Ahead of next week’s G8 summit in Deauville, France, “parliamentarians from 35 countries have issued a strong call for leaders of the world’s major economies to focus on the role of women and girls in development,” Inter Press Service reports.

A resolution issued at the conclusion of the Global Parliamentarians’ Summit earlier this week called for the world to focus on “two aspects of human rights that are the most neglected – the situation facing girls and adolescent women and the challenges posed by global population dynamics at present.” The resolution also said that 600 million girls and young women in the developing world “are in a vulnerable situation, facing injustices and inequities that constitute a major obstacle to social and human development, both at a personal and a societal level” (McKenzie, 5/18).