Nearly 20 years after 179 nations committed to protect the reproductive health and rights of women and girls at the UN International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, we have the chance to ask, "Has life really changed for women and girls?" The answer is decidedly mixed.

If the debate in the West is why women can't have everything, the debate in the developing world is still why so many women don't have anything.

On this International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM, we must stand steadfast in our collective duty to make ending FGM a reality for girls who continue to be at risk.

If one thing was made clear by the scale of the recent anti-child slavery demonstration of 200,000 young people in the Burmese capital Rangoon, it is that regimes can repress for a time but they cannot maintain their repression indefinitely. The marches show that while children may disappear one by one into slavery, sold off by relatives or neighbours, becoming in effect invisible people - the victims' cries for help cannot be silenced forever, and eventually the truth will out.

The protests about violence against women remind us that too many men in 2013 still treat women as their chattels, to be exploited and brutalized. But they also illustrate that those who violate rights are being challenged head-on by women.

The rights of girls is moving to the top of the global issues agenda because young women are saying with rising resolve that they will no longer accept the rules and conventions imposed upon them by a male-dominated adult population.

By virtue of their gender, girls are both poignant symbols and easy targets. Their potential is exploited and limited, in different ways, in nearly all societies.

Malala Yousafzai, growing up in a small town in northern Pakistan, had started fighting for her rights -- and the rights of other girls in her community -- when she was 11 years old.

Today is the first-ever International Day of the Girl. This is a day to celebrate the fact that it is girls who will change the world; that the empowerment of girls holds the key to development and security for families, communities and societies worldwide.

As we near the 2015 target for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, there is a great need to ensure the rights of women and girls are at the forefront of the minds of everyone, from government to civil society.

UN statistics revealed that females in India are nearly twice as likely as males to die before the age of five. Experts said the figures reflect widespread discrimination against girls, ranging from neglect, malnutrition, and denial of medical treatment.