation. Engaging adolescent girls more in civil and political activities contributes to increased political participation and women’s leadership around the world over time. Adolescents who participate actively in their community from early on are more likely to become engaged citizens and voters, with higher levels of ambition for future leadership positions in both politics and the private sector.
Their safe, meaningful, and appropriate participation is key to creating democratic societies with informed and engaged citizens. Adolescence is a critical period in a girl’s life, when significant physical, emotional, and social changes shape her future. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, child, early, and forced marriage, and other forms of gender-based violence, including sexual exploitation, harassment, and assault, which are detrimental to their futures.
Approximately 132,000,000 adolescent girls between the ages of 6–17 are out of school. United Nations data revealed an increase of over six percent in the number of adolescent girls not in primary school, in just one year, from 32,000,000 in 2015 to 34,000,000 in 2016. By 2030, over 150,000,000 more adolescent girls will marry as children. Despite global progress, 12,000,000 adolescent girls under 18 will marry annually. The number one cause of death for adolescent girls 15–19 years old is childbirth, and 90 percent of births to adolescent girls 15–19 occur within a marriage.
Every 10 minutes, somewhere in the world, an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence. A girl’s risk of dying as a result of violence increases from early to late adolescence. Violence is the second leading cause of death among adolescent girls globally. Empowering adolescent girls and young women in childhood and as they transition to become adults, investing in their leadership potential, and ensuring there are established pathways to positions of political leadership and civic engagement contribute to ensuring a world where women can thrive as political leaders and decisionmakers, in economic spaces and across society as a whole.