15 million girls under the age of 18 are married off every year - that's one every two seconds

Plan International, which organises the International Day for the Girl Child, has released a report of research conducted in Columbia, Uganda and Spain which outlines that gender inequality is still rampant in societies across the world.

It highlighted the fact that access to education should not be determined by a child’s gender, yet 130 million girls globally are out of school and 15 million girls of primary school age will never even enter a classroom.

A key obstacle to girls participating in school life if child marriage, according to the report. Every year, 15 million girls under the age of 18 are married – one every two seconds.