What do we want for girls?

In many cases, the answer is indicative of the vast strides the world has made in valuing girls: more education, more opportunity, more rights. More joy.

But recent weeks have surfaced – in countries rich and poor – the grip of long-standing discrimination and abuse of power on girls who are legally minors.

In the United States, Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama is facing a storm amid allegations he sexually assaulted and inappropriately touched young girls. That has also exposed some churches’ support for relationships between older men and teen girls.

In Iraq, the parliament is weighing a measure that would allow Muslim clerics to govern marriage contracts. That would open doors to forced marriage for children as young as 9 that many had assumed were closed.

In France, a man was charged with sexual abuse rather than rape of an 11-year-old girl after investigators labeled the sex consensual. (The family forcefully disagreed.) That was followed by the acquittal of another man charged with raping an 11-year-old girl. The jury said legal standards had not been met. One lawyer lamented that French law lacked “a presumption of the absence of consent for young children.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN declares that “childhood is entitled to special care and assistance.” Treating minors truly as children, with all the innocence and hope that status implies, is a powerful starting point to honor that charge.

And now to our five stories showing justice, honesty, and enthusiasm for learning in action.