EARLY

MARRIAGE

CHILD SPOUSES

■ OVERVIEW

■ HOW COMMON IS EARLY MARRIAGE?

■ EARLY MARRIAGE: THE CAUSES AND CONTEXT

■ THE IMPACT OF EARLY MARRIAGE

■ TAKING ACTION

■ THE NEED FOR RESEARCH

■ IN CONCLUSION

■ LINKS

■ REFERENCES

I N N O C E N T I D I G E S T

N o . 7 - M a r c h 2 0 0 1

EARLY MARRIAGE: CHILD SPOUSES

This Digest focuses on early marriage – the marriage of children

and young people under the age of 18 – from a human rights per-

spective. Research into early marriage has tended to concentrate

only on specific aspects of its impact such as the effects on repro-

ductive health and school drop-out. There has been little exami-

nation of the practice as a child rights violation in itself. The

Digest examines the extent of early marriage, its context, causes

and its impact on every aspect of the lives of those affected – par-

ticularly young girls – and on wider society. It outlines strategies to

help those who have been married at an early age, and for the pre-

vention of early marriage through education, advocacy and

alliance-building. The Digest concludes with a call for more rights-

based research on an issue that has far-reaching consequences.

UNICEF Innocenti Research CentrePiazza SS. Annunziata, 1250122 Florence, Italy

Tel.: +39 055 203 30Fax: +39 055 244 817E-mail (general information): florence@unicef.orgE-mail (publication orders): florence.orders@unicef.org

Website: www.unicef-icdc.org

ISSN: 1020-3528

EARLY MARRIAGECHILD SPOUSES

CONTENTSEDITORIAL 1

OVERVIEW 2

Neglect of the rights perspective 2

Scope of the Digest 3

HOW COMMON IS EARLY MARRIAGE? 4

EARLY MARRIAGE:

THE CAUSES AND CONTEXT 5

Early marriage as a strategy for economic

survival 6

Protecting girls 6

Contemporary pressures and early marriage 7

Sanctions against early marriage:

the legal context 7

Consent: law and practice 8

THE IMPACT OF EARLY MARRIAGE

ON CHILDREN AND ON SOCIETY 9

Psychosocial disadvantage 9

Adolescent health and reproduction 9

The denial of education 11

Violence and abandonment 12

TAKING ACTION 12

THE NEED FOR RESEARCH 16

IN CONCLUSION 17

WORKING TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY

IN MARRIAGE

by Dr Nafis Sadik, Executive Director, UNFPA 18

LINKS 20

REFERENCES 25

▼EDITORIALThroughout the world, marriage is regarded as a moment of celebration and a milestonein adult life. Sadly, as this Digest makes clear, the practice of early marriage gives no suchcause for celebration. All too often, the imposition of a marriage partner upon a childmeans that a girl or boy’s childhood is cut short and their fundamental rights are com-promised.

Over the last thirty years with UNICEF in Asia, I have encountered the phenomenaof child marriage and early marriage on numerous occasions. While much of the impactremains hidden, it is absolutely clear that millions of children and young people – par-ticularly girls – suffer negative consequences.

This Digest looks at the reasons for the perpetuation of early marriage, and its possi-ble increase in populations under stress. A key factor is poverty, with the marriage ofchildren often seen as a strategy for economic survival. In addition, it is perceived as away to protect girls and to provide some stability in situations where societies are underextreme pressure.

This Digest also examines the harmful impact of the practice. I have received count-less reports of complications and even death in pregnancy and childbirth of wives tooyoung to safely bear children. I have seen child wives who should be in school or play-ing, working in near slave-like conditions in the homes of their in-laws. I have reviewededucation statistics revealing the large numbers of children, particularly girls, who dropout of school because of early marriage. And I have heard so many married women of allages lament the fact that they cannot even read because they had to leave school earlyto be married.

Finally, the Digest offers positive guidelines to end the practice of early marriage. Wemust work to change attitudes in families and in societies at large, extend opportunitiesfor childhood learning and education, offer appropriate support to families and children,and seek to have all children – girls and boys – recognised as valuable members of soci-ety rather than economic burdens.

Our intention is to raise awareness of the situation and, where necessary, to stimulateaction. Where there is insufficient data on the practice and repercussions of early mar-riage, researchers and officials in both government and civil society are encouraged toinitiate research in this area. In some countries, similar local ‘Digests’ could be usefultools for raising awareness. The field offices of UNICEF and other international organi-zations are also encouraged to use this publication to raise awareness, to advocate foraction and to contribute to the formulation of concrete plans of action.

We are indebted to Mehr Khan, the former Director of the UNICEF InnocentiResearch Centre, who paved the way for this Digest.

Stephen H. Umemoto, Acting DirectorUNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

Innocenti Digest no. 7

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Main issues

Birth, marriage and death are the standardtrio of key events in most people’s lives.But only one – marriage – is a matter ofchoice. The right to exercise that choicewas recognized as a principle of law evenin Roman times and has long been estab-lished in international human rights instru-ments. Yet many girls, and a smaller num-ber of boys, enter marriage without anychance of exercising their right to choose.

Some are forced into marriage at a veryearly age. Others are simply too young tomake an informed decision about theirmarriage partner or about the implicationsof marriage itself. They may have givenwhat passes for ‘consent’ in the eyes ofcustom or the law, but in reality, consentto their binding union has been made byothers on their behalf.

The assumption is that once a girl ismarried, she has become a woman – evenif she is only 12. Equally, where a boy ismade to marry, he is now a man and mustput away childish things. While the age ofmarriage is generally on the rise, earlymarriage – marriage of children and ado-lescents below the age of 18 – is still wide-ly practised.

While early marriage takes many differ-ent forms and has various causes, one issueis paramount. Whether it happens to a girlor a boy, early marriage is a violation ofhuman rights. The right to free and fullconsent to a marriage is recognized in the1948 Universal Declaration of HumanRights (UDHR) and in many subsequenthuman rights instruments – consent thatcannot be ‘free and full’ when at least onepartner is very immature. For both girlsand boys, early marriage has profoundphysical, intellectual, psychological andemotional impacts, cutting off educationalopportunity and chances of personalgrowth. For girls, in addition, it will almostcertainly mean premature pregnancy andchildbearing, and is likely to lead to a life-time of domestic and sexual subservienceover which they have no control.

Yet many societies, primarily in Africaand South Asia, continue to support theidea that girls should marry at or soon afterpuberty. Their spouses are likely to be a fewyears older than they are, but may be more

than twice their age. Parents and heads offamilies make marital choices for daughtersand sons with little regard for the personalimplications. Rather, they look upon mar-riage as a family-building strategy, an eco-nomic arrangement or a way to protect girlsfrom unwelcome sexual advances.

Neglect of the rightsperspectiveSocial reformers in the first part of the20th century were concerned about earlymarriage, especially in India,4 and influ-enced the UDHR and other human rightsconventions of the 1950s and 1960s. Inthe latter part of the 20th century, interestcentred on the behavioural determinantsfuelling rapid population growth, forobvious reasons.5 Early marriage extends awoman’s reproductive span, thereby con-tributing to large family size, especially inthe absence of contraception.6

More recently, advocates of safe moth-erhood have turned their attention to thisissue. Pregnancies that occur ‘too early’ –when a woman’s body is not fully mature –constitute a major risk to the survival andfuture health of both mother and child.7

Concern with the special health needs ofadolescents has also recently been grow-ing in a world where young people areparticularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.8

However, from a demographic andhealth perspective, early marriage is seen

primarily as a contributory factor to earlychild-bearing. And sometimes, even in thiscontext, its role is overlooked: the phrase‘teenage pregnancy’ is typically understoodto mean pregnancy outside marriage. Yetfar more adolescent or teenage pregnanciesoccur within marriage than outside it.9

During the past decade, the movementfor ‘Education for All’ has stressed theneed to enrol more girls in school and tokeep them from dropping out before com-pletion.10 In this context, the custom ofearly marriage is acknowledged as one ofthe reasons for girls’ exclusion fromschool, especially in cultural settingswhere girls are raised for a lifetime con-fined to household occupations and areexpected to marry very young.11

Very recently, the situation of childrenin need of special protection, notably girlsvulnerable to sexual abuse and HIV/AIDS,suggests that early marriage is being usedas a strategy to protect girls from sexualexposure,12 or to pass the economic bur-den for their care to others.13 Thus, earlymarriage lingers on as a culturally andsocially sanctioned practice according tosome traditional sets of values and, amongsome highly stressed populations, it mayeven be on the rise.

Despite the efforts of reformers in theearly part of the 20th century, early mar-riage has received scant attention from themodern women’s rights and children’srights movements. There has been virtual-

OVERVIEW▼

Examples of Early MarriageRajasthan, India: The custom survives of giving very small children away in marriage.On the auspicious day of Akha Teej, the mass solemnization of marriages betweenyoung boys and girls is performed. From the parents’ point of view, this is the tried andtested way of organizing the passing on of property and wealth within the family.1 Asmall but significant proportion of the children involved are under age 10, and some aremere toddlers of two or three-years-old.

Niger: A recent study by UNICEF in six West African countries2 showed that 44 percent of 20-24 year old women in Niger were married under the age of 15. The need tofollow tradition, reinforce ties among or between communities, and protect girls fromout-of-wedlock pregnancy were the main reasons given. In the communities studied, alldecisions on the timing of marriage and the choice of spouse are made by the fathers.

Bangladesh: Many Bangladeshi girls are married soon after puberty, partly to free theirparents from an economic burden and partly to protect the girls’ sexual purity. Where agirl’s family is very poor or she has lost her parents, she may be married as a third orfourth wife to a much older man, to fulfil the role of sexual and domestic servant.

Albania: Families in rural areas, reduced to abject poverty by the post-Communisttransition, encourage their daughters to marry early in order to catch potentialhusbands before they migrate to the cities in search of work, and to avoid the threat ofkidnapping on the way to school.3

ly no attempt to examine the practice as ahuman rights violation in itself. Childrenand teenagers married at ages well belowthe legal minimum become statisticallyinvisible as ‘children’.14 Thus, in the eyesof the law, an adult male who has sex witha girl of 12 or 13 outside marriage may beregarded as a criminal, while the same actwithin marriage is condoned.

To date, most studies on the effects ofearly marriage have focused on prematuresex and pregnancy and school drop-out.Much work remains to be done, therefore,to analyse the full impact of this practice.

A shift in focus is beginning. Thegroundbreaking work of the Forum onMarriage and the Rights of Women andGirls is one example of this shift. TheForum, which is the only internationalinter-agency network on this topic, pub-lished Early Marriage: Whose Right to Choose?in May 200015 – a key resource for thisDigest. The Forum also worked withUNICEF to organize a workshop on thisissue during the UN Special Session onWomen (Beijing+5) in June 2000.

This Innocenti Digest is a contributionto this changing focus in the dialogue onearly marriage, and to efforts to repair aglaring omission in human rights analysisand action. It stresses the urgent need formore studies – particularly rights-basedstudies – on this issue. More research isalso needed to identify ways to help thoseaffected by the practice, and pinpoint thewider changes required in society to post-

pone marriage and foster ‘full and freeconsent’ – the right of every human being.

Scope of the DigestThis Digest focuses on marriages that take

place under the age of 18 – the upper agelimit for protection under the 1989Convention on the Rights of the Child(CRC). It examines early marriage from thehuman rights perspective in order to offerguidelines for much-needed analysis andaction. The CRC and the 1979 Conventionon the Elimination of all forms ofDiscrimination Against Women (CEDAW)provide the foundation for such a perspec-tive, which requires a holistic approach toearly marriage. This means examiningevery implication of the practice, from itslimitation upon personal freedom to itsimpact upon health and education.

There is also a deliberate attempt tofocus on unions that are recognized eitherin statutory or customary law as mar-riages, rather than informal or consensualunions. This Digest looks at the binding-ness of marriage and what this means forthose who are married too young, againsttheir best interests, and without theireffective consent.

While boys are affected by early mar-riage, this is an issue that impacts upongirls in far larger numbers and with moreintensity. In many societies, adolescence

Main issues

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International Human Rights Instruments and Early Marriage

A number of human rights instruments lay down norms to be applied to marriage,covering issues of age, consent, equality within marriage, and the personal andproperty rights of women. The key instruments and articles are as follows (paraphrasedfor clarity in some cases):

Article 16 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states: (1) Menand women of full age … have the right to marry and found a family. They are entitledto equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. (2) Marriage shallbe entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending parties. Similarprovisions are included in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social andCultural Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Article 1 of the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the SlaveTrade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery includes in the institutions andpractices similar to slavery: Article 1(c) Any institution or practice whereby: (i) Awoman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment of aconsideration in money or in kind to her parents, guardian, family …

Articles 1, 2, and 3 of the 1964 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age forMarriage and Registration of Marriages state: (1) No marriage shall be legally enteredinto without the full and free consent of both parties, such consent to be expressed bythem in person … as prescribed by law. (2) States Parties to the present Convention shall… specify a minimum age for marriage (“not less than 15 years” according to the non-binding recommendation accompanying this Convention). No marriage shall be legallyentered into by any person under this age, except where a competent authority hasgranted a dispensation as to age, for serious reasons, in the interests of the intendingspouses … (3) All marriages shall be registered … by the competent authority.

Article 16.1 of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminationagainst Women prescribes equally for men and women: (a) The same right to enter intomarriage; (b) The same right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage onlywith their free and full consent; … Article 16.2 states: The betrothal and the marriage ofa child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall betaken to specify a minimum age for marriage. Article XXI of the 1990 African Charter onthe Rights and Welfare of the Child states: Child marriage and the betrothal of girls andboys shall be prohibited and effective action, including legislation, shall be taken tospecify the minimum age of marriage to be eighteen years.

Early Marriage and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

The CRC has been ratified by all countries with the exception of the United States andSomalia. Virtually every provision of the CRC is of some relevance to the issue of earlymarriage. Among the most pertinent, however, are the following (paraphrased forclarity in some cases):Article 1: A child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless,under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.Article 2: Freedom from discrimination on any grounds, including sex, religion, ethnic orsocial origin, birth or other status.Article 3: In all actions concerning children … the best interests of the child shall be aprimary consideration.Article 6: Maximum support for survival and development.Article 12: The right to express his or her views freely in all matters affecting the child,in accordance with age and maturity.Article 19: The right to protection from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury orabuse, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care ofparents, guardian, or any other person.Article 24: The right to health, and to access to health services; and to be protectedfrom harmful traditional practices.Articles 28 and 29: The right to education on the basis of equal opportunity.Article 34: The right to protection from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.Article 35: The right to protection from abduction, sale or trafficking.Article 36: The right to protection from all forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspectof the child’s welfare.

The practice of marrying girls at a youngage is most common in Sub-SaharanAfrica and South Asia. However, in theMiddle East, North Africa and other partsof Asia, marriage at or shortly after puber-ty is common among those living tradi-tional lifestyles. There are also specificparts of West and East Africa and of SouthAsia where marriages much earlier thanpuberty are not unusual, while marriagesof girls between the ages of 16 and 18 arecommon in parts of Latin America and inpockets of Eastern Europe.

