On 11 April 2017, Hon. Charles Goerens, MEP organised a Working Breakfast in the European Parliament to discuss the issue of child marriages and how to address this harmful practice which denies often young girls the right to choose whom and when to marry – one of the most important decisions in life which should be made freely and without fear or force.
Speakers invited to the Working Breakfast were Lakshmi Sundaram, Girls not Brides Executive Director; Thomas Kauffmann, ECPAT Luxembourg Executive Director; Katrine Thomasen, Center for Reproductive Rights Senior Legal Adviser and Manuela Smolinski, EPF Policy Officer.
Child, early and forced marriage is a global problem. Child marriages can be found in every region of the world and it cuts across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities. Most child marriages take place in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Forced and child marriages are a violation of fundamental rights and the rights of the child, and a form of violence against children:
- Every day, nearly 47,700 girls around the world are married before age 18 (UNFPA, SWOP 2016)
- One in three girls in developing countries are married by the age of 18
- One in nine marries before the age of 15
If nothing is done to change this trend, an estimated 70 million girls will be married as children over the next five years. And today, there are already more than 700 million women and girls worldwide who were married as children. Child, early and forced marriage occurs for a number of reasons including gender inequality, poverty, insecurity and tradition. Marrying at such a young age means that these young girls often get pregnant when they are mentally or physically not ready.
- These young mothers are more at risk of health complications
- Childbirth is the second leading cause of death among girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in developing countries. Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s.
- Child brides are at risk of early and unwanted sexual contact and are also at a greater risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and often suffer from domestic violence.
- These girls tend to drop out of school at a younger age since they often need to assume household responsibilities and they have little access to opportunities, such as holding a job, outside the home.
Ending child, early and forced marriage requires action across all sectors, including health and education, and with a variety of stakeholders including governments, civil society, communities, families and girls and boys themselves. It is important to enact and enforce national laws that raise the age of marriage to 18, for both girls and boys, to invest in projects that prevent the practice and to support girls and women who are already married. Married girls need reproductive health services to help them avoid early pregnancy. Those who become pregnant need access to appropriate care throughout pregnancy and childbirth. Many community leaders and their communities are already working to end child marriage, though it takes a long time to end harmful practices and traditions. Hon. Charles Goerens, MEP is a member of the EPWG in the European Parliament.