WUNRN
http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/global-activists-forge-anti-child-marriage-alliance-in-south-asia
SOUTH ASIA FOCUS OF GLOBAL ACTIVISM
AGAINST CHILD MARRIAGE
Source: Trustlaw //
Nita Bhalla - 13 February 2012
By Nita Bhalla
NEW DELHI, Feb 10 (TrustLaw) -
Scores of South Asian charities struggling to curb high child-marriage rates
are backing a global movement spearheaded by South African peace icon
Archbishop Desmond Tutu to end the practice affecting millions of girls and
women worldwide.
Representatives from charities
in
Now, as chairman of The Elders
– a group of prominent people that include former U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan, former Irish President Mary Robinson and former U.S. President Jimmy
Carter dedicated to addressing human rights – Tutu is trying to persuade
governments and local communities to take child marriage more seriously.
"Women represent 50
percent of humanity and countries are holding themselves back in terms of their
economic development by discriminating against girls and women," he told a
press conference last week.
"We are saying 'imagine
what would happen when women and girls are set free and can participate in
decision-making.'"
The Elders, which launched the
"Girls
Not Brides" movement in
On his four-day visit to India
Tutu was accompanied by Robinson and two other Elders – former Norwegian prime
minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and Ela Bhatt, an activist who founded
Experts say many local and
international non-government agencies who work on early marriage issues often
work in isolation, far removed from others grappling with the same challenges –
be it in Asia, Africa or the Middle East.
Worldwide, around 10 million
girls under the age of 18 are married every year – often without their consent,
before they are mentally or sexually ready for such a relationship. The
practice is most prevalent in Africa, the Middle East and
In a rapidly modernising
region, tightly bound by traditional patriarchal views, South Asian women face
a plethora of threats from sexual violence, dowry murders, discrimination in
health, education and land rights as well as child marriage.
In
FORGET GOALS
Tutu linked the issue of child
marriage to development.
"It's been shown that
where child marriage is in vogue, six of the eight millennium development goals,
you can forget about," he said referring to a string of goals 192 U.N.
members agreed to implement by 2015.
The goals include reducing
child and maternal mortality, ending poverty and hunger, providing universal
education, gender equality and combating HIV/AIDS.
"You can forget obviously
gender equality. You can forget about education because a girl leaves school
when she gets married and you can forget about reducing poverty as she is
hardly likely to earn a great deal with no education."
Child marriage also threatens
the health of a young mother, he said, adding that a girl giving birth at 15 is
five times more likely to die in the process than a girl of 19 or older. While
her infant is 60 percent more likely to die.
He added that girls who were
married, often to older men, had little control over their sex lives and were
more likely to be infected by HIV/AIDS.
During the visit to
Robinson, who was the first
female to become president in
"These teenagers were very
smart and they desperately want to be part of their state and their country's
incredible progress, but they know that getting married very young will hold
them back," said Robinson, a former U.N. human rights commissioner.
"They are working hard to
enlist the support of adults to help them complete their education and marry
later. We get the sense that things are changing ... and we hope that progress
can be made more quickly so that these wonderful young people can fulfill their
dreams."