One problem in assessing the preva-lence of early marriages is that so manyare unregistered and unofficial and are nottherefore counted as part of any standarddata collection system. Very little countrydata exist about marriages under the ageof 14, even less about those below age 10.An exception is Bangladesh, where theDemographic and Health Survey (DHS)of 1996-97 reported that 5 per cent of 10-14 year-olds were married.18

Small-scale studies and anecdotal infor-mation fill in the picture. They imply that

marriage at a very young age is more wide-spread than country data suggest. Nationalstatistics often disguise significant rates ofvery early marriage in some regions andamong some sub-populations. In theIndian state of Rajasthan, for example, a1993 survey of 5,000 women revealed that56 per cent had married before age 15, andof these, 17 per cent were married beforethey were 10.19 A 1998 survey in MadhyaPradesh found that nearly 14 per cent ofgirls were married between the ages of 10and14.20 In Ethiopia and in parts of WestAfrica, marriage at seven or eight is notuncommon. In Kebbi State, NorthernNigeria, the average age of marriage forgirls is just over 11 years, against a nation-al average of 17.21

Plenty of marriage data exist for thoseaged 15-19, mostly in relation to repro-duction or schooling. DHS data alsoallow some analysis of the proportion ofwomen currently married who marriedbelow age 18.

Sub-Saharan AfricaTrends have been exhaustively examinedcourtesy of World Fertility Survey andDHS data. Analysts have detected twogroups of countries: those where marriageage is rising, such as Kenya, Uganda,Zimbabwe and Senegal, and those wherethere is little change, including Cameroon,Cote d’Ivoire, Lesotho, Liberia and Mali.22

In several countries, over 40 per cent ofyoung women have entered marriage or aquasi-married union by the time they reachthe age of 18.23 By contrast, in only twocountries are more than 10 per cent of boysunder 19 married.24 Early marriage is gener-ally more prevalent in Central and WestAfrica – affecting 40 per cent and 49 percent respectively of girls under 19 – com-pared to 27 per cent in East Africa and 20per cent in North and Southern Africa.25

Many of these young brides are second orthird wives in polygamous households.

In some African countries, notablyBotswana and Namibia, few girls marry intheir teens. However, cohabitation is rela-tively common. While the trend towardslater marriage is clear for the continent asa whole, there are some countries, such asLesotho and Mozambique,26 where thetrend has been in the other direction.There are also cases where the stress ofconflict or HIV/AIDS seems to be con-tributing to early marriage.

AsiaMarriage patterns are much more diverse.The extreme cases are Afghanistan andBangladesh, where 54 per cent and 51 percent of girls respectively are married by age18.27 In Nepal, where the average age at firstmarriage is 19 years,28 7 per cent of girls aremarried before they are 10 years old and 40per cent by the time they are 15.29 In China,the proportion of early marriages fell by 35per cent in the 1970s, but rose from 13 per

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Main issues

means an opening up of opportunity forboys, whereas for girls it often means aclosing down of opportunity and personalfreedom.16 The experience for boys is,therefore, less likely to be as exploitative

or physically harmful as it is for girls. Asthe table on married adolescents belowshows, even in those societies where earlymarriage is common, very few boys underage 19 enter marriage compared to girls.17

This unequal division of power in mar-riage is likely to be exacerbated where thehusband-wife age gap is wide. This Digestfocuses mainly therefore, on the implica-tions of early marriage for girls.

HOW COMMON IS EARLY MARRIAGE?▼

Percentage of Women Aged 25-29 Married before Age 18

Latin AmericaGuatemala 39Dominican Republic 38Paraguay 24

South Central and Southeast AsiaBangladesh 81Nepal 68Pakistan 37Indonesia 34

Sub-Saharan AfricaNiger 77Mali 70Burkina Faso 62Mozambique 57Malawi 55Cote d’Ivoire 44Cameroon 43Benin 40

Middle East and North AfricaYemen 64Egypt 30Source: Population Council

Married Adolescents: Percentage of 15-19 year-olds married

Sub-Saharan Africa boys girlsDem. Rep. of Congo 5 74Niger 4 70Congo 12 56Uganda 11 50Mali 5 50

Asia Afghanistan 9 54Bangladesh 5 51Nepal 14 42

Middle EastIraq 15 28Syria 4 25Yemen 5 24

Latin America and CaribbeanHonduras 7 30Cuba 7 29Guatemala 8 24

Source: UN Population Division, Department of Economicand Social Affairs, World Marriage Patterns 2000

cent in 1979 to 18 per cent in 1987.30 Inmany Asian countries, such as Vietnam andIndonesia, there are vast differences amongregions, states or islands; some in line withethnographic patterns. Meanwhile somecountries have managed to raise the age ofmarriage significantly. In Sri Lanka, forexample, the average age at first marriage is25, compared to 19 in neighbouring India.

Middle East and North AfricaEarly marriage is less common in thisregion than in South Asia or Sub-SaharanAfrica. Data are scarce, but we know that55 per cent of women under 20 in theUnited Arab Emirates are married, while inSudan the figure is 42 per cent.31 In a num-ber of countries, averages may again dis-guise major disparities. A Ministry ofHealth field study in Upper (southern)Egypt in the late 1980s discovered that 44per cent of rural women married in theprevious five years had been under thelegal age of 16 at the time.32

Caribbean and Latin AmericaIn this region, UNICEF reports that 11.5per cent of girls aged 15-19 are married.These figures also mask diversity, withmuch higher ages in the Caribbean, andlower ages in countries such as Paraguay,Mexico and Guatemala.33 Marriage ageamong rural indigenous peoples is typical-ly much lower than that of the urbanizedpopulation, in keeping with traditionalpatterns. In the Dominican Republic, theproportion of early marriages actuallyrose during the early 1990s from 30 percent to 38 per cent.34

North America, Europe, OceaniaIn industrialized countries, few women

marry before age 18; only 4 per cent do soin the USA and 1 per cent in Germany, forexample.35 But in some parts of Centraland Eastern Europe, early marriage sur-vives; notably among the Roma people36

and in Macedonia where 27 per cent ofthe women who married in 1994 wereaged between 15 and 19.37 In most ofEastern Europe and the CIS,38 average ageat marriage is in the low to mid-20s,implying some proportion in the teens (inthe Kyrgyz Republic, 11.5 per cent).39

Throughout Oceania, the average ageof marriage for women is over 20.However, in Kiribati, Marshall Islands,Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands,at least 18 per cent of women are marriedbetween 15 and 19.40

Globally, it is important to note thatearly marriage, and early childbearing,have been more or less abandoned by thewealthiest sections of society, even in poor

and highly traditional countries. Virtuallyeverywhere, poor women in rural areastend to marry younger than those in urbanareas, and educational levels also play acritical role. An examination of the timingof marriage and the level of education,illustrated in the table above, shows con-sistently higher percentages of womenwith at least seven years of schooling mar-rying at age 20 or above.

The striking feature of the figures forthe 15-19 age group in this table is thevery existence of such data – captured inexisting collection exercises, with thecaveat that the upper age limit for the datais 19 rather than 18. While some com-mentators believe that the practice ofearly marriage is under-reported, thistable shows that such data can be found.The data are extraordinarily thoroughcompared to those linked to many otherareas of child rights violation.

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Timing of Marriage and Level of Education%15-19 Av. age % of women with 7+ yrs schoolmarried at 1st marriage m. before 20 m. at 20 or older

Sub-Saharan AfricaBotswana (1988) 6 25 55 71Cameroon (1991) 44 19 27 77Mali (1987) 75 16 6 19Niger (1992) 59 18 1 17Uganda (1988/89) 41 19 20 43

Latin AmericaGuatemala (1987) 26 21 9 34Mexico (1987) 20 22 32 72

Middle EastEgypt (1992) 14 22 25 60Yemen (1991/92) 25 21 6 21

AsiaChina (1987/88) 5 22 28 60Indonesia (1991) 20 22 18 58Pakistan (1990/91) 25 21 8 25

Source: Sexual Relationships and Marriage Worldwide, Alan Guttmacher Institute 1995

EARLY MARRIAGE: THE CAUSES AND CONTEXT▼

Customs surrounding marriage, includingthe desirable age and the way in which aspouse is selected, depend on a society’sview of the family – its role, structure,pattern of life, and the individual and col-lective responsibilities of its members.The idea and function of ‘family’ variesacross the world and is in a state of con-stant evolution.41

In Western Europe and North America,

marriages have historically taken placelater in life. Average age at marriage for16th century women in Europe (other thanamong a small landowning elite) was 24years (26 for men), rising to 27 by the 18th

century (30 for men).42 At that time, thefamily was the unit of economic produc-tion, as it is in many agrarian societiestoday. But households were usually sepa-rate, not combined; the newly-weds need-

ed a place of their own and had generallysaved some resources to start family life.

Later marriage in Europe has had animportant impact on attitudes to consent.Because women and men marry as adultswith experience of life, it is alien to acceptunquestioningly a parental choice ofspouse. The free consent of both partnersto a marriage has been legally requisitesince Roman times.43 This consent, and

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Main issues

the relative independence it gives to mar-riage partners, is absent from unionswhere the girl is absorbed into the house-hold of her in-laws and takes on the roleof the mother-in-law’s protégé and helper.

One important difference betweenmarriage customs in many developingworld societies and those in the industrial-ized world is that in the former, these cus-toms tend to support high fertility evenwhere overall fertility levels are falling.

During the 1970s, concern about pop-ulation growth, and perplexity about thewidespread rejection of contraceptivetechnology by most couples in develop-ing countries, led to efforts by socialdemographers to understand the reasonsfor what they saw as ‘odd’ behaviour.44

These demographic studies extended intoa historical examination of marriage andchildbearing in Western Europe.

The basic difference in family patternsidentified was between the traditional‘familist’ system and the modern ‘individu-alist’ systems. The traditional system ischaracterized by extended families, com-munal households, plural mating, authori-tarian exercise of power by the paterfamilias,young age at marriage, spouses chosen byelders, absorption of the newly-wed intoan existing household, no non-householdrole or identity for women. In the ‘individ-ualist’ system, which is the norm in indus-trialized countries, the opposites generallyapply.45 In the familist model, fertility isdeliberately maximized by marrying girlsimmediately after puberty. The family isthe unit of economic production and is theonly source of wealth, social status andsecurity for its members. New children(especially boys) are needed to run thehousehold and maintain the family’s status.The need to maximize reproduction isreinforced where infant mortality is high.

Early marriage as a strategyfor economic survivalPoverty is one of the major factors under-pinning early marriage. Where poverty isacute, a young girl may be regarded as aneconomic burden and her marriage to amuch older – sometimes even elderly –man, a practice common in some MiddleEastern and South Asian societies, is afamily survival strategy, and may even beseen as in her interests. In traditional soci-eties in Sub-Saharan Africa, the bride’s

family may receive cattle from the groom,or the groom’s family, as the brideprice fortheir daughter.46 A recent study of fivevery poor villages in Egypt found younggirls being married off to much older menfrom oil-rich Middle Eastern countries viabrokers.47 In Bangladesh, poverty-strickenparents are persuaded to part with daugh-ters through promises of marriage, or byfalse marriages, which are used to lure thegirls into prostitution abroad.48

In Nigeria, which is currently facingeconomic difficulties and political instabil-ity, age at marriage has barely risen, and inthe north of the country the average agehas fallen since 1990.49 In West Africa as awhole, a recent UNICEF study shows thateconomic hardship is encouraging a rise inearly marriage, even among some popula-tion groups that do not normally practiseit.50 Men are postponing marriage becauseof lack of resources, and parents havebecome anxious about the danger of theirdaughters becoming pregnant outsidemarriage. Thus any early opportunity formarriage may be seized upon. There arealso reports from HIV/AIDS researchers inEastern Africa that marriage is seen as oneoption for orphaned girls by caregiverswho find it hard to provide for them.51

Some countries in the grip of on-goingcivil conflict show acute symptoms ofchild-related social stress: increasing childslavery and trafficking, rising numbers ofchildren on the streets, very young prosti-tutes and labourers, and high levels ofchild neglect and abandonment.52

Evidence suggests that in such situations,early marriage is on the rise. Families inrefugee camps in Burundi, for example,protect their honour by marrying theirdaughters off as early as possible.53

Reports from Iraq indicate that early mar-riage is rising there in response to povertyinflicted by the post-Gulf War sanctions,54

and in Afghanistan, war and militarizationhave led to an increased number of forcedmarriages of young girls.55

Other pressures can promote early mar-riage in societies under stress. Fear of HIVinfection, for example, has encouragedmen in some African countries to seekyoung virgin – and therefore uninfected –partners.56 Wherever the incidence of rape,trafficking, domestic violence, sexual servi-tude and child abduction is rising, it seemsreasonable to ask whether early marriage isalso making a comeback.

Protecting girlsEarly marriage is one way to ensure that awife is ‘protected’, or placed firmly undermale control; that she is submissive to herhusband and works hard for her in-laws’household; that the children she bears are‘legitimate’; and that bonds of affectionbetween couples do not undermine thefamily unit.57

Parents may genuinely feel that theirdaughter will be better off and safer witha regular male guardian. In conflict-tornNorthern Uganda for example, some fam-ilies marry their young daughters to militiamembers in order to defend family honouror secure ‘protection’ for themselves andthe girl.58 The same thing has happened togirls in Somalia in the course of that coun-try’s conflicts.59

One important impetus for marryinggirls at an early age is that it helps preventpremarital sex. Many societies prize vir-ginity before marriage and this can mani-fest itself in a number of practicesdesigned to ‘protect’ a girl from unsanc-tioned sexual activity. In effect, theyamount to strict controls imposed uponthe girl herself. She may, for example, besecluded from social interaction outsidethe family. She may be told what she canand cannot wear. In North-East Africa andparts of the Middle East in particular, con-trol may also include the practice offemale genital mutilation (FGM) – surgi-cally restricting entry to the vagina(infibulation) or removing the clitoris(excision), to restrict sexual pleasure andtemptation. In some societies, parentswithdraw their girls from school as soonas they begin to menstruate, fearing thatexposure to male pupils or teachers putsthem at risk.60 These practices are allintended to shield the girl from male sex-ual attention, but in the eyes of concernedparents, marriage is seen to offer the ulti-mate ‘protection’ measure.

Early marriage deprives a girl of heradolescence. In many traditional societies,the idea of an adolescent period betweenpuberty and adulthood is alien. A girl whomenstruates can bear a child, and is there-fore ‘a woman’. This sits awkwardly withthe fact that the CRC covers everyone upto age 18 and regards childhood as aprocess of development – one that doesnot end with a definitive physical maturi-ty marker.

In some societies, the independentsense of self that a girl may develop dur-ing adolescence is seen as undesirable.While women may be revered in suchsocieties, they are also required to be sub-servient to the wishes of fathers, hus-bands, and sons – for their own protectivegood. It follows that if they are not, theydeserve retribution; in Kenya for example,violence against disobedient wives iswidely sanctioned.61

In many societies, a girl is raised toshow the self-control and deference to menthat will be expected of her throughoutlife. By the age of five, a girl in ruralPakistan has learnt to ‘go outside’ as little aspossible, and adopt ‘an attitude of care andservice towards men’.62 Obviously, inPakistan as elsewhere, the younger thebride, the more chance of conditioning herinto the appropriate subservient behaviour.

