Child marriage can cause immense physical and psychological harm to girls. Child marriage in the middle east and north africa international. Marriage should be a time for celebration and joy unless you are one of the 64 million girls around the world forced into marriage before the age of 18. Despite laws against it, the practice remains widespread. So pushing for legislative changes, like a minimum age for marriage in yemen, may not be enough.
Girls who marry before age 18 years are at increased risk for adverse outcomes, including child and maternal mortality, intimate partner violence, and truncated education. Yemeni girls and women are being forced into child marriages by their families, and have little chance. The median age at marriage for mothers included in this sample was 17 years old. Child recruitment into armed forces continues and extreme forms of child labour are expanding. However the way statistics are published shows that there is a great tendency to cover up underage marriages by more generalizing it. Empowering girls and recognising that child marriage is a contributor to and a symptom of broader development challenges is an important part of the puzzle. Child marriagedefined as marriage before age 18 years and legal age of majorityraises serious humanrights and publichealth concerns.
Child early marriages and child mothers in the islamic. The child can be a girl or a boy, but the large majority of child marriages are between a girl and a man, and are rooted in gender inequality. Yemen is a republic with a constitution that provides for a president, a parliament, and an independent judiciary. Yemen ratified the convention on the rights of the child in 1991, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and acceded to the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women cedaw in 1984, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage. However, a small but powerful group of conservative.
Yemeni government should expedite passage of a draft child rights law. Empowered and educated girls are better able to nourish and care for their children, leading to healthier, smaller families. End child marriage unfpa united nations population fund. Thanks to unicef and unfpa jordan, lebanon, yemen, sudan, morocco and egypt country and. Child marriage harms girls rights to health, education, equality and a life free from violence and exploitation these rights are enshrined in the universal declaration of human rights, the convention on the rights of the child crc, the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women cedaw, and. Child marriage is a major violation of girls human rights.
There are no changes in the law and no traces of any new policy regarding early child marriages. This paper uses a unique dataset from northern ghana to examine the association between child marriage and adverse. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Fiftyone percent of mothers were married before age 18, ranging from 17% in swaziland, where the median age at marriage was 21 years old, to 75% in chad, where the median age at marriage was 15 years old in the sample. Child marriage impedes girls education the education a girl receives is the strongest predictor of the age she will marry, according to icrw analysis in 18 of the 20 countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage. Youth nets, uk charity online, report on early marriage 2005.
Child marriage statistics show child brides have a diminished chance of completing their education and are at a higher risk of being physically abused, contracting hiv and other diseases, and dying while pregnant or giving. Child marriage and the power of mental models behavioral. Child marriage is a fundamental human rights violation. Her story even incited change in yemen and other middle eastern countries, where underage marriage laws are being increasingly enforced and other child brides have been granted divorces. Jordan, morocco, lebanon, egypt, sudan, yemen and was undertaken to assess the prevalence of child marriage, nature of child marriage practices and the political and socio economic factors influencing child marriage practices in the mena region. Child marriage in the middle east and north africa. Traditions and beliefs about the role of girls in society also contribute.
The rise in child marriages is a clear indication of the wars disproportionate impact on children. Child marriage can you imagine getting married or divorced at the tender age of ten. Girls who do not want to marry are often forced to do so by their families. For the purpose of this presentation, we will focus on four countries where child marriages are extremely prevalent. Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between an adult and a child under a certain age, typically age eighteen. Child marriage in yemen, documents the lifelong damage to girls who are forced to marry young. Child marriage is a human rights violation disproportionately affecting girls in lower and middleincome countries and has serious public health implications. It documents the current scope, prevalence and inequities associated with child marriage and highlights that by 2020, some 142 million girls will be married by their 18th birthday if current trends continue. Although the age of majority legal adulthood and marriageable age are usually designated at age 18, both vary. Many officials in yemens parliament agree that a ban on child marriage is fundamental to safeguarding the rights of young girls. Fae bidgoli, iran, yemen and the plague of forced marriages. I am nujood, age 10 and divorced perfection learning.
Marriage before the age of 18 is a fundamental violation of human rights. Child marriage every 15 seconds save the children uk. Globally, one in every five girls is married, or in union, before reaching age 18. Most girls marry before they reach 18, and in rural areas, some marry as young as eight.
