On world’s first International Day of the Girl Child, UN calls for end to child marriage by UN News, Plan, Unicef, UNFPA & agencies 8:00am 11th Oct, 2012   11 October 2012    The United Nations has marked the first International Day of the Girl Child by calling for an end to child marriage, and stressing education as one of the best strategies for protecting girls against this harmful practice.    “Education for girls is one of the best strategies for protecting girls against child marriage,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day. “When they are able to stay in school and avoid being married early, girls can build a foundation for a better life for themselves and their families.”    “Let us do our part to let girls be girls, not brides,” he stated, urging governments, community and religious leaders, civil society, the private sector, and families – especially men and boys – to promote the rights of girls.    The International Day of the Girl Child was designated as 11 October by a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2011, to recognize girls’ rights and highlight the unique challenges girls face worldwide. The theme of this year’s observance is ‘Ending Child Marriage.’    Approximately 70 million young women today were married before age 18, according to the UN, which notes that child marriage denies a girl her childhood, disrupts her education, limits her opportunities, increases her risk of being a victim of violence and abuse, and jeopardizes her health.    Girls with low levels of schooling are more likely to be married early, and child marriage has been shown to almost always end a girl’s education, the world body adds. Conversely, girls with secondary schooling are up to six times less likely to marry as children, making education one of the most effective ways of combating child marriage.    If current trends continue, the number of girl child marriages will increase dramatically over the next 10 years, according to Marrying too Young: End Child Marriage, a new report released today by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) http://unfpa.org/ It also finds that, despite laws to prevent its practice, child marriage has remained mostly constant in developing countries in the past decade.    The report calls on governments and leaders to end child marriage by: enacting and enforcing national laws that raise the age of marriage to 18, for both girls and boys; using data to identify and target geographic “hotspots,” which have high numbers of girls at risk of child marriage; expanding prevention programmes that empower girls at risk of child marriage and address the root causes underlying the practice; and mitigating the harmful impact of child marriage on girls.    “A girl should have the right to choose whom she marries and when,” UNFPA’s Executive Director, Babatunde Osotimehin, said at the launch, adding that the report is “a clarion call to decision-makers, to parents, to communities and to the world to end the unacceptable practice of child marriage now.”    Secretary-General Ban noted that the Day is also an occasion to highlight the “alarming” levels of discrimination, violence and abuse that girls still face worldwide, and recalled the recent “heinous” attack on three school girls in Pakistan. The main target of the attack, Malala Yousufzai, is a champion of girls’ education and girls’ rights.    “The attack on her was abhorrent and cowardly. The terrorists showed what frightens them most: a girl with a book,” said the Secretary-General. “Nowhere in the world should it be an act of bravery for a young girl to go to school.”    UNICEF says that experiences in a number of countries 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, yields positive results, the agency noted in a news release: http://www.unicef.org/media/media_66156.html    “Through global commitments, civil society movements, legislation and individual initiatives girls will flourish in a safe and productive environment,” said Anju Malhotra, of the Gender and Rights Section in UNICEF. “We must accelerate progress and dedicate resources for girls to claim their rights and realize their full potential.”    Globally, around one in three young women aged 20-24 years were first married before they reached age 18, according to UNICEF. One third of them entered into marriage before they turned 15.    Child marriage, the agency notes, often results in early and unwanted pregnancies, posing life-threatening risks for girls. In developing countries, 90 per cent of births to adolescents aged 15-19 are to married girls, and pregnancy-related complications are the leading cause of death for girls in this age group.    Building on its ongoing work to promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health, UNFPA has announced that it will invest an additional $20 million over the next five years to reach the most marginalized adolescent girls in 12 countries with high rates of child marriage. The countries to be focused on include Guatemala, India, Niger and Zambia.    A group of independent UN human rights experts issued a joint statement to mark the Day, in which they state that child marriage is a violation of all the rights of the child, and forces children, particularly girls, to assume responsibilities for which they are often physically and psychologically not prepared for.    “Girls who are forced to marry are committed to being in slavery-like marriages for the rest of their lives. Girls who are victims of servile marriages experience domestic servitude, sexual slavery and suffer from violations to their right to health, education, non-discrimination and freedom from physical, psychological and sexual violence,” they said.    The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, used the occasion of the Day to call for an end to the suffering of girls in armed conflicts all over the world. “Girls are among the most vulnerable members of society: they should not be made to serve as sex slaves and soldiers. They should not be subjected to rape and sexual violence, nor made to witness brutal sexual attacks,” she said.    “The women of the future, the young girls of the world, should not be deprived of their fundamental human right to play and learn and enjoy being children,” she added.    Joint Statement* by a group of UN human rights experts to mark the first International Day of the Girl Child.    Forced child marriage, slavery-like reality in every single region of the world.    Girls who are forced to marry are committed to being in slavery like marriages for the rest of their lives. Girls who are victims of servile marriages experience domestic servitude, sexual slavery and suffer from violations to their right to health, education, non-discrimination and freedom from physical, psychological and sexual violence.    Every year an estimate of 10 million girls are married before they reach 18. In the most appalling of these cases, little girls as young as eight years old are being married off to men who may be three or four times their age.    Child marriage cuts across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities; 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.    Child marriage is a violation of all the rights of the child. It forces children, particularly girls, to assume responsibilities for which they are often physically and psychologically not prepared for.    Girls who are forced to marry face a life of violence in the home where they are physically and sexually abused, suffer from inhuman and degrading treatment and ultimately slavery.    Early marriages also impacts on girls’ right to education, health, and participate in the decisions that affect them. Girls who marry early often drop out of school, significantly reducing their ability to gain skills and knowledge to make informed decisions and to earn an income. An obstacle to girls’ and women’s empowerment, it also hinders their ability to lift themselves out of poverty.    Child brides are more likely to get pregnant at an early age and, as a result, face higher risk of maternal death and injury due to early sexual activity and childbearing.    A vast array of international instruments recognizes the right to free and full consent to marriage. In particular, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women states that the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, requires States parties to take all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing practices that are harmful to children.    Today, on the first United Nations International Day on the Girl Child, we call on States to increase the age of marriage to 18 years of age for girls and boys without exception and adopt urgent measures to prevent child marriage. As with all forms of slavery, forced early marriages should be criminalized. They cannot be justified on traditional, religious, cultural or economic grounds.    However, an approach which only focuses on criminalization cannot succeed in effectively combating forced early marriages. This should go hand in hand with public awareness raising campaigns to highlight the nature and harm caused by forced and early marriages and community programmes to help detect, provide advice, rehabilitation and shelter where necessary. In addition, birth registration should be made universal to support proof of age and prevent forced early marriage.    On this International Day of the Girl Child, we remind States of their obligation to promote and protect the rights of girls and that harmful practices against girls, including early and forced marriage should be put to an end, in accordance with international law.    No girl should be forced to marry. No girl should be committed to servile marriage, domestic servitude and sexual slavery. No girl should suffer from violations to their right to health, education, non-discrimination and freedom from physical, psychological and sexual violence. Not a single one.    * This joint statement was issued by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children, the UN Special Rapporteur on Sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Slavery, including its causes and consequences, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children and the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law and Practice.    Today, A Promise to Girls, by Desmond Tutu and Ela Bhatt.    Today is our human family''s first-ever International Day of the Girl.    This is a day to celebrate the fact that it is girls who will change the world; that the empowerment of girls holds the key to development and security for families, communities and societies worldwide. It also recognizes the discrimination and violence that girls disproportionately endure -- and it is especially important that one of the cruelest hardships to befall girls, child marriage, should be the UN''s chosen theme for this inaugural day.    The marriage of adolescent girls, sometimes to much older men, sums up much of the harm, injustice and stolen potential that afflict so many girls around the world.    