This Christmas potentially millions of girls living around the world will be facing the risk of sexual violence and exploitation. But putting an exact number on just how many is impossible. The problem is often hidden and concrete figures are hard to come by. These are invisible girls - children who fall through the cracks, who are frequently barely noticed and can face horrific sexual violence.

Today is Human Rights Day. It marks the close of 16 Days of Activism to end violence against women and girls. And it's also two weeks since the first Women's Equality Party conference, where I was honoured to share the stage with women who came to tell their stories and to shape a better future where human rights also means women's rights.

It's not just Britain which has had a tumultuous year. I've taken a look at Ipsos' research across Europe and found 10 things which each tell us something about how 2016 felt to our European neighbours - as citizens, voters, consumers, employees ... or holidaymakers.

Not only Austrians but the whole of Europe breathed a huge sigh of relief when right-wing candidate Norbert Hofer conceded, and former Green Party chairman Van der Bellen stressed that he wanted to start building bridges right away.

The Baby boomers and generation x, people born before 1980, whose hair was higher than the heavens and education cheaper than a Freddo, have the audacity to criticise us of narcissism, privilege, and feebleness.

I've certainly never asked anyone not to see me as black because it's part of what makes me who I am. What I ask is to not be judged on my skin colour alone, sometimes that request is silently and totally denied.

I have quit my civil service 'job for life' for the uncertainty of unemployment and the even greater uncertainty of having absolutely no idea what I want to do.

As we prepare for the end of what has been a year rich in the most fantastical football stories, let's rewind back to February. It was a piercingly cold midwinter afternoon in Manchester, but Claudio Ranieri's Leicester City were a stubbornly blistering force that scorched through another examination in their hunt for Premier League supremacy.

Now that Brody is nearly 5, I have finally got used to the fact that Global Development Delay (GDD) doesn't mean "may catch up" for us. It's forever. And because he is still primarily undiagnosed, despite an autism and epilepsy diagnosis (as well as a few others), GDD seems to be moving on to a new "catch all" term - learning disability.

With The Voice looking to start the new year with a bang, it seems unfortunate that The X Factor has become a ministry of blandness this time but a Saara win could be enough to show the new singing competition in town that the old dog still have some bite and shouldn't be put down quite yet.

Then Advent begins and with it a renewed duty to my family to get out the house. Having failed to get an Advent calendar, I need to think on my feet. We've got a little Christmas tree but it's fairly bare, awaiting hand-me-down decorations.

T.T. via Getty Images

As parents, we owe it to our children to show elderly people that we care. One day, we too will be old and who knows if we will be lucky enough to still have family and friends around us? We will be extremely lucky if we do.

Our current education system both avoids and punishes failure, whilst the creative process actively encourages it. If you haven't failed, you haven't tried. Creativity is an opportunity to explore and learn, and children should not be afraid to fail or ask questions. Schools must carve time out for their pupils to express what they think and feel. To be creative without fear of being judged or rejected by a group of peers. It's incredibly important to facilitate exploration, curiosity, playfulness and imagination. Our ability to imagine things that do not exist is fundamentally what makes us human.

The government must tell Parliament what they aim to achieve. Parliament must be allowed to do its job in scrutinising that. And the people ultimately must be allowed to have their say on the final deal reached. Surely that is what "taking back control" was all about.

A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with testicular cancer and I survived, but my left bollock didn't. Because some cancer treatments can affect your fertility, before it all started I had the option to bank some sperm, which was a pretty odd experience.

Digital Vision. via Getty Images

Feeding 300 people, plus 100 volunteers, three times a day for ten days, isn't a simple task. Food donations (some of surplus food) lined up the dance studio in the college where we were based. Lead chefs, a little like in the invention test on Masterchef, would make up the menu from the produce available.

Research published this week supports the argument for a move to a system which relies on actual achievement rather than predicted achievement. Doing so would support staff and students to make better and more appropriate decisions. It would be fairer and more transparent.

Creepy it may be, but Rillington Place's slow-burn horror is essentially a slice of good old-fashioned British macabre - think Jack the Ripper, Brighton Rock, The Elephant Man, Burke & Hare. Far more frightening than these dark historical dramas are the real-life death penalty cases unfolding around the world right now.

Despite progress in social attitudes, men are still taught they should be masculine, strong, able to protect themselves, and to do so without crying or showing 'weak' emotions. This can mean that when a man is the victim of sexual abuse, assault or rape, he is often blamed, shamed or disbelieved.

I suppose there probably is a market for religious cartoons but I will bet a cool million those cartoons are dreadful. Kids don't want to watch cartoons where you learn some naff pious message. They want to giggle at something naughty. Don't we all?