The world is celebrating the extraordinary rescue of the Wild Boars football team from a flooded cave network in the Mai Sai district of Thailand, but the incident has also shined a spotlight on a humanitarian crisis on the Thailand-Myanmar border that has been overlooked since the start of military rule in Myanmar in the 1960s. Three of the boys, as well as their coach, 25-year-old Ekkapol Chantawong, belong to Thailand’s stateless population. “Coach Ek” and these boys have escaped from the treacherous caves, but remain trapped, as they have been all their lives, in a state of legal limbo.

On the 8th of March - International Women's Day - here are 8 steps decision makers must take to support women and girls fighting for their rights in the most difficult places on Earth.

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has caused over 2,000 deaths across four provinces and severely damaged homes and health infrastructure.

Like any teenager, 14-year-old Marah* has spent a lot of time grappling with that question. She’s sitting with a group of other girls inside a women and girls' centre in Lebanon’s Bekka Valley, listening intently to a discussion about building trusting relationships with parents. She’s here because she wants to learn how to better communicate with her father about something very important to her: She wants to go back to school.

Despite her young age, 11-year-old Farah* has gone through more traumatic experiences than most people should in a lifetime. In 2014, her family was forced to leave their village on the outskirts of Mosul and move to the east of the city, where ISIS was gaining control. A few months later, Farah’s father died. She then spent two years with her family living under the harsh rule of ISIS. She has never been to school. 

Alarming numbers of Ivorian women and girls have been raped, sexually assaulted, beaten and harassed by armed men at home or as they were fleeing violence and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) fears those who are reporting incidents represent a tiny fraction of the victims.