Contemporary pressuresand early marriage The theory of ‘demographic transition’,which has governed population policiessince the 1970s, assumes that societieseventually abandon the strategy of highfertility when mortality declines due tohealth improvements, and under the pres-sures of urbanization and modernization.63

The extended family begins to break upinto nuclear components, and some cou-ples leave for the towns. Individual wagelabour replaces family-based productionand instead of being an economic necessi-ty, children become a ‘cost’. Women mayjoin the labour force, and receive an edu-cation beyond that needed for householdmanagement. In these circumstances, mar-riage and childbearing may be postponed.

Many developing countries are partway through the ‘demographic transition’:witness recent declines in fertility. Parts ofany national population – better-educatedand better-off urban dwellers – may adoptthe norms of the industrialized world,including later marriage and child bear-ing. However, other groups may continuein the old patterns. Extended and nuclearfamilies may exist side by side, even in thesame generation. Where average age ofmarriage appears to be rising, this maydisguise the fact that very large sub-popu-lations are still marrying very young.

Old beliefs, customs and moral codestend to persist during demographic transi-

tion, while new circumstances make onlygradual inroads into actual practice.64 Theresilience of traditional practices and cus-toms is illustrated by the situation ofBritish girls from families of South Asianand Middle Eastern origin sent on a visit‘home’, only to discover that they are tobe forcibly married to a stranger.65 Sinceolder women are more likely than men tobe excluded from new ideas, they areoften the last to abandon the ideas thatframed their own lives.

Marriage patterns – alongside otheraspects of family formation – are subjectto acute ‘development’ pressures such asdeclining incomes from the land, rapidurbanization, population mobility, andthe volatility of global markets, all ofwhich are currently causing profoundsocial upheaval and economic marginal-ization. The outcome for families isincreasing fragmentation and the erosionof their extended structure.

Families in the process of transitionmay, therefore, be caught between tradi-tional and modern values. Men in searchof work may join the individualist worldin town; while the women they married intheir teens, and their children, continuetheir traditional lives in the countryside.66

This pattern is particularly common inSub-Saharan Africa. Thus the impact ofearly marriage may be reinforced in theshorter term by the very process theworld calls ‘development’.

Sanctions against earlymarriage: the legal contextIn many countries, early marriage fallsinto what amounts to a sanctions limbo. Itmay be prohibited in the existing civil orcommon law, but be widely condoned bycustomary and religious laws and practice.This is common where marriages typical-ly take place according to customary ritesand remain unregistered.

The situation is further complicated incountries where legislation was intro-duced by the colonizing power on theunderstanding that many customary prac-tices would continue even if they wereinconsistent with new laws. Some wereeven codified to make them legal. InBenin, for example, Article 68 of the 1931‘Coutumier du Dahomey’ regulating cus-tomary marriage states that: “A marriage isnot settled by the interested parties, but

by their father, or in his absence by hisolder brother, or failing him, by the headof the family”.67 In Suriname, the legalminimum age of marriage is 15 accordingto the Civil Code; but under the AsianMarriage Act, which codifies practice fora particular group, the minimum age forgirls is 13.68

Although most countries have lawsthat regulate marriage, both in terms ofminimum age and consent, these laws maynot be applied and few prosecutions areever brought against lawbreakers – par-ents, officiators or spouses. Some laws donot prescribe sanctions; the only outcomeof a case would be to declare the marriageinvalid, leaving the wife without legalprotection. Moreover, such laws usuallydo not apply to customary marriages.

In some countries, the legal minimumage of marriage set for boys and girls isclearly aspirational. Thus, the minimumage in two countries with a high preva-lence of HIV/AIDS – Uganda, where 50per cent of girls aged 15-19 are married,and Zambia, where the figure is 27 percent – has been set at 21 for both malesand females.69

In most cases where a minimum age isset, it is 18 or above for both males andfemales. In 15 countries, it is 16. A num-ber of countries nonetheless allow mar-riages to take place at much younger ageswith parental consent.

In cases where there is a discrepancybetween the minimum age of marriage forboys and girls, it is consistently lower forgirls.70 However, at least 20 countrieseither do not have legislation to regulatemarriage, or do not set any minimum agefor either girls or boys.

There is considerable discrepancybetween the legal age of marriage and theactual age of marriage for many girls.Indeed, in a number of countries, the aver-age age at marriage is almost the same as,or even lower, than the legal age. In a few– Afghanistan, Chad, DemocraticRepublic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique,Niger – the only reason that the averageage is not lower than the legal age isbecause the latter is not set or is set verylow. In DRC, for example, the average ageat marriage is 16.6 and the legal minimumage is 15.71

The situation is exacerbated by the factthat birth registration is so irregular thatage at marriage may not be known. In

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addition, many marriages go unregistered;if there are problems in the marriage, thewife has no means of legal redress.

Thus, the use of law as a means of reg-ulating early marriage is in no way suffi-cient. This does not mean that legalreform should not be sought. The IndianChild Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 stemmedfrom a campaign that helped repositionwomen, family life, and childbearingwithin modern India.72 While the Act didnot declare child marriages invalid, ithelped pave the way for change. In 1978it was strengthened to inhibit marriage ofgirls until the age of 18 and boys until age21. However, the number of prosecutionsunder the Act did not exceed 89 in anyyear between 1994 and 1998.73 Some gov-ernments have taken steps to unify theircustomary law and civil or common law,or have passed legislation designed toprotect those in customary marriages:South Africa’s Recognition of CustomaryMarriages Act of 1998 sets 18 as the mini-mum age for such unions and requirestheir registration.

In keeping with the spirit of the CRC,an increasing number of laws fix the min-imum age at 18 years – the standard alsoset by the 1990 African Charter on the Rightsand Welfare of the Child and suggested by theCEDAW Committee in its general recom-mendation 21 and by the UN SpecialRapporteur on Violence against Women.This standard responds to the growingconsensus that the period of adolescenceneeds special support and protection.

The Inter-African Committee (IAC)on Traditional Practices Affecting theHealth of Women and Children statesthat early marriage is: “Any marriage car-ried out below the age of 18 years, beforethe girl is physically, physiologically, andpsychologically ready to shoulder theresponsibilities of marriage and child-bearing”.74 The Forum on Marriage echoesthis position.

In their observations on States Parties’reports, the CEDAW and CRCCommittees have both consistently rec-ommended that states adopt higher mini-mum ages of marriage and ensure thatthese are the same for boys and girls. TheCRC Committee also takes the view that,in cases where girls are considered adultsbefore the law upon marriage, they wouldbe deprived of the comprehensive pro-tection of the CRC.75

Consent: law and practiceThe second issue at the heart of a rightsapproach to early marriage is that of con-sent. The picture is similar to that con-cerning minimum age: in the vast majori-ty of countries the law grants women theright to consent. Only in Cameroon,Jordan, Morocco, Uganda and Yemen arewomen specifically not granted by law theright to ‘full, free and informed consent’ totheir marriage.76 But in a large number ofcountries, these legal provisions are mere-ly symbolic.

The more important practical issue is,therefore, whether or not the idea of con-sent is socially rated. Difficult questionsarise around the age a child should bebefore he or she can ‘consent’ as a mature,cognisant and independent being to sexu-al relations or marriage, but where no clearconsent has been given by one or otherpartner, the marriage is clearly forced.

In the case of marriages under the ageof 10, consent – other than to dress upand play a game – is not a consideration.Toddlers married at Akha Teej ceremoniesin Rajasthan cannot ‘consent’. Nor is con-sent given in the cases of young girls fromvery poor homes in the Indian city ofHyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, sold aswives to rich men in the Middle East.77 InGojam, Ethiopia, marriages may beimposed from birth, with the girl sent toher future husband’s home at around theage of seven to begin her integration intoher marriage family. Here again, consentby the girl does not enter the picture.78

Similarly, in marriages at or around puber-ty – from roughly ages 10 to 14 – ‘consent’cannot be said to have been given since,at such an early age, a child cannot beexpected to understand the implicationsof accepting a lifetime partner.

The question of marital consentbecomes more difficult at age 15 or 16, bywhich stage a girl may have reached thelegal age of sexual consent. In the CEDAWCommittee’s recommendation that theminimum age for marriage of both men andwomen should be 18, it commented that,“When men and women marry, theyassume important responsibilities.Consequently, marriage should not be per-mitted before they have attained full matu-rity and capacity to act.”79 The Committeealso observed that, “Some countries pro-vide for different ages for marriage for men

and women. As such provisions assumeincorrectly that women have a differentrate of intellectual development from men,or that their stage of physical and intellec-tual development at marriage is immaterial,these provisions should be abolished.”80

It could be argued that even older chil-dren cannot be said to give informed con-sent to such a potentially damaging prac-tice as early marriage. Beyond the issuesof maturity and non-discrimination, anyargument for a child’s ability to consentto marriage is further undermined by therisk that marriage represents to his or herwell-being. Many international bodies81

consider early marriage to be one of the“traditional practices prejudicial to thehealth of children” cited in article 24(3)of the Convention on the Rights of theChild. Indeed, one of the key messagescontained in this Digest is that both thephysical and psychological impacts ofearly marriage may have serious implica-tions for the well-being of those married.

Furthermore, while in many countries agirl or boy may have reached the legal ageof sexual consent at the age of 15 or 16, thisshould not be taken to mean that they areready to enter marriage. A lack of legislativeclarity over the different implications ofconsent to sexual activity and consent tomarriage can result in strange anomalies. InMaryland, USA, the state law defines statu-tory rape as sex with a child younger than14 by someone four or more years older.However, another law allows childrenunder 16 (with no minimum) to marry withproof of pregnancy and parental permis-sion, and this provision is sometimes used –in one notorious case to allow a 29-year-oldman to marry a 13-year-old girl.82

In 1997, the Committee on the Rightsof the Child protested a similar situationin Algeria.83 Here, as in other countriessuch as Chad, Costa Rica, Lebanon,Libya, Romania and Uruguay,84 the lawallows a perpetrator of rape, includingstatutory rape of a minor, to be excused ofhis crime if he marries his victim; a judgesimply legitimizes the union. This has alsohappened in California in cases of under-age pregnancies where the man is willingto ‘stand by’ the girl. In effect, the statewelfare agency supports what is seen as aviable partnership as an alternative tocostly state care for mother and child.85

In a number of countries, it takes onlythe parents’ consent to override the legal

and the younger the bride or groom theless real chance there is to exercise thisright. Both types of marriage indicate thedegree to which many societies view mar-riage as a family affair in which the viewsof people other than the couple are givenpriority. Parents’ views will override chil-dren’s, and men’s will override women’s –even taking precedence over the law.

Cases of runaway brides highlight theissue of consent – or lack of it. In Pakistan,the Commission on the Status of Womenreported in 1989: “Men are constantlyfighting to retrieve their women becausethey have run away”.87 There are reports

of young wives being locked up by theirhusbands in India, and in Zimbabwe it isoften forbidden for a young bride to visither own family until she goes there togive birth to her first child.88 In one tragiccase in Nigeria, a 12-year-old girl unhap-py with her new husband ran away sooften that he cut off her legs to preventher absconding. She subsequently died.89

The CRC Committee has focused onlaws and customs in its observations to anumber of countries. Its most commoncomplaints are low minimum age for girlsand disparate – therefore discriminatory –marriage ages for girls and boys.

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Young girls may endure misery as a resultof early marriage and the number of thosewho would seek help, if they thought itexisted, is impossible to calculate. Untilmore is known about their situation therecan be no reliable estimates of the scale oftheir predicament, or of the social damagethat is carried forward in the upbringingthey give to their own children.

One thing is clear: the impact of earlymarriage on girls – and to a lesser extent onboys – is wide-ranging. Within a rights per-spective, three key concerns are the denialof childhood and adolescence, the curtail-ment of personal freedom and the lack ofopportunity to develop a full sense of self-hood as well as the denial of psychosocialand emotional well-being, reproductivehealth and educational opportunity.

Early marriage also has implications forthe well-being of families, and for societyas a whole. Where girls are uneducatedand ill-prepared for their roles as mothersand contributors to society, there are coststo be borne at every level, from the indi-vidual household to the nation as a whole.

Psychosocial disadvantage The loss of adolescence, the forced sexualrelations, and the denial of freedom andpersonal development attendant on earlymarriage have profound psychosocial andemotional consequences. The impact canbe subtle and insidious and the damage hardto assess. It includes such intangible factors

as the effect of a girl’s loss of mobility andher confinement to the home and to house-hold roles. Obviously there is a marked lackof data in these areas, and social researchershave failed to examine the impacts of earlymarriage in this context.

Most girls who are unhappy in animposed marriage are very isolated. Theyhave nobody to talk to as they are sur-rounded by people who endorse their sit-uation. In Ethiopia, Inter-AfricanCommittee researchers were struck by thelack of interest from elders in the traumassuffered by young girls as a result of earlymarriages, premature sex and childbear-ing. These traumas were regarded as an“unavoidable part of life”.90 Girls who runhome to their parents may be beaten andsent back to their husbands. Distress isgenerally endured in silence.

Indian researchers on child marriage inRajasthan and Madhya Pradesh state thatgirl spouses suffer more than boys:“Inadequate socialization, discontinuationof education, great physiological andemotional damage due to repeated preg-nancies devastates these girls.” If the hus-band dies, even before consummation, thegirl is treated as a widow and given in natato a widower in the family. Officially sheis then his wife, but in fact under the prac-tice of nata she becomes the commonproperty of all the men in the family.91

The child bride who is widowed veryyoung can suffer additional discrimina-tion. Widows suffer loss of status and they,

along with their children, are often deniedproperty rights, and a range of otherhuman rights. In parts of Africa, a widow isremarried to a brother-in-law, a customknown as levirate, originally intended, inpart, to provide economic and social sup-port. If the widow resists, she may be castout by the family. Child widows with littleeducation and no means of earning areespecially powerless. At a 1994Conference in Bangalore, India, partici-pants told of being married at five and sixyears old, widowed a few years later, andrejected by their in-laws and their ownfamilies.92 These widows are, quite simply,left with no resources and nowhere to go.

Adolescent health and reproductionThe notion of good reproductive healthcovers all aspects of the reproductionprocess – including a satisfying and safeexperience of sexual relations, the capabili-ty to reproduce, and the freedom to decideif and when to bear a child.93 The right notto engage in sexual relations and the rightto exercise control over reproduction mayboth be violated by early marriage.

Sexual relationsIn the case of girls married before puberty,the normal understanding between fami-lies is that there will be no sexual inter-course until first menstruation. In Gojam,

THE IMPACT OF EARLY MARRIAGEON CHILDREN AND ON SOCIETY

age of marriage – a judge is not required. InColombia, the legal age is 18, but with par-ents’ permission girls of 12 and boys of 14can be married. In the Dominican Republicthere is no minimum age in exceptional cir-cumstances and with parental consent.86

The UK Home Office Report intoforced marriages of British girls of SouthAsian parentage distinguishes between‘forced’ and ‘arranged’ marriages. Inarranged marriages, the initiative is takenby the parents of the couple, but consentis required from both partners and eitherhas the right to withdraw. However, thepressures from parents may be very high,

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Ethiopia, husband and wife may grow upplaying together in the house of his par-ents. In this case, the mother-in-law mustprotect the girl from any advances by herson.94 This is also true in West Africancountries.95 However, this protection mayfail, especially where the husband is mucholder than the girl. Cases of forced inter-course by much older and physically fullydeveloped husbands with wives as youngas eight have been reported.96

For the vast majority of under-educat-ed rural adolescent girls in the developingworld, marriage remains the likely contextfor sexual intercourse.97 And while anunmarried teenage girl may find it diffi-cult to resist unwanted sexual advances,her married sister may find it impossible.

