The East Asia Sub-regional Conference on Human Rights & Dignity of Asian Girls (Building Girl Friendly Cities) at Lap-Chee College of Hong Kong University on September 22-23, 2015, was organized by the Garden of Hope Foundation in partnership with Lap-Chee College and the Women’s Foundation, Hong Kong.

This exciting event followed similar meetings for South Asia in Chandigarh in 2014 and for Southeast Asia in Phnom Penh earlier this year. These gatherings brought our partners from sub-regions together to learn how the Asian Girl Campaign was working on the ground and to give activists a platform to share information with each other.

We were proud to host the event in the vibrant city of Hong Kong. We sent out invitations to college students in Hong Kong to attend so we could hear the voices of Asian girls – and boys. Besides students, other leaders of the girls’ human rights movement in East Asia from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Mongolia were among the inspiring speakers at the conference. Over 50 delegates came from Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Nepal, the Philippines, Portugal, Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, the UK, the US, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, and Japan.

The goal of the event was to explore ideas and share best practices on how to create cities in Asia where girls can live in dignity, have their voices be heard, and fulfill their full potential. Topics focused on the needs of vulnerable girls (including LGBTQ+, new migrants, and young mothers), the negative and positive roles the media can play in empowering or exploiting girls, and how young people can use structures like CEDAW to improve their situations.