CB BureauOctober 11, 2012, is the first-ever ‘International Day of the Girl Child’, as declared by the United Nations (UN). The central objective is to promote equal treatment for girls across the world and secure a brighter future for them by making long-term education accessible. As held up by research and statistics, education has a cascading effect on the development of countries and in every aspect – health, economy and well-being.
Alongside, the world’s leading children’s organisation UNICEF is joining forces with governments, civil society and UN agencies to lay the groundwork to put an end to a fundamental human rights violation that impacts all aspects of a girl’s life – child marriage.
Child/Early marriage refers to any marriage of a child younger than 18 years old, in accordance to Article 1 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. While child marriage affects both sexes, girls are disproportionately affected as they are the majority of the victims. Their overall development is compromised, leaving them socially isolated with little education, skills and opportunities for employment and self-realization. This leaves child brides more vulnerable to poverty, a consequence of child marriage as well as a cause.
Child marriage is now widely recognised as a violation of children’s rights, a direct form of discrimination against the girl child who as a result of the practice is often deprived of her basic rights to health, education, development and equality. Tradition, religion and poverty continue to fuel the practice of child marriage, though the rate of occurrence is on a slow decline globally.
As per a press statement released with the headline ‘My Life, My Right, End Child Marriage’, a series of events and actions are taking place throughout the world to draw attention to this critically important issue. At the UN headquarters in New York, Archbishop Desmond Tutu will join UNICEF, UNFPA and UN Women to discuss ways in which governments, civil society, UN agencies and the private sector can come together to accelerate a decline in the practice of child marriage. In Malawi, a parliamentary debate will put the issue at centre stage, and in Uganda young people are using SMS technology to discuss the practice.
The need for a focussed and steadfast approach in accelerating and ultimately ending the practice of child marriage is paramount, because of the real and harmful consequences it can have on a girl’s life and future. Niger is reported to have the highest rate of child marriages in the world, with nearly three-quarters (75%) of the country’s children married before the age of 18, and over one in three children (36%) married before their 15th birthday. Although this practice does affect boys, it affects girls in much larger numbers.
In 1994, the UN Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women issued a nonbinding recommendation that countries adopt a minimum age for marriage of 18 years for both sexes. Yet, the marriage laws of developing countries vary dramatically. As of 2012, 103 countries have, at least on paper, established 18 years or older as the legal minimum age for girls to marry without consent. For boys, 126 countries have established 18 years or older as the legal minimum age to marry without consent.
The truth, though, is that child marriage occurs in practically every region of the world but at significantly higher rates in South Asia (46%), Sub-Saharan Africa (37%), and Latin America and Caribbean (29%). Most recent UNICEF estimates indicate that about 70 million – or around 1 in 3 – young women aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18, with 23 million of them having been married before they turned 15. Globally, almost 400 million women aged 20-49, or over 40 per cent, were married while they were children. Child brides are more vulnerable to acts of violence, abuse and exploitation, and India has the highest rate of domestic violence towards girl wives (67% are affected).
In addition to physical violence, due to the difference in age and maturity with their typically adult partners, child brides are less able to negotiate sexual relationships than older women. In addition, they may not be able to effectively negotiate contraceptive use, putting them at risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections, and early and unwanted pregnancies. Seen in this light, it’s hardly surprising that girls between 10 and 14 years of age are five times more likely than women aged 20 to 24 die in pregnancy and childbirth.
Research”and common sense”tells us that higher levels of education for girls actually prevent child marriage and therefore must be an integral aspect of our response to this issue. When girls are able to stay in school, they develop the ability and the confidence to make informed decisions about their future.
Experiences in contexts as diverse as Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Ethiopia, India, Niger, Senegal and Somalia show how combining legal measures with support to communities, providing viable alternatives – especially schooling – and enabling communities to discuss and reach the explicit, collective decision to end child marriage yield positive results.