Researchers have tended to focus onadolescent sexuality outside marriage, orhave made no distinction between mar-ried and unmarried adolescents. Thismeans that there are only limited dataabout sexual experience among marriedadolescents; the assumption prevails thatsex within marriage is a priori consensual.A 1997 study among women in Calcuttafound that half had been married at orbelow the age of 15, and that this groupwere highly vulnerable to sexual violencein marriage. In 80 per cent of cases wherethese young wives informed their hus-bands of their unwillingness to enduresexual violence, they were ignored.98

Pain and trauma are enhanced wheregirls have undergone some form of FGM,especially where this has been undertakenrecently, and especially in the case ofinfibulation which is designed to makepenetration difficult. Problems may beexacerbated after childbirth. In manysocieties, and in many millions of individ-ual cases, women have no choice but toresume sexual relations within two orthree days of childbirth, even if there hasbeen vaginal cutting during delivery, andregardless of the pain it causes.99

Access to contraception and reproductive health adviceVery few girls in early marriages in devel-oping countries have access to contracep-tion; nor would delayed pregnancy neces-sarily be acceptable to many husbands andin-laws.100 Indeed, in many societies, child-bearing soon after marriage is integral to awoman’s social status. In Yemen, 11 percent of wives aged 15-29 stated that theydid not use contraception because of their

husbands’ opposition.101 In almost all Asiancountries the family exerts strong pressureon the newly-married couple to beginchildbearing quickly.102 In Cameroon, Maliand Nigeria, the modern contraceptiveusage rates among married 15-19 year oldsare only 1.5, 2.4 and 0.6 per cent respec-tively.103 The girls’ right to have any sayover when and if they should becomepregnant is unacknowledged, and theirchances of early pregnancy are high.Analysis of DHS data indicates that thefirst birth usually occurs within 14-26months of marriage, although it may beslightly longer where age of marriage isvery low, as in Bangladesh.104

Teenage girls are also more susceptiblethan more mature women to sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), includingHIV. This is the result of both biologicalfactors, such as hormonal fluctuationsand the permeability of vaginal tissue,and social factors, such as skewed powerrelations between women and men thatmake it difficult for girls and youngwomen to negotiate safe sex. STIs canlead to infertility, and in the case of HIV,the outcome is premature mortality andrisks of transmission to the foetus. In arecent study in Rwanda, 25 per cent ofgirls who became pregnant at 17 oryounger were infected with HIV,although many reported having sex onlywith their husbands. According to thestudy, the younger the age at sexual inter-

course and first pregnancy, the higher theincidence of HIV infection.105

As far as preparation of both girls andboys for sexual and reproductive life isconcerned, there has been deep resistancein many developing countries to sex edu-cation in the classroom for fear of pro-moting promiscuity. The threat ofHIV/AIDS has reduced this opposition tosome extent, but there is little prospect atpresent of girls receiving education onwhat to expect, or about their rights interms of marriage or reproduction.Moreover, classroom education does notreach children who are not in school. Forexample, according to data from Sri Lankapublished in 1990, one-third of youngadults between ages 16 and 24 did notknow the duration of a normal pregnancy.Less than 5 per cent had discussed repro-ductive health with their parents.106

There are still a number of countrieswhere reproductive health services arebarred to adolescents, or require them tohave reached a certain age.107 Thisexcludes many married adolescents incountries such as Zambia or Bangladeshwhere age limits are in force – another ofthe anomalies surrounding early marriage.

Pregnancy and childbirthThe risks of early pregnancy and child-birth are well documented: increased riskof dying, increased risk of prematurelabour, complications during delivery, low

Nepali Children’s Views on Early MarriageDuring research commissioned by Save the Children Fund (UK), girls aged between 14and 17 from different ethnic groups and castes in two villages in Surkhet District,Nepal, made the following observations on early marriage:

“My sister was married at 14 years old. She appealed to the school to stop themarriage, but to no avail.” 14 year old girl

“My parents married me to a man in Lekh. I had to work very hard but my parents-in-law didn’t recognise this. My husband beat me, so I don’t like to go to his houseeven though he will come to take me. I want to go to school.” 14 year old girl.

“I married due to my father’s pressure. I gave birth to a son, yet my family membersencouraged me to go to school. I study more than others do. So my husband’s familymembers respect me.” 17 year old girl.

The girls were aware that early marriage was dangerous from a health perspective;that early pregnancy could threaten the health – even the lives – of mother and baby.

Asked to give reasons for early marriage, the girls mentioned society’s refusal to acceptunmarried pregnancies and sex outside marriage; failing school exams; neighbours’gossip; the heavy workload in their parents’ home and the dream of love, good food,nice clothes and seeing new places after marriage. Many girls felt that marriage andmotherhood would provide them with safety, a sense of security and better status.

The girls felt that their value and status were low because they would belong to theirhusband’s family and because daughters do not inherit parental property. They all saidthey had been happy until the age of 10 because they could play as they liked withoutany work or restrictions on their mobility. Now they wanted to continue their studiesbut found it hard to do so due to their heavy household workloads.

From report of research conducted by Irada Gautam for Save the Children (UK) in Surkhet, Nepal,December 1998-January 1999. (www.savethechildren.org.uk/development/reg_pub/nepalgenderreport.htm)

birth-weight, and a higher chance that thenewborn will not survive.108

Pregnancy-related deaths are the lead-ing cause of mortality for 15-19 year-oldgirls (married and unmarried) worldwide.Mothers in this age group face a 20 to 200per cent greater chance of dying in preg-nancy than women aged 20 to 24. Thoseunder age 15 are five times as likely to dieas women in their twenties.109 The maincauses are haemorrhage, sepsis, pre-eclampsia/eclampsia and obstructed labour.Unsafe abortion is the other major risk forteenage women – most of those affectedare unmarried.110 Some specific local stud-ies show worse outcomes for the veryyoung mother: in Zaria, Nigeria, maternalmortality among women younger than 16was found to be six times higher than forwomen aged 20-24, and similar findingshave been reported from Cameroon andEthiopia.111 For every woman who dies inchildbirth, 30 more suffer injuries, infec-tions and disabilities, which usually gountreated and some of which are lifelong.

Part of this heavy toll has more to dowith poor socio-economic status and lackof ante-natal and obstetric care than phys-ical maturity alone.112 However, physicalimmaturity is the key risk for the under15s. High rates of Vesico-Vaginal Fistula(VVF) are clearly identified with marriageand childbearing in the 10-15 year-old agegroup; in one study in Niger, 88 per cent ofwomen with fistula were in this age groupat marriage.113 Mothers whose pelvis andbirth canal are not fully developed oftenendure very prolonged labour.114 Unless themother receives emergency obstetric care,relentless pressure from the baby’s skull candamage the birth canal, causing breakagesin the wall, allowing uncontrollable leak-age from the bladder into the vagina. Thesame problem may also occur in relation tothe rectum, with leakage of faeces (recto-vaginal fistulas, or RVF).

Fistula conditions are permanent with-out surgical intervention to re-seal the tis-sues,115 such intervention may not besought or may be hard to access. There issome evidence from Nigeria that FGMpractices that damage the vagina may alsoincrease the likelihood of VVF.116 Theprevalence of VVF/RVF is not fullyknown, but WHO estimates that there aretwo million women living with fistulasand an additional 50,000-100,000 newcases every year, many of which go

untreated.117 A girl with the condition isusually ostracized as unclean, and is oftendivorced. In Nigeria, where the conditionaffects around 150,000 women, 80-90 percent of wives with VVF are divorced bytheir husbands;118 in Niger VVF is the rea-son for 63.3 per cent of all divorces.119

Infant and early childhood careThe health problems linked to early mar-riage not only affect the pregnant motherand the foetus, but also continue afterchildbirth. Evidence shows that infantmortality among the children of veryyoung mothers is higher – sometimes twotimes higher – than among those of olderpeers.120 A stronger likelihood of lowbirth-weight in the infant has beenrecorded among adolescent mothers thanamong older peers. This is mainly associ-ated with poor maternal nutrition, rein-forcing the point that adolescents are‘unready’ for childbirth. Low birth-weightbabies are 5-30 times more likely to diethan babies of normal weight.121 If a moth-er is under 18, her baby’s chance of dyingin the first year of life is 60 per cent high-er than that of a baby born to a motherolder than 19.122 A 1993 survey amongwomen married young in Rajasthan foundthat 63 per cent of their children underfour were severely malnourished.123

The immaturity and lack of education ofa young mother undermines her capacityfor nurture. Even children are able to workthis out: it was one reason given by Nepalichildren for avoiding early marriage, asshown by Save the Children research.124

Future maternal health and childbearingFinally, early marriage extends a woman’spotential childbearing capacity, whichitself represents a risk to mothers.125 Notuntil the ‘demographic transition’ is rela-tively advanced, child survival adequatelyassured, and education valued, do familiessee the births of many children as a drainon resources rather than an asset. Untilthat time, women are under pressure toproduce large numbers of children.

Population and family planning policiessince the 1970s have tried to reduce largefamily size, focusing on the social, eco-nomic and environmental costs to coun-tries that lack the resources to ensure agood quality of life for their rapidly grow-ing populations. In this light, early mar-

riage can be said to have profound socialand economic consequences for society asa whole. These consequences are rein-forced by the fact that the children ofyoung and illiterate mothers tend to facethe same cycle of childhood deprivationand damage experienced by their mothers.

The denial of educationEarly marriage inevitably denies childrenof school age their right to the educationthey need for their personal development,their preparation for adulthood, and theireffective contribution to the future well-being of their family and society. Indeed,married girls who would like to continueschooling may be both practically andlegally excluded from doing so.

The interaction between the numberof years of a girl’s schooling and the post-ponement of marriage is firmly estab-lished by demographic and fertility stud-ies. On average, women with seven ormore years of education marry four yearslater and have 2.2 fewer children thanthose with no education.126 However, theprecise nature of the interaction betweeneducation and marriage is not always evi-dent. Are girls withdrawn from school tomarry, or is lack of schooling for girls partof the pattern of traditional expectationsand roles? The situation in Bangladesh,however, is clear – a girl will be with-drawn from school if a good marriageprospect arises.127 DHS data also show aclear link in some other countries, includ-ing Nepal, Kazakhstan and Indonesia.

Although attitudes towards the educa-tion of girls have begun to change even intraditional societies, many parents stillbelieve that investment in a girl’s educa-tion is wasted when she is simply going tobe married and work in another house-hold. The costs of the investment in edu-cation reinforce the impetus towards thegirl’s withdrawal from school.

In rural areas, secondary education oftenmeans that a girl must leave home to live ina school dormitory. Parents fear that thismay expose her to risks including premari-tal sex and pregnancy. In Northern Nigeria,for example, girls are often kept out ofschool for this very reason.128 Even wheregirls can live at home while attendingschool, fears about their possible sexualactivity, about sexual harassment, or aboutinsecurity on the journey to and fromschool, discourage their attendance.

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The removal from school of a younggirl to marry, or to work in her parents’ oranother household in preparation for mar-ried life, limits her opportunities to devel-op her intellect. She also loses out onsocializing, making friends outside herfamily circle, and many other useful skills.This reduces her chances of developingher own independent identity. Indeed, inthe old patriarchal view this is an impor-tant reason for taking her away.

The most important implication of thisloss is that the girl grows up with no senseof the right to assert her own point of view– and little experience in articulating one.Lack of self-esteem or of a sense of owner-ship of her own body expose a woman tounwanted pregnancy and make her vulner-able to HIV infection. A typically submis-sive wife in, for example, Eastern Africa isnot in a position to refuse sex to her hus-band, even if he has other sexual partnersand she suspects that he may be infectedwith HIV. A woman has the right to refusesex in any circumstances,129 but few youngbrides will ever gain enough self-confi-dence or self-esteem during the course oftheir marriage to assert such a right.

Lack of schooling also means thatthose girls and women who must work toearn a living have no qualifications orskills. Illiterate women who are aban-doned, widowed or divorced, or who arevictims of growing urban poverty, areforced into commercialized versions oftheir work as wives: cleaning, cooking,child-minding. They may even enter thecommercial sex trade. In many LatinAmerican countries (and elsewhere), thereis a strong link between very poor,women-headed households in urban areasand menial occupations130 – an associationthat will only diminish when educationallevels are raised.

But work itself can have a positiveimpact on delaying marriage. A study inPenang Island, Malaysia, found that thosewomen who worked before marriagetended to marry almost 2.5 years laterthan those who had never worked at all.131

Where work and education opportuni-ties have opened up for women, this hashad the effect of encouraging parents’support for their daughters’ education.Increased enrolment of girls in school andhigher levels of educational completionhave been conclusively shown to produceimprovements in family well-being,increased use of contraception, reducedinfant mortality and economic advantagesfor society.132 Marriage age is part of awider picture of interaction between eco-nomic advance and increased participa-tion of women in education.

Violence and abandonmentThe UK working group on forced mar-riage found that many of the victims ofthis practice suffered from prolongeddomestic violence, but felt unable to leavethe marriage because of economic pres-sures, lack of family support and othersocial circumstances.133 Many cases of self-harm and suicide among British women ofSouth Asian origin were thought to belinked to forced marriage. If a woman didfeel able to challenge the situation, itoften took her years to do so. If this ishappening in a society where forced mar-riage is not the norm, it is safe to assumethat such a challenge is far less likely froma girl in an environment where early andforced marriages are commonplace.

Most available information on violentabuse is anecdotal, consisting of interviewswith girls who have suffered trauma as aresult of their marriages. However, DHS

data from Egypt has found that 29 per centof married adolescents have been beatenby their husband (or husband and others),and of these 41 per cent have been beatenduring pregnancy.134 A study in Jordan,published in 2000 found that 26 per centof reported cases of domestic violencewere committed against wives under 18.135

Some girls in brutal marriages become des-perate enough to run away.136 Those whodo so, and those who choose a marriagepartner against the wishes of their parents,may be punished, or even killed by theirfamily. These girls run the risk of the so-called ‘honour killings’ that occur inBangladesh, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,Pakistan, Turkey and elsewhere.137

Early marriage is often linked to wifeabandonment, as shown by its associationwith divorce and separation.138 Violentbehaviour towards a wife, including coer-cive sex, plays a major role in maritalbreakdown. In Java, it has been found thatgirls who marry early are three times morelikely to be divorced than those marriedlater.139 A study in Calcutta found that sex-ual violence in marriage is associated witha greater likelihood of separation thanphysical violence alone.140

Divorce or abandonment oftenplunges a woman into poverty, as she usu-ally assumes sole responsibility for depen-dent children. If she married young, isunder-educated and has few income-gen-erating skills, her poverty may be acute.Studies of young mothers in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean found thatthey are more likely to be disadvantagedlater in life; in Mexico they are six timesmore likely to be living in poverty thanthose who postponed childbearing.141

Thus early marriage contributes to the‘feminization of poverty’ and its resultingimpact on children.

