Mr. Speaker, to mark the third International Day of the Girl Child, my New Democratic colleagues and I are joining this call for action.
Too often, girls and young women are deprived of their right to self-determination.
For girls to achieve self-actualization and live with dignity, they need education, they need food security, they need to live free of violence, and they need to have their reproductive choices respected, but in Canada and around the world, we are still fighting for those rights.
We must keep working toward the independence of girls and women.
We need to enshrine reproductive rights in our laws. Every young woman deserves to choose when, how, and with whom she becomes a mother.
We need to empower all women to seek economic, housing, and food security.
We need to honour indigenous rights and correct the legacy of colonial violence that afflicts the lives of Métis, Inuit, and first nations girls in Canada.
We need a coordinated national action plan to address violence against women.
We must work in solidarity with women and girls in every community to bring these rights and freedoms to indigenous girls, to low-income girls, to girls who face violence, to all girls.