Are you ready for the challenge?

Do you have a bold idea to transform the lives of girls worldwide?

The Girls Human Rights Challenge is your opportunity to pitch innovative solutions to tackle critical issues affecting girls’ rights across the globe. This unique platform empowers participants to showcase their creativity, legal expertise, and passion for human rights advocacy. Whether you’re addressing a local issue in your community or proposing groundbreaking legal strategies for a global challenge, this is your chance to make an impact.

Opening Ceremony

17 February 2025

💡 Prizes Await You!

  • 8 Mentoring Sessions with Human Rights Advocates

  • 4 Mini Pupillage

  • 3 Networking Lunches with a King’s Counsel

What’s the Challenge?

Participants are invited to:

• Propose innovative solutions to tackle a specific issue affecting girls’ rights in a particular country or setting.

• Explore how the law can be leveraged to address and resolve these challenges.

• Inspire action by presenting practical, sustainable, and impactful ideas that could drive change.

Your pitch could focus on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to:

• Combating child marriage in rural communities.

• Ensuring access to education for girls in conflict zones.

• Fighting gender-based violence through legal reform.

• Addressing menstrual health rights in underserved areas.

• Using technology to promote access to justice for girls.

How It Works

1. Choose a Focus Area: Select a girls’ human rights issue you’re passionate about and a specific country or setting.

2. Develop Your Solution: Create a pitch that highlights the problem, the solution, and its potential impact.

• How can laws or legal mechanisms be used to address this issue?

• What innovative strategies or approaches would you recommend?

• How will your idea be sustainable and impactful?

3. Pitch Your Idea: Submit a short video or written proposal detailing your solution.

4. Engage with Experts: Finalists will have the opportunity to present their ideas to a panel of experts, including human rights advocates, legal professionals, and change-makers.

Examples of Challenge Ideas

• Tackling Child Marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Create a campaign to raise awareness about the legal age of marriage in a specific country.

• Advocate for stricter enforcement of anti-child marriage laws and propose community-based education programs to shift cultural norms.

• Ensuring Education for Girls in Afghanistan

• Use international human rights law to advocate for girls’ access to education despite restrictive local policies.

• Partner with grassroots organizations to create safe learning spaces for girls.

• Fighting Gender-Based Violence in Urban India

• Develop a proposal for mobile legal aid clinics to provide on-the-spot assistance to victims.

• Advocate for enhanced police training on gender sensitivity and compliance with laws protecting women and girls.

• Improving Menstrual Health in Rural Nepal

• Propose legislation to end harmful practices like “menstrual huts.”

• Introduce low-cost, reusable menstrual products and conduct workshops to break taboos surrounding menstruation.

Why Participate?

• Showcase your innovative thinking and problem-solving skills.

• Collaborate with human rights advocates and legal professionals.

• Gain recognition for your ideas at the Girls Human Rights Festival.

• Win exciting prizes and the opportunity to turn your ideas into reality.

Submission Process

Submission Guidelines

• Participants can submit their proposals in either of the following formats:

1. Video Pitch: A 2-3 minute recorded pitch.

2. Written Proposal: A 500-700 word document detailing the problem, proposed solution, and its impact.

Key Requirements:

1. Title: The name of your project or idea.

2. Problem Statement: Define the girls’ human rights issue and provide context (country/setting).

3. Solution: Outline your proposed strategy, including how the law, community programs, or innovative approaches can tackle the issue.

4. Impact: Explain how your idea will make a tangible difference and how it can be implemented sustainably.

5. Team Details (if applicable): Names, backgrounds, and roles of each participant.

Submission Deadline: 10 February 2025.

Submit Proposals to: admin@ghrh.org.

Judging Criteria

1. Clarity of Problem (20%)

• Is the issue clearly defined and contextualized?

• Does the participant demonstrate an understanding of the problem’s root causes?

2. Innovative Thinking (25%)

• Is the proposed solution creative and unique?

• Does it offer a fresh perspective or approach to addressing the issue?

3. Feasibility (20%)

• Is the solution practical and implementable within the chosen context?

• Are there realistic steps or methods outlined for execution?

4. Sustainability (15%)

• Will the solution create long-term impact?

• Does it address systemic change, not just temporary relief?

5. Presentation/Communication (20%)

• Is the idea presented clearly and compellingly?

• Does the pitch engage the audience and communicate the passion behind the proposal?

Prizes

Grand Prize:

• Mentorship from leading human rights advocates and legal professionals.

• Spotlight on the main stage of the Girls Human Rights Festival.

• Special price TBA.

Runner-Up Prizes:

• Mentorship sessions with experts.

• Feature in the festival’s official publications and website.

All Participants:

• Certificates of participation.

• Access to exclusive networking events during the festival.

Pitch Day (For Finalists)

Finalists will pitch their ideas live during the opening of the Girls Human Rights Festival, on 17 February 2025, in London, United Kingdom.

• Time Limit: Each finalist will have 5 minutes to pitch their idea, followed by a 5-minute Q&A session with the judges.

• Judges Panel: Comprised of leading figures in human rights, law, and advocacy.

Together, we can drive change, one pitch at a time.