TAKING ACTION▼

A range of policy and programmaticactions are needed to reduce early mar-riage and its impact. Actions to fulfil orrestore the rights of those already mar-ried should go hand in hand with pre-ventive actions aimed at wider society. Ineither case, the aim should be to informparents and young people currently com-plicit in the practice of early marriage so

that they are aware of its true implica-tions and empowered to resist it. Therole of government and civil societyinstitutions is to develop and implementsuitable systems to prevent or discouragethe practice.

While the main actors helping thosedirectly affected will operate at householdand community level, the involvement of

national and international policy-makersand rights advocates is essential in orderto change the policy and programme cli-mate. Over the entire action spectrum, awide variety of actors must be engaged,including teenagers themselves, adultwomen and men, community leaders,politicians, policy-makers, academics,researchers, lawyers, the media, and

national and international non-govern-mental and intergovernmental bodies.

While prevention measures are essen-tial, efforts must be made to ensure that allof the following interventions are avail-able to married, as well as unmarried girls.

Support for physical well-beingThis is primarily intended to maintain sex-ual and reproductive health, starting byensuring that both girls and boys learnabout sex, reproduction and the relatedrisks at an early age. Information shouldreplace ‘ignorance plus early marriage’ asthe child sexual protection strategy.

Proposals that adolescents – male andfemale – should be given sex educationand have access to reproductive healthservices, have often been greeted withresistance. In a number of African andAsian cultures, there is reticence about, oran actual taboo on, the discussion of sex.This feeds fears that sex education willencourage early sexual relations and preg-nancy. The work of UNAIDS has demon-strated such fears to be unfounded, andthat sex education does not lead topromiscuity. All the same, such miscon-ceptions take time to overcome.

Evidence shows that silence about sexdoes not inhibit teenage pregnancy incountries where old-style sexual protec-tion systems are breaking down and HIVnow poses a serious threat to the lives ofgirls. More than half of new HIV infec-tions occur in 15-24 year olds, but girlsbecome infected at twice the rate ofboys.142 More countries are now willing toinclude sex and family life education inthe school curriculum as a means of com-bating HIV, and this growing acceptanceneeds reinforcing, as do youth-focusedprogrammes on this issue.

However, concern with teenage vul-nerability to HIV has centred on thosewho are in school or leading lives thatexpose them to risky sexual activity. Thisinvariably excludes girls who are married.Yet they, too, are vulnerable, and need tobe able to adopt systems of self-protec-tion where they fear their husbands areinfected or could be exposed to HIV.Unlike most of their unmarried peers,married girls are exposed constantly tosex, and may be more prone to STIs.143

In these circumstances, there is anurgent need to transform attitudes andapproaches towards adolescent health careand provide services that are accessible to

married and unmarried youngsters of bothsexes. Life skills education for sexual healthand negotiation needs to be provided inthe classroom, in youth clubs and throughnewsletters and radio programmes. Theexperience of the Nuguru Teenage HealthInformation Service in Kampala, Uganda,shows the appetite of young people forinformation about sex-related problems. 144

In many developing countries, lack ofresources makes contraception and repro-ductive advice inaccessible. This situationmay be exacerbated by religious beliefsthat disapprove of artificial birth controlmethods. The result is that many adoles-cents, both married and unmarried, find itdifficult to locate, or even seek, help aboutsexual matters. There may be few facilitiesoffering such support, particularly inremote rural areas. The poorest often lackthe resources to travel to these facilitiesand any fees charged for the services onoffer would push them even further out ofreach. In some cases, the ante-natal clinic isthe only place where a young woman canobtain reproductive advice, but pregnancyis a pre-condition. Contraception may notbe offered to married women until theyhave borne a child. There is an urgent needfor ‘youth friendly’ health services, as ado-lescents are unlikely to seek help aboutsexual matters from a service that is unsym-pathetic to their needs and anxieties.

Girls aged 15 to 19 give birth to 15million babies a year.145 Many of thesegirls give birth without attending an ante-natal clinic or receiving the help of a pro-fessional midwife. It is essential to deviseprogrammes to reach girls in and out ofmarriage with reproductive advice andservices – a particular challenge in theremote rural areas where most early mar-riages are to be found.

Education for empowerment and intellectual developmentThe key to girls’ progress is education andlearning. Persuading parents to keep theirdaughters in school and ensuring that theyreceive a basic education, as is their right,is important for a number of personal andfamily, as well as wider social and eco-nomic, reasons including postponement ofmarriage. Both Sri Lanka and the state ofKerala in neighbouring India have rela-tively high age of first marriage. They alsohave something else in common that hascontributed to this phenomenon: bothhave given high priority to education forwomen as well as men. This has changedthe way men and women perceive theirroles and potential, and has led to greatersupport for the rights of women than isfound in many other parts of this region.

Where girls have lost out on formaleducation, non-formal programmes canhelp them catch up on the intellectual andpersonal growth offered by schooling.Such programmes can have a directimpact on early marriage: a programmefrom the 1990s among the people of theSamburu district in Kenya led to a fall inearly marriage and helped women assertthemselves.146

While there has been a recent drive toincrease participation of girls in basic edu-cation, the more significant gender gap is atthe secondary level. Throughout the devel-oping world, with the exception of LatinAmerica and the Philippines, boys havehigher rates of secondary school enrolment.The decline of girls’ enrolment and atten-dance after age 12-13 is most marked insub-Saharan Africa. In Tanzania, for exam-ple, enrolment of girls and boys is equal atage 12-13 but by the age of 16-17 girls’attendance is only 71 per cent of boys’.147

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Teenage Health information Service, Uganda

When the Nuguru Teenage Health Information Service began in Kampala, Uganda, in1994, its main concern was teenage pregnancy. It quickly became clear that youngpeople need other sexual and reproductive advice and that the service was revealing areal need: it was deluged by clients aged between 10 and 24-years-old.

Their most common concern has been how to avoid STIs including HIV. But a highproportion of young people simply want to talk about changes in their bodies ormatters of personal hygiene – acne for example. Counselling about relationships is alsoin demand, as is information about contraception.

Nuguru runs a weekly radio programme focusing on topics they know to be of highinterest to their young audience. The daily clinic is packed with clients, 30-40 of whomare newcomers. Trained teenage volunteers provide most of the back-up staffing.

Such a service may only rarely be of use to girls threatened with early marriage,many of whom are beyond its reach. But it illustrates young people’s desire forinformation and help as they journey through their sexual development.

Source: Project visit, Maggie Black, September 2000.

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Attempts to close gender gaps in educa-tion have included approaches to makeschools more girl-friendly. These includebuilding schools close to communities sothat parents are less worried about theirdaughters’ safety; employing more femaleteachers; improving the relevance of thecurriculum and the quality of teaching;flexible schedules to allow girls to meetdomestic responsibilities; in-school child-care facilities; penalties for male teacherswho seduce girl students; and separate san-itary facilities for boys and girls.

Other strategies to increase girls’schooling include cash incentives for par-ents to keep their daughters in school; theexpansion of non-formal education for girlswho have left school; the involvement ofcommunities in running schools; and con-ducting communication campaigns on theimportance of girls’ education.

Where such efforts are made, resis-tance to girls’ education can crumble sur-prisingly easily, even in highly traditionalenvironments. In the Baluchistan provinceof Pakistan, where the female literacy rateis only 4 per cent, 300 new village schoolshave enrolled 14,000 girls, and a mobileteacher training unit trains women with 8-10 years of education in situ, so that girlsand their new female teachers do not haveto leave their villages.148 This illustrates anessential pre-condition for success: anapproach that matches particular social,economic, geographical and cultural cir-cumstances.

In schools and in non-formal educationprogrammes there is a growing emphasison ‘life skills’ to equip girls and boys tonegotiate personal relationships. Lifeskills curricula aim to equip young peoplewith the skills they need to cope in aworld with new risks and temptations –alcohol, drugs, freer sexual codes – andmuch greater political and economic

instability than in the past. Empoweringyoung people to run their own lives is atthe heart of the life skills approach.

In Bangladesh, NGOs working withboth school-going and out-of-schoolyouth include adolescent rights in theircourse content, as well as reproductivehealth, early marriage, dowry, marriageregistration and divorce processes.149 Oneinnovative programme run by the Centrefor Mass Education in Science (CMES)offers girls life-oriented education toenable them to recapture the adolescencethey have lost. After graduation, they areencouraged to attend meetings, developleadership skills, and avoid marriage until

at least the age of 19. Because supportfrom men is required, boys and husbandshave been invited to take part in solidari-ty groups in a joint gender programme.

Support for psychological well-beingand emergency assistanceVery often, the only option for girls andwomen in situations of extreme maritalstress is to run away. In countries such asBangladesh, Ethiopia, India and Kenya,many runaways end up in poor urbancommunities, including brothel communi-ties. Some local NGOs working in thisfield have begun to assist such girls andwomen, but their efforts are generallyconfined to towns and cities.

Girls who run away from unhappymarriages need emergency support, as dothose running away from parents forcingthem into an unwanted marriage, or pun-ishing them for entering a partnershipwithout their permission. In Kenya, forexample, an enterprising Maasai womanhelps such girls find refuge in the board-ing school she has created in the town ofKajiado. Their rescue is often organizedwith the help of mothers who are willingto brave the stigma of supporting them.150

Formal Education: Bangladesh Secondary School Scholarships

On the assumption that financial constraints were the main reason for parents keepingtheir daughters out of school, a secondary school scholarship programme for girls wasintroduced in Bangladesh in the early 1990s.

Fees and free books were provided for the students, and their parents were givensome compensation for the loss of their daughters’ agricultural and household work.The school timetable was also adjusted so that school days were shorter.

One of the most striking results was a sudden increase in marriage postponement, asparents were required to sign a bond that their daughters would not marry before age18. Parents responded to the incentives, partly because they knew that daughters with abetter education would marry men who are better providers.

Source: Arends-Kuenning, Mary and Sajeda Amin: The Effects of Schooling Incentive Programs onHousehold Resource Allocation in Bangladesh, Policy Research Division Working Paper No. 133,Population Council, New York, 2000.

Non-formal Education: Egypt’s New Horizons Programme

Many rural girls in Egypt have no chance of formal education because their parentswant them to work. The ‘New Horizons’ programme was developed in 1997 to givethese girls a chance to gain self-esteem, confidence and life skills.

The programme, designed by curriculum specialists and local NGOs, consists of 100carefully structured sessions to provide information about life skills – rights andresponsibilities, nutrition, health, first aid, reproductive health, adolescence, marriageand violence against women. The local educator uses simple materials and methodsincluding posters, song, drama and discussion.

Girls involved in the programme have expressed enthusiasm to learn to read andtheir parents have become supportive. Attitudes towards the respective value of boysand girls have begun to change, and enrolment rates of girls in primary school haverisen. Nearly 15,000 girls have benefited, and have taken their new ideas home to theirmothers, helping them to discover their rights.

Source: Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), Washington

Involving Boys in Pakistan An innovative project in Pakistan empowers adolescent boy scouts to promote andprotect children’s rights, including the girl’s right to education – a key defence againstearly marriage. The project encourages them to take action to promote and protect therights of others, particularly girls, increasing their understanding of social responsibility.After training, each boy collects data from 10 neighbouring households on health,sanitation and the educational status of the children. In return, they provide eachhousehold with information on various issues, including the importance of education forgirls. They then monitor the progress of each household. The project is being piloted inone province. If successful, it is hoped that 10,000 boy scouts will eventually reach100,000 households and more than 500,000 people.

Source: Innocenti Insight: Promoting Children’s Participation in Democratic Decision-Making,Gerison Lansdown, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre 2001

Community-based and women’s groupsprovide the best services, but they oftenlack support from traditional institutions,are poorly funded, and may have to oper-ate in secrecy – attacked for underminingcultural values.151 While women and girlsfacing violence and abuse in industrializedcountries may have access to refuges,counselling and other kinds of support,these services are rare in countries such asEthiopia, Bangladesh or Pakistan.However, some organizations do exist inthe developing world to offer shelter andcounselling to women who have run awayfrom violent marriages. In Zimbabwe, forexample, the NGO Musasa provides coun-selling, temporary refuge, employmentsupport and helps women establish theirown independence.152

Many girls, of course, do not run away.But those girls and young women whoremain in their marriages can benefit fromthe support of others through peer coun-selling, local women’s groups and so on.

Support for improved economic statusEarly marriage is closely associated with,and contributes to, poverty. Some inter-ventions on behalf of adolescent girlshave focused on improving their eco-nomic situation as a means of grantingthem higher status and more control overtheir lives – including their options inmarriage. Approaches may include train-ing in livelihood skills, support forteenagers in the labour market and ensur-ing that marriage is not a pre-conditionfor eligibility for schemes such as micro-credit programmes and savings clubs.

In Bangladesh, young women’s entryinto the export garment industry hasboosted their value in the eyes of theirfamilies and potential husbands. Despitelong working hours and harsh conditions,most garment workers can negotiate someautonomy with their own families as aresult of earning, while expecting to marryin due course. Later on, their experience offinancial self-reliance gives them greaterconfidence as wives.153

A programme in Egypt for the girls ofthe Maqattam garbage settlement outsideCairo has enhanced their income-earningcapacity while helping them to resist earlymarriage. Rug-making, paper recycling,and embroidery projects allow them toescape from garbage sorting and gain skills,an income and self-esteem. To encourage

delayed and consensual marriage, a sum ofE£500 (US$132.45) is offered to any girlwho defers her marriage until age 18, andwho enters marriage of her own free will.154

At the wider social level, increased fam-ily income contributes to the reduction ofearly marriage. A better standard of livingreleases resources for girls’ education, andreduces dependence on daughters forlabour. The promotion of employmentopportunities for women in non-servileoccupations also helps to promote girls’education and postpone marriage. Thedevelopment of community structures formanaging basic services, such as health,helps to erode traditional practices relatedto women. In Niger, for example, thesehave been used as a mechanism for cam-paigning against FGM and early marriage.

Legal changeEvery year, around 40 million births – onethird of the world total – go unregis-tered.155 Without a birth certificate, achild has no defence against age-relatedrights abuses. In countries where the lawon legal minimum age at marriage isignored, the inadequacy of birth registra-tion systems reinforces early marriage.

Similarly, thousands of marriages go

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unregistered, depriving women of theirrights in marriage, including their rightsover property. Programmes to promotebirth and marriage registration, via com-munity structures and religious leaders,should be promoted. In parts of Indonesia,for example, registration of marriage isdependent on evidence that the marriageis neither forced nor polygamous and onattendance at a session on reproduction.156

Governmental action is required toreview customary and civil law in the lightof internationally agreed human rightsstandards on marriage. For example,restrictive laws concerning an adolescent’saccess to services such as reproductivehealth should be removed.

Existing laws should be enforced, and arights culture fostered by providingappropriate training for the judiciary, law-makers and the police.

At the international level, both theCEDAW and CRC Committees shouldcontinue to focus on age of marriage andconsent, and insist that laws prohibitingearly marriage be enforced. Attentionshould also be given to early marriage infollow-up work to the 1995 Fourth WorldConference on Women, held in Beijing, the2000 UN Special Session on Women

Postponing Marriage in India

An ambitious programme is underway to increase the value placed on girls in India, andthereby indirectly increase their age at marriage. The governments of Rajasthan,Karnataka and Haryana have established an incentive programme for low-incomefamilies. In Haryana, for example, a small sum of money (Rs.2,500, or US$78) is setaside in a savings account for a girl at her birth. At the age of 18, if she is stillunmarried, the girl is eligible to collect the accumulated sum of Rs. 25,000.