Ten million girls under the age of 18 are married off, every year, with little or no say in the matter. That''s 100 million girls in the next decade. Their parents may feel they are doing the right thing to protect their daughters, but in reality these brides will be vulnerable to ill health, violence, inadequate education and poverty -- as will their children.    Imagine, instead, the wonderful force we would unleash if these girls could be spared such a life.    They would be more likely to stay in school. Studies have shown that when girls stay longer in primary school, they earn wages up to 10 to 20 percent higher in their adult lives. As they get older, the differences in earnings are even more encouraging: For every extra year in secondary school, they can earn up to 25 percent more in adulthood.    These girls would also be more likely to be healthy, and less likely to contract diseases such as HIV/AIDS than married girls of the same age. And when a woman does eventually start a family, again experts have shown the benefit of having enjoyed a healthy, educated and safe childhood: Rates of maternal and child mortality are also improved by better education, while there are also likely to be happier relations between husband and wife and within the family. What is more, women reinvest more money into their family than men do -- so everyone benefits from the higher earnings.    And we know, having seen it first-hand in successful efforts to reduce child marriage, that these women won''t let their daughters marry as children. Child marriage could cease to exist with their generation.    Today, we have the opportunity to enshrine such a global pledge to end child marriage.    The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), international targets set at the turn of the century, proved it was possible to think, and to act, on the largest of scales: halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education are some of its objectives, all by the target date of 2015. Unlike many international commitments, the MDGs are still remembered years later, and helped galvanize unprecedented efforts by governments.    Important progress has been made towards meeting the MDGs: For instance, the target of halving the proportion of people without reliable access to improved drinking water has already been met, and primary school enrolment of girls has equaled that of boys. Overall the MDGs have made a historic contribution towards reducing poverty.    But this progress will be stunted if we fail to address injustices as staggering, persistent and widespread as child marriage. As our leaders begin the process of preparing new development goals to succeed the MDGs, the persistence of child marriage should be seen as one of the major barriers to the well-being of our human family.    Too often, child marriage is justified on the basis of custom or tradition. While traditions often serve to bind societies together, we also want to point out that traditions are man-made. If we learn that they are harmful, we should change them.    In our travels, as Elders, in Asia and Africa, we have met brave girls -- and boys -- who do not hesitate to stand up to tradition and say no to child marriage. In Bihar, a state in northeast India where nearly 70 percent of girls marry before they turn 18 (contrary to national law), we met admirable young people who were signing pledges not to marry before 18. In Amhara, a region in northern Ethiopia, where the most common age for a girl to marry is 12, we visited girls who participated in workshops to discuss collectively the benefits of ending child marriage.    These meetings have convinced us that there is a real need to connect groups around the world, enable them to work together and help to end this practice for the benefit of us all. This led to the creation, last year, of Girls Not Brides, a global partnership of organizations dedicated to stopping the practice, with a membership now growing in the hundreds.    Day after day, the voices of these girls and boys continue to rise higher up the international agenda. We believe that an international consensus on the need to end child marriage is within sight.    When we created Girls Not Brides in 2011, we committed to ending child marriage in one generation. Why not, then, pledge the elimination of this harmful practice by 2030?    Development targets to improve global health, education and gender equality would also be directly tackled by a pledge to end this devastating practice.    And generation after generation, girls would be able to fulfill their potential, amplify the benefits bestowed upon them by their own mothers -- and bless their daughters to do the same.    On this Day of the Girl, we call on the international community to promise a different life to those girls -- a life of their choosing.    * Desmond Tutu is a winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace. Ela Bhatt is founder of SEWA, India’s largest labor union which represents 1.2 million women in the informal sector.    http://www.un.org/en/events/girlchild/videos.shtml    UN Women: http://www.unwomen.org/news-events/in-focus/international-day-of-the-girl-child/#events    Plan International - Because I am a Girl: http://plan-international.org/girls/index.php?lang=en    The Elders: http://girlsnotbrides.org/celebrate-international-day-of-the-girl-and-help-end-child-marriage/3041/    Girls not Brides: http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/
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