New UN initiative issued to protect millions of girls from child marriage

Two UN agencies on Tuesday jointly announced a new initiative to advance efforts in ending child marriage by 2030 and protecting the rights of millions of the most vulnerable girls around the world.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) announced the initiative on International Women's Day as part of a global effort to prevent girls from marrying too young and to support girls already married in 12 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, where child marriage rates are high.

The new initiative, known as the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage, will involve families, communities, governments and young people with an aim to end child marriage in the next 15 years, according to a press release issued here.

"Choosing when and whom to marry is one of life's most important decisions," the executive director of UNFPA, Babatunde Osotimehin, said in the news release. "Child marriage denies millions of girls this choice each year."

"As part of this global programme, we will work with governments of countries with a high prevalence of child marriage to uphold the rights of adolescent girls, so that girls can reach their potential and countries can attain their social and economic development goals," he said.

The initiative will focus on proven strategies, including increasing girls' access to education and health care services, educating parents and communities on the dangers of child marriage, increasing economic support to families, and strengthening and enforcing laws that establish 18 as the minimum age of marriage.

"The world has awakened to the damage child marriage causes to individual girls, to their future children, and to their societies," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. "This new global programme will help drive action to reach the girls at greatest risk -- and help more girls and young women realize their rights to dictate their own destinies."

"This is critical now because if current trends continue, the number of girls and women married as children will reach nearly 1 billion by 2030 -- 1 billion childhoods lost, 1 billion futures blighted," Lake said.

Child marriage is a violation of the rights of girls and women. Girls who are married as children are more likely to be out of school, suffer domestic violence, contract HIV/AIDS and die due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Child marriage also hurts economies and leads to intergenerational cycles of poverty, the press release noted.

The global community demonstrated strong commitment to end child marriage by including a target on eliminating it and other harmful practices in the Sustainable Development Goals, the press release said, adding that both UNICEF and UNFPA called on governments and partner organizations to support the new Global Programme and help eliminate child marriage by 2030. Endit