This economic incentive to keep girls alive and postpone their marriage issupplemented by support for girls’ education. The intention is to encourage parents topostpone marriage until daughters reach 18 and can use the grant for their dowry.

Source: The Uncharted Passage: Girls’ Adolescence in the Developing World, Barbara S. Mensch,Judith Bruce, Margaret E. Greene, The Population Council, 1999.

Legislation and Change in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, where age at marriage has traditionally been low, average age at marriage isnow 25 years. This country’s success in raising marriage age has been driven by theintroduction of legislative reforms requiring that all marriages be registered and that theconsent of both marriage partners be recorded. Moreover, Sri Lankan courts have ruledthat specific cases of non-consensual marriages arranged by parents on behalf of theirchildren are invalid. Underpinning these broad initiatives, which apply to Sri Lankancitizens of any religion, is a legal argument that Islamic law recognises the importance ofconsent to marriage. There are texts in Islamic law that indicate that parental authority inrelation to the marriage of a daughter does not permit complete disregard of the child’swelfare, and that accept the requirement of obtaining a child’s consent to marriage. Thepositive impact of these legislative changes have been supported by social policies onhealth and education (including free education from primary to university level) to createan environment in which the practice of early marriage is in steep decline.

Source: Children, Law and Justice. A South Asian Perspective, Savitri Goonesekere, UNICEF-ICDC,Sage Publications, New Delhi, 1998, p 117 & 324

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(Beijing+5) and in international proposalsfor legal action to prevent violence againstwomen. Action on early marriage should beincluded in the National Plans of Action forfollow-up on the commitments made at thenumerous world conferences of the 1990s.

AdvocacyMarriage is regarded as a private, even sen-sitive subject. In many societies in Asia andin Africa, it has traditionally been unthink-able to discuss sexual relations even betweenhusband and wife. However, changinglifestyles and the HIV epidemic have begunto erode these taboos. Adolescents aredemanding the right to know about, andtalk about, intimate matters.

Creating the circumstances in whichsuch subjects can be addressed, especiallyin traditional rural societies and ethnicgroups where early marriage is common,is a vital pre-condition for hastening itsend. Advocacy is needed at all levels ofsociety, but particularly at household andcommunity level, to influence attitudes.The benefits of postponing marriage forwives, husbands, families and communi-ties need to be shared with religious andcommunity leaders, while those who exertrole model influence, as well as govern-ment personnel, need to be engaged.

A survey conducted by the UK work-ing group on forced marriage, for exam-ple, found that one of the main motiva-tions of parents who force their daughtersinto marriage was the desire to strengthenfamilies and protect their cultures. In fact,the evidence indicates that the oppositeoften occurs, with families breaking apartand children turning against their culturalbackground.157

Public education campaigns must rein-force activity in schools and health facili-ties. Emphasis should be on the need to

protect and support the adolescent peri-od, especially by keeping girls in school.Governments should be encouraged tocreate a policy climate that supports latermarriage, through scholarship provision,legal reform, and affirmative policies andprogrammes on behalf of women. Effortsto improve participation of women andgirls in civic and public life and to givethem equal access to training and employ-ment opportunities, can enhance their sta-tus and thereby decrease the likelihood ofearly marriage.

National advocacy campaigns can takevarious forms: ● Campaigning to raise the legal age of

marriage; or – more importantly –ensuring implementation of the legalage of marriage, building on recommen-dations made at the 2000 UN SpecialSession on Women (Beijing+5);

● Promoting an effective system of regis-tration of births, marriages and deaths;

● Setting up small-scale studies into theimplications of early marriage and pub-lication of the findings of such studies;

● Using national and internationalWomen’s Days to raise awareness; viasocial mobilization involving women’snetworks, opinion leaders at the nationallevel, politicians and community leaders;

● Working with the media and other com-

munication channels to emphasisefemale rights, including equality, accessto education, and freedom fromexploitation and discrimination;

● Working with men to promote attitudi-nal change. International organizations, both inter-

governmental and NGO, can and do sup-port such advocacy programmes throughfunding and technical advice in the variousspecialist areas. But there are still relativelyfew initiatives of this kind and more areneeded. The CRC and CEDAW treatybodies should monitor early marriage in asystematic way, so that organizations usingthese treaties as programme and policybenchmarks could draw on their observa-tions to support policy change andenhance their own programmes.

However, the lessons learned from ini-tiatives on other sensitive issues, such asFGM, is that they are most effectivelyaddressed at a local level. Internationalactivity is primarily useful for coordinat-ing, comparing and synthesizing countryactivities, and for networking. Externalassistance is best channelled through localactivities and it is important that sensitiv-ities are respected. Heavy-handed advo-cacy by outsiders with different outlooksand customs – even those of the samenationality – can be counter-productive.

At present, there is a serious lack of dataon all aspects of early marriage. As thisDigest has underlined, the sources ofinformation that do exist have examinedearly marriage in terms of demographictrends, fertility, and educational attain-ment. There are as yet very few studiesthat have examined the practice from ahuman rights perspective, in terms of

trends or its impact on wives, husbands,families, or the wider society. These gapsneed to be filled urgently, since data mustinform policies and programmes and pro-vide a basis for effective advocacy. Parentsconfronted with the kind of evidencegathered in the UK working group studycited above, for example, may begin toview the practice differently.

Existing demographic data may be dis-aggregated and used in ways that tell usmore about the prevalence of early mar-riage. But special studies are also needed toexamine trends, extent, impacts, and effec-tive responses. There are grounds forbelieving that the practice is under-report-ed in areas where it is known to occur,especially for children under 14, who are

THE NEED FOR RESEARCH▼

Burkino Faso: Finding RefugeAround Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, three Catholic religious centres sheltergirls who have run away from forced early marriage. Many of the girls escape indangerous conditions, travelling for days to reach the centres, hiding in trees duringdaylight hours and walking at night. Both economically and psychologically, their situationis grave. Their families usually disown them so they are without moral or financial support;and the religious sisters may pressure them to join the orders where they take refuge.Puksata, a local NGO in Burkina Faso, works with the centres to provide the girls withvocational training, and mediates between the families and the girls.

From: Ouattara, Mariam, Purna Sen and Marilyn Thomson (1998), Forced Marriage, Forced Sex: the Perils of Childhood for Girls, Gender and Development, Vol. 6, No. 3, Oxfam.

virtually invisible in standard data record-ing. And there are grounds for believingthat it is rising in highly stressed popula-tions – contrary to general trends. Moreindicators may be needed for use in stan-dard surveys; and existing researchmethodologies should be assessed for theirusefulness in capturing necessary data.

New methodologies may also be need-ed to enable NGOs with access to ruralcommunities and to communities understress to conduct small-scale qualitativeresearch, in which local people, including

adolescents, participate. The absence ofdata on the psychosocial impact of earlymarriage on children, and the ways inwhich this interacts with wider social,political and economic consequences, isin particular need of remedy. Otheraspects of early marriage requiringresearch include: ● Prevalence, especially among sub-

groups whose marriage characteristicsare submerged in national data, disag-gregated by age and sex.

● Social and economic determinants influ-

encing the age of marriage, particularlythose that cause it to rise. Comparativecase studies of situations where early mar-riage is declining instead of increasingwill help to identify these determinants.

● Evaluation of the impact of early mar-riage: psychosocial effects on the earlymarried; social and economic impact onfamilies and societies.

● Early marriage in high stress situationsbrought about by war, HIV/AIDS, acuteurban and rural poverty, and amongrefugee and displaced populations.

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Early marriage of girls and boys impairsthe realization and enjoyment of virtuallyevery one of their rights. The impositionof a marriage partner on children or ado-lescents who are in no way ready for mar-ried life, and whose marriage will deprivethem of freedom, opportunity for person-al development, and other rights includ-ing health and well-being, education, and

participation in civic life, nullifies themeaning of the CRC’s core protections forthose concerned. Unless measures aretaken to address early marriage, it willcontinue to be a major stumbling block tothe achievement of human rights.

This Digest is intended merely as astarting-point, drawing attention to apractice that has been neglected by both

women’s and children’s rights campaignersin recent decades. It is hoped that it willprovide an incentive for a campaign toprevent early marriage and end the silentmisery of millions of girls in many coun-tries around the world, to open up newhorizons for them, and contribute to thedevelopment of policies, programmes andadvocacy to bring this about.

IN CONCLUSION▼

Early marriage represents a major threat toa child’s well being. While the practiceaffects both girls and boys, the most funda-mental rights of a child bride – to survive,to develop – are undermined. She is leftwith little or no opportunity to influenceher own sexual life or the number, timingand spacing of her children. It is onlythrough the development of gender equali-ty, both inside and outside marriage, thatsuch rights violations can be overcome.

In some developing countries, half ormore of all women marry or start a unionbefore they reach age 18, and 70 per centor more do so by the time they are 20.Sizable proportions even form unionsbefore they are age 15.1 And early mar-riage generally means early motherhood.In many developing countries, at least 20per cent of women – and in some about 50per cent – have had their first child by thetime they are 18 years of age.2

The good news is that the age of mar-riage appears to be rising – most rapidly inAsia and in North Africa. In eight Asiancountries, for example, data published in1997 found that while 57 per cent ofwomen aged 40-44 were married by age20, only 37 per cent of those aged 20-24were. In Northern Africa, the correspond-ing figures were 66 and 34 per cent. InSub-Saharan Africa, where the prevalenceof teenage marriage remains high, the fig-ures were 73 and 59 per cent respectively.3

The bad news is that such statistics maydisguise the continued practice of earlymarriage in certain areas or among certainpopulation groups. And it seems that earlymarriage is increasing among populationsunder severe stress – in conflict situations,confronted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, orfacing extreme poverty.

At UNFPA we believe that ‘population’is about more than numbers and statistics.It is about people. It is about helpingyoung women fulfil their potential, ensur-ing their access to schooling, to reproduc-tive health care, to a fair and equal chancein the workplace. It is about involvingmen in programmes to encourage respon-sible behaviour, including joint decision-making by spouses and male support fortheir female partners’ choices. It is, essen-tially, about gender equality and equity.4

The perpetuation ofinequality in early marriageThe imposition of marriage upon a young

couple signals an effective end to theirchildhood or adolescence, and exposes ayoung wife to the grave risks associatedwith the physical dangers of early preg-nancy and childbirth. In turn, the impactof early marriage and early pregnancy isvisited upon her children: babies born toyoung mothers face much higher thanaverage levels of morbidity and mortality.

Around 15 million young women aged15-19 give birth each year, accounting formore than 10 per cent of all babies bornworldwide.5 Girls aged 10 to 14 are fivetimes more likely to die in pregnancy orchildbirth than women aged 20 to 24,6

while girls aged 15-19 are twice as likelyto die.7 Many, if not most, of these deathstake place within marriage.

Back in 1990, world leaders at theWorld Summit for Children pledged towork to halve maternal mortality rates –then standing at around 500,000 eachyear – by the year 2000. Despite thiscommitment, some 585,000 women arenow thought to die each year as a result ofpregnancy or childbirth.8 The reasons forthe lack of progress are complex, butundoubtedly include the status of womenin society, their economic disadvantageand the lack of respect for women’s basichuman rights.9

As well as threatening her right to lifeitself, early marriage almost inevitablymarks the end of a girl’s schooling. Heropportunity for individual developmentand growth is stifled, and her potential tobecome an autonomous, informed andempowered adult is compromised.Moreover, a girl may be exposed to oppres-sion and violence (sexual and non-sexual)within marriage, but almost inevitably, shehas no voice with which to protest.

Meeting the challengeMoving Towards Gender Equality in MarriageMarriage should be a voluntary choice forboth partners. Equality is simply not pos-sible when choice is absent. Choices thatare in the best interest of the couple usu-ally benefit from the maturity that comeswith age. Raising the age of marriage willhelp both men and women arrive at moresatisfying and successful married relation-ships, as well as reduce the girls’ repro-ductive span and vulnerability to risky

childbearing. At the same time, adoles-cence must be supported; both boys andgirls need life skills and other means ofself-protection to negotiate the passagefrom childhood to adulthood safely.

The right to make choices about one’sown reproductive health is particularlyimportant within the institution of mar-riage. It is a right that is shared by thecouple; a right that is sometimes contest-ed by tradition or claimed by others. Earlymarriage severely undermines the ade-quate exercise of this right.

A number of strategic actions are need-ed to address the phenomenon of earlymarriage:

Improving DataAlthough early marriage is a matter ofgreat concern, there is far too little con-crete information on its prevalence or itsimpact. Consequently, the first require-ment in addressing early marriage must bemore research and more understanding.More effective advocacy and program-ming will follow.

One important strategy must be toimprove data collection. Actions must beinformed by knowledge, and for this rea-son, an essential first step is to ensure thatexisting data collection programmes – bethey run by national governments, interna-tional organizations, or NGOs – are sensi-tized to the issue of early marriage. Theyshould be encouraged to provide full infor-mation on the marital status of children andyoung people, disaggregated by age andgender. Comprehensive data such as theseare essential for making significant progressin understanding the risks associated with,and the dynamics of, early marriage.

Changing Legislation The legal situation on early marriage iscomplex. Marriage is legally regulated inall countries, but national legislation maybear no relation to the ages at which par-ents can and do marry off their children inpractice.10

Changing legislation is, nevertheless,an important strategy. Legislation on itsown may have only limited impact, butthe very process of legislative examinationand reform, together with related advoca-cy efforts, is an essential step towards last-ing change. It is important, for example,that governments revise or enforce legis-lation regarding minimum age of mar-

WORKING TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY IN MARRIAGEby Dr Nafis Sadik, Executive Director, UNFPA.

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riage. This includes a serious examinationof customary marriages that contraveneexisting legislation. Too often, for exam-ple, harmful traditional practices areallowed to continue in spite of laws thatforbid them. Legislation needs to be re-assessed and enforced in the interest ofthe rights and health of young people.

The international precedent comesfrom two key human rights treaties: theConvention on the Rights of the Child,ratified by 191 Governments and theConvention on the Elimination of AllForms of Discrimination against Women,ratified by the Governments of 165countries.

All countries that have ratified thesetreaties are obligated to modify their lawsaccordingly. In addition, countries thatadopted the Programmes of Action agreedat the World Summit for Children in1990, the International Conference onPopulation and Development (1994) andthe Fourth World Conference on Women(1995) are expected (although not bound)to bring their legislation in line with theseagreements.11

The International Conference onPopulation and Development (ICPD), forexample, affirmed the right of couples andindividuals “to make decisions concerningreproduction free of discrimination, coer-cion and violence, as expressed in humanrights documents.”12

Changing Attitudes Changing attitudes is the strategy thatunderpins all other efforts to end earlymarriage. Real progress will come fromintroducing and promoting initiatives tochange attitudes towards the gender rolesof girls and boys in general, and towardsthe practice of early marriage in particu-lar. This means that societies must re-examine traditional gender roles.Marriage is a sensitive issue, but action onother sensitive issues, such as educationfor HIV/AIDS prevention, provide mod-els for action and indicate strategies forsuccessfully raising the age of marriage.

