WUNRN
Girls Not Brides - Website - http://girlsnotbrides.org/
Information on Child Marriage and Girls
Not Brides
Where does
child marriage take place and who is affected?
· 10 million
girls every year are married before
they are 18. Child marriage is a truly global
problem that cuts across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities.
· Child marriage occurs around
the world; 46% of
girls under 18 are married in South Asia; 38% in sub-Saharan Africa; 29% in
Latin America and the Caribbean; 18% in the Middle East and North Africa; and
in some communities in Europe and North America too (UNICEF 2012, percentage of
girls between 20 and 24 married or in union before they reach 18).
· Due to the sheer size of its population,
· While boys are sometimes subjected to early marriage, girls are disproportionately affected
and form the vast majority of the victims of child marriage.
Why is it
important to address child marriage?
· Large scale;
little action: Child marriage is
a widespread and systematic practice that violates the rights of children
around the world. It is often linked to tradition and seen as something which
cannot change, but traditions are made by people – and when harmful they can and
should be changed. More coordinated action needs to be taken by all actors to
address this issue.
· Urgency: If we do not take action against child marriage, it
is estimated that over the next decade 100 million girls will marry before they
are 18. That’s a staggering level of lost potential.
· An issue that impacts many others: Child marriage directly impacts six of the eight Millennium Development Goals – the international community will not fulfil its commitments to reduce global poverty unless it tackles child marriage.
What is the
impact of early marriage on girls?
· Education: Child brides usually drop out of school and are denied
the opportunity to complete their education, significantly reducing their ability
to earn an income and lift themselves and their children out of poverty.
· Health: Child brides face higher risk of death and injury due
to early sexual activity and childbearing. Girls under 15 are five times more
likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s.
· Safety: Child brides are more likely to suffer domestic
violence and sexual abuse.
· Inter-generational
impact: When a mother is under 18, her
baby is 60 per cent more likely to die in its first year of life than a baby
born to a mother older than 19.
· Child marriage is a serious human rights violation that contravenes the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
What will it
take to end child marriage?
· There is no single solution that will end child
marriage. It will require action at all
levels – from the grassroots groups working with communities to encourage a
change in attitudes, to the large non-governmental organisations pushing for
policy action at national and international levels.
·
Enact and
enforce laws that set a legal minimum age for marriage: While most countries legislate for a minimum legal age
for marriage, it is often gender discriminatory, under the age of 18 – the age
prescribed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, or not enforced.
·
Invest in girls: There is much more that governments and donors can do
to invest in girls – by supporting programmes that ensure that girls stay in
school, for example, or ensuring that child brides have access to services such
as healthcare and family planning.
·
Speaking out and changing community attitudes: Laws alone won’t end child marriage – legislation is
often not enforced as local authorities can be
reluctant to be seen as interfering in the private affairs of families. Many
people are simply unaware of the scale and harmful impact of child marriage.
What is Girls Not
Brides?
· Girls Not Brides is a global partnership to end
child marriage,
bringing together non-governmental organisations from around the world that
work to tackle child marriage at the grassroots, national and global levels.
· Girls Not Brides now has more than 170 members across 30
countries.
Members are based throughout Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, Europe and
· Girls Not Brides members vary in size, location, and the type
of work they do
– from the grassroots groups working to end child marriage and support child
brides in their communities, to international NGOs seeking to bring global
attention to this neglected problem. Each brings their own wealth of experience
and knowledge to inform efforts to end child marriage.
What
will Girls Not Brides do?
· Raise awareness and confront taboos: Child marriage is a taboo topic that has received
little attention from leaders and policy makers, perhaps because it is linked
to sensitive issues of tradition and culture. By working together we aim to
shatter the silence that has long surrounded the issue and draw attention to
its harmful impact.
· Empower those seeking to end child marriage: Girls Not Brides was founded to strengthen efforts to end the child marriage. Girls
Not Brides does not provide grants or directly run projects on the ground,
but aims to empower the activists and organisations that work to end child
marriage in their communities by enabling them to learn from each other and
share best practice.
· Call for global action: At the national and international levels, we want to raise our
collective voice and convince leaders and policymakers to give this issue
urgent attention, put in place effective laws, demonstrate the political will
to tackle child marriage, and dedicate the resources needed to drive change.
· Give girls a voice: Girls Not Brides seeks to amplify
the voices of girls at risk of child marriage and support girls who are or who
have been married.
· Maximise our collective impact: Girls Not Brides and its members
believe that we can be more effective working together than working alone. By
coming together in partnership, we aim to maximise our collective impact by
pooling efforts and resources, energies and experience.
What role for the UN
human rights mechanisms?
·
Recognise child marriage as a cross-cutting human
rights issue: Child marriage affects
children’s rights to the highest attainable standard of health, education,
consensual marriage, and to participate in the decisions that affect them. It
curtails their right to live a life free from violence and all forms of
discrimination, inhuman and degrading treatment, and slavery. As such, child
marriage falls squarely within the mandate of the Human Rights Council (HRC)
and should be considered during its sessions.
·
The HRC should encourage States to implement recommendations made by the treaty
monitoring bodies, including the
Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights on this issue. Treaty body monitoring bodies should continue to focus on
this issue, for example by having a day of general discussion on child
marriage.
·
The UN Special Procedures mandate holders should be
encouraged to explore the links to child marriage within their mandates and
raise child marriage on country visits. The mandate holders have an important role in
bringing visibility to the multiplicity of human rights violations faced by young
girls who are married before they are ready. Child marriage is an issue that
cuts across many mandates, from trafficking, to violence against women,
violence against children, to slavery, etc.
· Highlight the rights implications of child marriage through Universal Periodic Review: States should ensure that they raise the issue of child marriage in their recommendations through the Universal Periodic Review process.