WUNRN News includes recent articles, releases, event announcements, calls to action, and other updates. WUNRN News items may or may not indicate direct references to the U.N. Study (E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2) Juridical and Factual Aspects. WUNRN reserves the right to post and edit, as appropriate to the Mission Statement of the WUNRN Program.

10/01/04: Factual Aspect FD.2: Discrimination and Nationality:

Early and forced marriage of girls
In developing countries, 20-50% of women marry or enter a union by age 18, and 40-70% do so by their 20th birthday. In a majority of cases this will be to an older man. While most States have a minimum legal age for marriage, or are party to international legal obligations which should safeguard children, in practice economic hardship and the low status of women mean that in some countries up to 75% of girls may be married against their will before they are 18 years old. There is an alarming increase in children being married to older men in countries with high HIV/Aids rates, where young girls are seen as more likely to be virgins, and in parts of India, where sex selection for boys and female infanticide has led to a disastrous imbalance in the ratio of females to males in the population in certain regions.

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