It is important, for example, to workwith the ‘social gatekeepers’, such as reli-gious leaders, policy makers and parents –those who actually make the decisions –in attitudinal change. Programme design-ers need to respect and work with theseinfluential adults, whose concerns – andthe reasons for them – should be under-stood and evaluated in a search for areasof consensus around the overall goals.13

Promoting Education In every region girls who receive lessschooling are more likely to marry young.In Zambia, for example, only 44 per centof women aged 20-24 married before the

age of 20 had completed primary school,compared to 83 per cent of those marriedat age 20 or older, according to researchin the mid-1990s. A similar story wasfound in other countries, such as Kenya,Indonesia, Peru and Morocco.14

It is clear that the promotion of educa-tion is a strategy with potential for a far-reaching impact on early marriage. Girlswho attend school become educatedwomen and, in turn, contribute in humanand economic terms to society in a waythat goes far beyond their capacity forchild bearing and domestic work. Schoolsystems can and should be adapted to bemore sensitive to girls’ needs and moreresponsive to family concern about thesafety of their girls.

Experience shows that it is possible tointroduce some of the most importantconcepts surrounding sexuality and repro-duction into education without arousingcontroversy. These include respect forothers; self-esteem; the importance ofpostponing the first pregnancy; and theability to withstand peer pressure.15

The long-term impact of such ‘popula-tion education’ has not been studied, butthere are indications that it has an impacton behaviour. In China, for example, pilotschool projects reported that followingexposure to population education, stu-dents who had agreed to postpone mar-riage were sticking to their agreement.16

Schooling is also an important meansby which boys can learn the importanceof respect for girls’ rights, and can devel-op the positive attitudes that influencetheir behaviour through life. There is farmore to be learned about how to influ-ence boys’ attitudes, to help them developinto responsible, healthy young men.Research institutions need to combineforces with the education sector to over-come this problem.

Partnerships for ChangeFinally, the formation of partnerships is astrategy that increases the chances of suc-cess in addressing this problem. To endthe practice of early marriage, resourcesmust be mobilised at all levels, within acoordinated and cooperative structure. Allactors have a role to play – families, com-munities, health providers, education ser-vices, religious leaders, local and nationalgovernment, and international organiza-tions. NGOs can provide valuable lessonsfrom the field, and offer a means of estab-lishing new initiatives. The media has acrucial role to play in terms of changingattitudes and raising awareness amongstthese different actors. It can promotearguments against early marriage, raiseawareness of the potential of girls andwomen, and depict positive role models.

It is important that adolescents areinvolved in designing, implementing andevaluating programmes intended for theirbenefit.17

ConclusionIn my own country, Pakistan, girls still getmarried early and many start having chil-dren while they are still in their teens.This is a threat to their health and theirlives; maternal mortality is unacceptablyhigh and the greatest danger is to theyoungest women.

Early marriage is a powerful disincen-tive to their educational opportunities; itis a threat to their reproductive health;and it is highly risky for both mother andchild, for adolescent girls are physically,mentally and emotionally unprepared forchildbirth. Our common aim should be tomake it unacceptable in a social as well asa legal sense, to men as well as to women;and to promote actions that will enhancethe physical and mental development ofyoung girls and boys and their humanrights as a whole.

We want to promote an atmosphere inwhich couples are free to make choices,firmly grounded in maturity, and to waituntil they are ready for marriage. Workingtogether to change attitudes and legisla-tion, improve data collection and promoteeducation, we can achieve this goal.

1 UNFPA, Early sexual unions can undermine well-being,(www.unfpa.org/modules/intercenter/hopes/early.htm)

2 Ibid3 UNFPA (1997), State of World Population. 4 UNFPA (2000), Population Issues Briefing Kit.5 UNFPA (1997), Annual Report.6 UNFPA (2000), op-cit.7 UNFPA (1997) Annual Report.8 UNICEF (1996), The Progress of Nations.9 Progress Report on follow-up to the World Summit for

Children, UNICEF Executive Board AnnualSession (2000), E/ICEF/2000/11, para 28.

10 UNFPA (1997) State of World Population.11 UNFPA (1997), UNFPA and Adolescents.

(www.unfpa.org/icpd/round%26meetings/ny_adolescent/reports/adoles.htm)

12 Report of the International Conference onPopulation and Development:A/Conf.171/13: Report of the ICPD(94/10/18).

13 UNFPA (1997), UNFPA and Adolescents,op-cit.

14 UNFPA (1997) State of World Population15 Sikes, O.J., Palacio, J. and Kerr, B. Key Non-

Controversial Concepts of Population Education inInternational Review of Education, Vol. 39,Nos. 1-2, March, 1993, Unesco Institute forEducation, Hamburg.

16 UNFPA (1997), UNFPA and Adolescents,op-cit.

17 Ibid.

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Links

This section contains informationabout some of the major intergov-ernmental organizations, and inter-

national and regional NGOs working onissues related to early marriage. Thesecontacts should serve as links to othertypes of organizations, particularlynational and local NGOs, professionaland community organizations, academicand other institutes and government bod-ies, whose work is relevant to the issue ofearly marriage and/or adolescent health,education (formal, non-formal and voca-tional) and human rights advocacy. It isnot intended to be a comprehensive list-ing, nor does it prioritize or rank the orga-nizations listed.

UNITED NATIONS ANDITS SPECIALIZED AGENCIES

United Nations Children’sFund (UNICEF)3 UN PlazaNew YorkNY 10017USATel.: +1 212 326 7000Fax: +1 212 888 7465E-mail: netmaster@unicef.org

ActivitiesUNICEF promotes the equal rights ofchildren and women, guided by theCRC and CEDAW, through actionand advocacy programmes atinternational, regional, national andlocal level. It works withgovernmental and non-governmental partners to empoweryoung people with improved lifeskills and increase their access tohealth and education facilities.UNICEF is also a member of the SafeMotherhood Inter-Agency Group (seeInternational and RegionalNetworks).Website: www.unicef.org

United Nations DevelopmentFund for Women (UNIFEM)304 East 45th Street, 15th floorNew York NY 10017USATel.: +1 212 906 6400 Fax: +1 212 906 6705E-mail: unifem@undp.org

ActivitiesUNIFEM has made women’s rightsthe centrepiece of its empowermentapproach to programming.Strategies to support women’s rightsinclude strengthening the advocacycapacity of national and regionalwomen’s organizations, increasing

women’s access to and use ofinternational human rightsmachinery and mainstreaming thesubject in UN system-wide activities. Website: www.unifem.undp.org

United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP)1 UN PlazaNew YorkNY 10017USATel.: +1 212 906 5558Fax: +1 212 906 5001

ActivitiesUNDP works with the governments ofdeveloping countries to promotepolicies that protect the rights of thepoor, especially women, and helpthem gain access to financial, socialand legal services. As part of itscontribution to the UN Inter-AgencyCampaign on Women’s HumanRights, UNDP’s Regional Bureau forLatin America and the Caribbean(RBLAC) has developed a websitecontaining information materialsfrom partner agencies includingUNDP’s own country offices. Website: www.undp.orgWebsite (RBLAC):www.undp.org/rblac/gender

United Nations PopulationFund (UNFPA)220 East 42 StreetNew York NY 10017USATel.: +1 212 297 5020Fax +1 212 557 6416Contact: Oscar J. Sikes E-mail: sikes@unfpa.org

ActivitiesUNFPA works in three mainprogramme areas: ReproductiveHealth, Family Planning and SexualHealth, and Population andDevelopment Strategies. It is amember of the Safe MotherhoodInter-Agency Group (seeInternational and RegionalNetworks). UNFPA supportsmeasures to empower women,including universal education forgirls and women. UNFPA believesthat promoting the well-being ofchildren, especially girl children, is adevelopment goal in itself. Website: www.unfpa.org

World Health Organization(WHO)CH-1211 Geneva 27Switzerland

Tel.: +41 22 791 2718Fax: +41 22 791 4881E-mail: info@who.ch

ActivitiesWHO has four main functions: to giveworldwide guidance in the field ofhealth; to set global standards forhealth; to cooperate withgovernments in strengtheningnational health programmes; and todevelop and transfer appropriatehealth technology, information andstandards. WHO is a partner withUNICEF in the Baby FriendlyInitiative to promote and supportbreastfeeding, and is also a memberof the Safe Motherhood Inter-AgencyGroup (see International andRegional Networks).Website: www.who.ch

United Nations Educational,Scientific and CulturalOrganization (UNESCO)7 Place de Fontenoy75007 ParisFranceTel.: +33 1 45 68 1813Fax: +33 1 45 68 5626/28Contact: Koto KannoE-mail: K.Kanno@unesco.org

ActivitiesUNESCO undertakes research,training, technical cooperation andinformation exchange to fulfil itsmandate of promoting collaborationamong nations through education,science, culture and communication.The organization places particularemphasis on promoting girls’education in Africa.Website: www.unesco.org

United Nations Division for theAdvancement of Women (DAW)2 UN Plaza, DC2-12th FloorNew York NY 10017 USAFax: +1 212 963 3463E-mail: daw@un.org

ActivitiesDAW conducts research, developspolicy options and provides genderpolicy advisory services to enhancethe participation of women indeveloping countries. The Divisionalso publishes research and data onwomen and gender issues and worksclosely with inter- and non-governmental organizations. It assiststhe Commission on the Status ofWomen (CSW) and the Committee onthe Elimination of Discrimination

against Women (CEDAW) in theirmandated tasks.Website:www.un.org/womenwatch/daw

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)OHCHR-UNOG1211 Geneva 10SwitzerlandTel.: +41 22 917 9000Fax: +41 22 917 9016E-mail: webadmin.hchr@unog.ch

ActivitiesThe Office of the United Nations HighCommissioner for Human Rightsplays the leading role on humanrights issues, promotes internationalcooperation for human rights,undertakes preventive human rightsaction and carries out human rightsfield activities and operations.Website: www.unhchr.ch

United Nations PopulationDivisionDepartment of Economic and SocialAffairsUnited Nations2 UN Plaza, Room DC2-1950New York NY 10017USATel.: +1 212 963 3179Fax: +1 212 963 2147

ActivitiesThe Population Division is responsiblefor providing the internationalcommunity with current andscientifically objective information onpopulation and development. Itprovides guidance to the UN GeneralAssembly, Economic and SocialCouncil and the Commission onPopulation and Development onpopulation and development issues.The Division undertakes regular studieson population trends, estimates,projections and policies, and populationand development interrelationships.Website:www.un.org/esa/population/unpop.htm

United Nations EconomicCommission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)Population and Rural and UrbanDevelopment Division (PRUDD)United Nations BuildingRajdamnern AvenueBangkok ThailandTel.: +66 2 288 1512Fax +66 2 288 1009

E-mail: debavalya.unescap@un.org

ActivitiesThe ESCAP Population Division issuesthe quarterly Asia-Pacific PopulationJournal, focusing on the policy andprogramme implications of populationresearch in the ESCAP region. Thisrefereed professional journal containsarticles, papers and notes that cover abroad range of population issues ofinterest to readers in the Asia andPacific region. Website:www.unescap.org/pop/journal

OTHER UN AGENCIES

The work of a number of other UnitedNations agencies is relevant tovarious aspects of the issue of earlymarriage, including the InternationalLabour Organization (ILO), the JointUnited Nations Programme onHIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and the UnitedNations High Commissioner forRefugees (UNHCR). For informationabout these organizations, visit theirweb sites as follows:ILO: www.ilo.orgUNAIDS: www.unaids.orgUNHCR: www.unhcr.ch

OTHER INTERGOVERNMENTALORGANIZATIONS

Pan American HealthOrganization (PAHO)525 23rd Street, NWWashington DC 20037 USATel.: +1 202 9743458 Fax: +1 202 9743143E-mail: publinfo@paho.org

ActivitiesPAHO, the regional office of WHO inLatin America and the Caribbean,works closely with grassroots and theright national organizations on theissue of women’s and girls’ health in 10countries across the region. At thelocal level, it creates coordinatedcommunity networks including thehealth and legal systems, churches,NGOs, and community-based groups.At the national level, it strengthensinstitutional capacity and promotesadoption of legal norms and policies.Website: www.paho.org

The World Bank 1818 H Street NWWashington DC 20433USA

Tel.: +1 202 477 2256Fax: +1 202 522 3234E-mail: healthpop@worldbank.org

ActivitiesThe World Bank is the word’s largestsource of development assistance,providing nearly $16 billion in loansannually. Areas of programmecooperation include HIV/AIDS,poverty reduction, human rights, girls’education, health, nutrition andpopulation. The World Bank is also amember of the Safe Motherhood Inter-Agency Group (see International andRegional Networks). Website: www.worldbank.org

INTERNATIONAL ANDREGIONAL NETWORKS

Forum on Marriage and theRights of Women and GirlsCHANGE106 Hatton Square16 Baldwins GardensLondon EC1N 7RJUKTel.: +44 20 7430 0692Contact: Susan RamsayE-mail: s.j.ramsay@lse.ac.ukForum:forumonmarriage@egroups.com

ActivitiesFounded in 1998, the Forum is the onlynetwork of international agencies andNGOs currently focusing specifically onthe issue of early marriage. The Forumsees marriage as a sphere in whichwomen and girls have inalienablerights. It aims to improve understandingof early and forced marriage and itsconsequences, and to promote efforts toaddress the practice. It advocates forthe rights of women and girls includingsocial rights, reproductive and politicalrights, the rights to full inheritance andto choose to marry or not. Forummembers share information on modelsof good practice and carry out jointadvocacy activities for the greaterrealization of these rights.

The Inter-African Committee(IAC) on Traditional PracticesAffecting the Health of Women and Childrenc/o Economic Commission for AfricaP.O.Box 3001Addis Ababa EthiopiaTel.: +251 1 51 58 26Fax: +251 1 51 22 33E-mail: IAC-HTPS@un.org

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ActivitiesIAC focuses on the elimination ofharmful traditional practices,including female genital mutilation(FGM) through networking,workshops and advocacy.Website: www.iac-ciaf.ch

The Safe Motherhood Inter-Agency GroupSecretariat: Family CareInternational588 Broadway, Suite 503New York NY 10012USATel.: +1 212 941 5300Fax: +1 212 941 5563E-mail: inf@safemotherhood.org

ActivitiesThe Safe Motherhood Inter-AgencyGroup includes UNFPA, UNICEF, theInternational Confederation ofMidwives, the InternationalFederation of Gynecology andObstetrics, the International PlannedParenthood Federation, thePopulation Council, the RegionalPrevention of Maternal MortalityNetwork (Africa), the Safe MotherhoodNetwork of Nepal, the World Bank andWHO. It aims to improve maternaland new-born survival and well-being by promoting and supportingthe implementation of cost-effectiveinterventions in the developing worldthrough policy support anddissemination of best practices andother information.Website: www.safemotherhood.org

Women in Law and Developmentin Africa (WILDAF)2nd Floor Zambia HouseBox 4622 HarareZimbabweTel.: +263 4 751189/752105Fax: +263 4 781886E-mail: wildaf@wildaf.org.zw

ActivitiesWILDAF promotes and strengthensstrategies linking law anddevelopment to increased women’sparticipation at the community,national and international levels. Itoffers networking opportunitiesthrough workshops and seminars,produces publications including aquarterly newsletter, conductstraining, provides technicalassistance for capacity building andis involved in advocacy at theregional and international levels.Website: www.wildaf.org.zw

Women Living Under MuslimLaws (WLUML)/ Femmes souslois musulmanesInternational solidarity network/Réseau international de solidaritéBoîte postale 2334790 GrabelsMontpellierFrance

ActivitiesWLUML is a network of womenworking at both the grassroots andnational levels in the Muslim world toshare information, knowledge, contactsand data. In the 16 years since itscreation, WLUML has endeavoured tocoordinate and encourage the effortsof women in Muslim countries toanalyse their situation and formulateworkable strategies for change.