Recently honored alongside hillary clinton and condoleezza rice as one of glamour magazines women of the year, nujood now tells her full story. Zimbabwe ratified the convention on the rights of the child in 1990, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and acceded to the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women cedaw in 1991, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage. According to usaid, forced marriage is a marriage at any age that occurs without the free and full consent of one or both spouses. Their educations are disrupted and their opportunities are. First, we will begin with a brief history and background of child brides and statistics related to. Underage marriages are a real problem in yemen, and both domestic and.
In niger, for example, 77% of women in their early 20s were married as children. Criminalising sexuality or preventing child marriage. Yemen is one of the few countries in the region now without any legal minimum age for marriage. Take a look at the stories below to see what we know about causes of child marriage and the factors that make it such a difficult social problem. Child marriage also occurs in parts of the middle east, including yemen and the rural maghreb. Climate change and the detrimental effects on adolescent girls 2008. Establishing 18 as yemens minimum marriage age to pre. Girl child marriage as a risk factor for early childhood. Percentage of women aged 20 to 49 years who were married or in union before ages. Pages in category child marriage in yemen the following 6 pages are in this category, out of 6 total. The humanitarian crisis in yemen is the worst in the world, driven by conflict, economic. This includes child and early marriage, as people under 18 are not able to give full consent. For a correctly transcribed text, please download the pdf version of this report.
Common issues brought up were that child marriage is needed as an option in. We will be adding new stories over the month of july 2014 leading up to the girl summit in. Many factors interact to place a child at risk of marriage, including poverty, the perception that marriage will provide protection, family honor, social norms, customary or religious laws that condone the practice, an inadequate legislative framework and the state of a countrys civil registration system. Every year, child marriage denies 12 million girls their rights to health, education, safety, and control over their own lives. Founded in 1992, equality now is an international human rights organization that works to protect and promote the. Child marriage is now squarely framed as a development issue. She is home with her family and attending school again. This human rights violation occurs across cultures, countries, and religions with 45 percent of girls under 18 married in south asia, 38 percent in subsaharan. Child marriage is estimated to have increased threefold between 2017 and 2018. A qualitative study exploring child marriage practices.
Digging up the roots of child marriage helps us replant the future for millions of girls around the world. In the least developed countries, that number doubles 40 per cent of girls are married before age 18, and 12 per cent of girls are married before age 15. When girls are allowed to be girls, everybody wins. Ending child marriage will help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty by allowing girls and women to participate more fully in society.
Right to be free from violence, right to education, right to employment, 1965 convention on consent to marriage, womens convention, 1989 convention on the rights of the child, child bride, rawan, european union high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, catherine ashton, human rights watch, arab spring, ottoman empire, zaydi imams, yemen arab republic, north yemen. The goal of this presentation is to take a look into the human rights violation of child marriage happening in countries all over the world. In the united states, child marriage is still permissible in some states, with parental or judicial consent. Child marriage unfpa united nations population fund. Yemen is one of the few countries in the region now without. In ghana, one in five girls marry before their 18th birthday and one in 20 girls is married before her 15th birthday. While many children in yemen suffer from poverty, malnutrition, and high rates of illiteracy, child marriage exposes many more to devastating.
Girls forced into early marriage are denied a childhood. The causes are complex, but usually have to do with poverty and lack of education. Child marriage and associated outcomes in northern ghana. Despite a good deal of publicity around child marriage its links with slavery have. Abdulhadi a alamodi and others published child marriage in yemen find. This brochure explores the data and statistics behind those stories. Child marriage acceptance by association international. The above is not from a fiction but the true story of nujood ali now 20 from yemen, one of the authors of i am nujood, age 10 and divorced, and now the famous antichildmarriage rebel in the world. Child marriage in the middle east and north africa, united nations. Human rights watch defends the rights of people worldwide. This is the equivalent to one in five girls globally. Immigrantcommunitiesintheunitedstatesseptember20115. In rural yemen, usaids safe age of marriage project used community mobilization efforts, including school and. Child marriage is most common in rural areas 100 80 50 10 90 60 20 70 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 rural urban child marriage is more common in rural areas child marriage is more common in urban areas togo suriname ghana guyana peru senegal nigeria 15.
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