Working Groups on Girls (WGGs)c/o UNICEF 3 UN PlazaNew YorkNY 10017USATel.: +1 212 824 394Fax: +1 212 824 6482E-mail: wggs@girlsrights.org

ActivitiesThe Working Groups on Girlscomprise over 80 international andnational NGOs working in more than100 countries at the grassroots level.Their activities support three mainobjectives: to build an internationalnetwork of grassroots NGOs toadvocate for girls’ rights; to promotethe role of girls as agents of changein their own lives, families,communities and societies; and tourge governments to honour theircommitments to girls. Website: www.girlsrights.org

INTERNATIONAL ANDREGIONAL NGOs

Anti-Slavery InternationalThomas Clarkson HouseThe StableyardBroomgrove RoadLondon SW9 9TLTel.: +44 (0) 20 7501 8920Fax: +44 (0) 20 7738 4110Contact: M. OuattaraE-mail: m.ouattara@antislavery.org E-mail: antislavery@antislavery.org

ActivitiesAnti-Slavery has a comprehensiveprogramme of information gathering,lobbying and advocacy, working

with partner organizations aroundthe world on such issues as childlabour and the trafficking andenslavement of men, women andchildren. The website includes anextensive list of links to otherorganizations working in the field.Website: www.antislavery.org

Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP)120 Wall Street New York NY 10005 USATel.: (917) 637 3600Fax: (917) 637 3666E-mail: info@crlp.org

ActivitiesThe Center for Reproductive Law andPolicy (CRLP) is a legal and policyadvocacy organization promotingwomen’s reproductive rights. CRLP’sdomestic and internationalprogrammes in litigation, policyanalysis, legal research, and publiceducation seek women’s equality insociety and their universal access toappropriate reproductive healthservices. The International Program ofthe CRLP works in partnership withcommunities around the world topromote laws and policies thatguarantee these rights. Website: www.crlp.org

Center for Women’s Global LeadershipRutgers, the State University of NewJersey160 Ryders LaneNew Brunswick NJ 08901USATel.: +1 732 932 8782Fax: +1 732 932 1180E-mail: cwgl@igc.org

ActivitiesThe Center develops and facilitateswomen’s leadership for human rightsand social justice world-wide,through women’s global leadershipinstitute sessions, strategic planningactivities, international mobilizationcampaigns, UN monitoring, globaleducation endeavours, publicationsand its resource centre. Website: www.cwgl.rutgers.edu

Centre for Development andPopulation Activities (CEDPA)1400 16th Street NWSuite 100Washington DC 20036USA

Tel.: +1 202 667 1142Fax: +1 202 332 4496

ActivitiesIn cooperation with partners in 128countries around the world, CEDPAassists reproductive healthsprogrammes, women’s and girls’literacy projects and economicempowerment programmes. TheBetter Life Options programmeaddresses the needs of adolescentgirls in access to education,reproductive health information andservices and vocational training.CEDPA’s annual workshop for youthleaders from Africa, Asia, LatinAmerica and Eastern Europe coverssuch topics as peer-to-peerapproaches, gender issues, familylife education and networking.Website: www.cedpa.org

CHANGE: Non-consensual sexin marriage programme (NCSM) P.O. Box 18333London EC1N 7XGUKTel.: +44 20 7430 0692Fax: +44 20 7430 0254E-mail: ncsm.change@sister.com

ActivitiesThis worldwide programme, based atCHANGE, seeks to challenge thewidespread reluctance to realizewomen’s rights within marriage.NCSM aims to support, inform andfacilitate actions to increase women’sself-determination in control overtheir bodies within marriage. Thewebsite contains information on itsworldwide survey on marriage. Website: www.ncsm.net

Empowering Widows in Development36 Faroe RoadLondon W14 0EPUKTel/Fax: +44 020 7603 9733E-mail: Margieowen@cs.com

ActivitiesEmpowering Widows inDevelopment was founded in 1996 toraise awareness and understandingof the problems encountered bywidows in developing countries andassist national NGOs that supportwidows fighting for their rights. Itworks in partnership with nationaland international NGOs andintergovernmental organizations andhighlights the situation of childwidows and the children of widows.Website: www.oneworld.org/empoweringwidows

Family Care International (FCI)588 Broadway, Suite 503New York NY 10012USATel.: +1 212 941 5300Fax: +1 212 941 5563E-mail: fci@idt.net

ActivitiesFCI addresses urgent health issuesincluding sexual and reproductivehealth. It works with governments,NGOs and international agencies onprogrammes of technical assistance inAfrica, Asia and Latin America andpromotes advocacy world-wide. Theorganization acts as the secretariat forthe Safe Motherhood Inter-AgencyGroup (see International andRegional Networks). Website: www.familycareintl.org

Alan Guttmacher Institute 120 Wall StreetNew YorkNY 10005USATel.: 212 248 1111Fax: 212 248 1951E-mail: info@agi-usa.org

ActivitiesAGI’s mission is to protect thereproductive choices of all women andmen in the USA and throughout theworld. Its domestic and internationalprojects and activities aim to fostersexual and reproductive health andrights; promote the prevention ofunintended pregnancies; achievehealthy pregnancies and births;secure societal support for parenthoodand parenting; and promote genderequality.Website: www.agi-usa.org

International Center forResearch on Women (ICRW)1717 Massachusetts Avenue, NWSuite 302Washington DC 20036USATel.: +1 202 797 0007Fax: +1 202 797 0020Contact: Kathleen KurzE-mail: kkurz@icrw.orgE-mail: info@icrw.org

ActivitiesThe Center gathers information andprovides technical assistance onwomen’s productive andreproductive roles in the family andsociety and advocates withgovernments and multilateralagencies to advance women’s rights

and opportunities, principally indeveloping and transition countries.A current research programme incollaboration with four Indianresearch institutions focuses on ruraland urban, married and unmarriedadolescent girls and boys. Website: www.icrw.org

International PlannedParenthood Federation (IPPF)Regent’s College Inner Circle,Regent’s Park London NW1 4NSUKTel.: +44 (0) 20 7487 7900Fax: +44 (0) 20 7487 7950E-mail: info@ippf.org

ActivitiesIPPF is the world’s largest non-governmental organization working inthe area of sexual and reproductivehealth and rights, including familyplanning, through more than 150national Family Planning Associationsworldwide. IPPF seeks to promote anddefend the right of women, men andyoung adults to decide the numberand spacing of their children, and theright to the highest possible level ofsexual and reproductive health. It isalso a member of the Safe MotherhoodInter-Agency Group (see Internationaland Regional Networks). Website: www.ippf.org

International Women’s RightsAction Watch (IWRAW)Hubert H. Humphrey Institute ofPublic Affairsat the University of Minnesota301 19th Avenue SouthMinneapolis MN 55455USATel.: + 1 612 625 5093Fax: + 1 612 624 0068E-mail: iwraw@hhh.umn

ActivitiesIWRAW is an international network ofactivities, scholars and organizationsthat focus on the advancement ofwomen’s human rights, and is servedby a resource and communicationscentre based at the University ofMinnesota’s Humphrey Institute ofPublic Affairs. This provides technicalassistance and research support forwomen’s human rights projects suchas law reform, policy advocacy andmonitoring government performanceon international human rights treaties,particularly CEDAW. Website: www.igc.org/iwraw

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International Women’s RightsAction Watch Asia Pacific(IWRAW-AP)2nd Floor, Block F, Anjung FeldaJalan Maktab, off Jalan Semarak54000 Kuala LumpurMalaysiaTel.: +60 3 291 3292Fax: +60 3 298 4203E-mail: iwraw@po.jaring.my

ActivitiesIWRAW-AP is a collaborativeprogramme to facilitate and monitorthe implementation of CEDAW, withprojects in 13 Asian countries.Website:www.womenasia.com/iwraw

Population CouncilNew York Headquarters Population Council One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza New York NY 10017 USA Tel.: +1 212 339 0500 Fax: +1 212 755 6052 E-mail: pubinfo@popcouncil.org

ActivitiesThe Council focuses on research on abroad range of population issues -demographic studies, research,technical assistance and thedevelopment of new contraceptives.In addition, it helps to improve theresearch capacity of reproductiveand population scientists indeveloping countries through grants,fellowships, and support for researchcentres. The Population Council isalso particularly concerned with thereproductive health and well-beingof the one billion adolescents in thedeveloping world.Website: www.popcouncil.org

Save the Children Fund (UK)17 Grove LaneLondon SE5 8RDUKTel.: +44 (0) 20 7703 5400Fax: +44 (0) 20 7703 2278Contact: M. ThomsonE-mail: M.Thomson@scfuk.org.ukE-mail: enquiries@scfuk.org.uk

ActivitiesSCF works in 70 countries,conducting research on children’sissues, supporting practical projectsthat involve children and theirfamilies and advocating for changesto benefit children both at home andoverseas. SCF is a member of theInternational Save the Children

information about children’s rights topromote the CRC and to improvepolicy and practice. The websiteincludes bibliographic references,databases, a calendar of events andlinks to child-focused sites.

Fondation du Present (FdP)www.fdp.orgFdP supports and manages theGENDER-AIDS forum dedicated togender issues in relation to HIV/AIDS.The forum can be accessed atwww.hivnet.ch:8000/topics/gender-aids. Postings may be sent to gender-aids@hivnet.ch.

The Global ReproductiveHealth Forum South Asiawww.hsph.harvard.edu/grhf/SAsia/forumsThe Forum’s website at Harvardprovides access to current researchoriginating from South Asianorganizations and universities withannotated bibliographies, listings ofrelevant organizations and otherresources as well as a discussion site.Issues covered include childmarriage, the girl child and dowry.

Human Rights Webwww.hrweb.orgHuman Rights Web contains anextensive range of resources onhuman rights including newsgroups,mailing lists and links tointernational, regional and nationalorganizations working in the field.

Project Dianahttp://diana.law.yale.eduAn international archive of humanrights legal documentation,maintained at Yale Law Schoolunder the guidance of the Orville H.Schell, Jr. Center for InternationalHuman Rights.

Qweb Sweden: A Women’sEmpowerment Basewww.qweb.kvinnoforum.seA global communication network forthe exchange of knowledge,experience and ideas on women’shealth and gender studies. Issuescovered include society and women’shealth, adolescents and thetrafficking of women and girls

Alliance and was a foundingmember of the Forum on Marriageand the Rights of Women and Girls(see International and RegionalNetworks). Website:www.savethechildren.org.uk

Sisterhood is Global Institute(SIGI)1200 Atwater, Suite 2Montreal QC Canada H3Z 1X4Tel.: +1 514 846 9366Fax: +1 514 846 9066E-mail: sigi@qc.aibn.com

ActivitiesSIGI is an international NGOdedicated to the support andpromotion of women’s rights. Withmembers in 70 countries and anetwork of more than 1,300individuals and organizations world-wide, SIGI works to empower womenand develop leadership throughhuman rights education. Website: www.sigi.org

Womankind WorldwideViking House3rd Floor5-11 Worship StreetLondon EC2A 2BHTel.: +44 (0) 20 7588 6096Fax: +44 (0) 20 7588 6101E-mail: info@womankind.org.uk

ActivitiesWomankind Worldwide supportsgrassroots programmes in Africa andLatin America in such areas ashealth and gender relations withinthe household, violence againstwomen, income generation andmicrocredit. It also supports theWestern Cape Network in SouthAfrica. Website: www.womankind.org.uk

ADDITIONAL WEB RESOURCES

AVIVAwww.aviva.orgAVIVA provides website facilities witha free listings service for women’sgroups to promote worldwidenetworking.

CRIN - Child RightsInformation Networkwww.crin.orgCRIN is a global network oforganizations exchanging

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Links

ReferencesNote on the data: The sources include data on marriage published bythe UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, notably the WorldMarriage Patterns 2000 Wallchart, and The World’s Women, a volumeof trends and statistics which has been published in 1990, 1995 and2000. Another wallchart, Reproductive Rights 2000, published jointly bythe International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) and theInternational Women’s Rights Action Watch (IWRAW), has also been auseful synthesized source, as have country-based Demographic andHealth Surveys (DHS). However, some individual country and smaller-scale studies give figures which sometimes appear inconsistent withthe synthesis compendia; for example, on the average age of marriagein a certain country. For the sake of the important information thesesmaller studies offer, there has been no effort to ‘correct’ or artificiallyreconcile incidental statistical differences. There may, therefore, be afew minor inconsistencies in the data presented in this publication.

1 Saxena, Shobha (1999), ‘Who Cares for Child Marriages?’ Pioneer,29/1/99: www.hsph.harvard.edu/grhf/Sasia/forums/childmar

2 Assani, Aliou (2000), Etude sur les mariages précoces et grossessesprécoces au Burkina-Faso, Cameroun, Gambie, Liberia, Niger etTchad, UNICEF WCARO, Abidjan.

3 The World Bank (1999), Albania: Filling the Vulnerability Gap. WorldBank, Washington DC

4 Nair, Janaki (1995), ‘Prohibited Marriage: State Protection and ChildWife’, contribution to Indian Sociology, January-December 1995

5 Macfarlane, Alan (1986), Marriage and Love in England: Modes ofReproduction 1300-1840, Oxford, Basil Blackwell Ltd.

6 Adlakha, Arjun, Mohamed Ayad, and Sushil Kumar (1991), ‘The Roleof Nuptuality in Fertility Decline: A Comparative Analysis’. InProceedings of the Demographic and Health Surveys WorldConference, Washington DC, 1991, Vol 2. Columbia, Maryland:IRD/Macro International, quoted in Westoff, Charles, F., Ann K. Blancand Laura Nyblade (1994) ‘Marriage and Entry into Parenthood’, DHSComparative Studies No. 10, Calverton, M.D.: Macro International Inc.

7 UNICEF (1990), ‘Safe Motherhood’, UNICEF Executive Board,E/ICEF/1990/L.13, New York, UNICEF; also extensive WHO and IPPFliterature

8 Alan Guttmacher Institute (1997), Risks and Realities of EarlyChildbearing Worldwide New York.

9 Mensch, Barbara S., Judith Bruce, and Margaret S. Greene (1998) TheUncharted Passage: Girls’ Adolescence in the Developing World,Figure 9, p 71, The Population Council, New York.

10 UNICEF (1995), ‘UNICEF Strategies in Basic Education’, UNICEFExecutive Board, E/ICEF/1995/16, 7 April 1995.

11 Jones, Gavin (1997), ‘Population Dynamics and Their Impact onAdolescents in the ESCAP Region’, in Asia-Pacific PopulationJournal, vol. 12, No. 3.

12 ‘Final Report on National Baseline Survey of Positive and HarmfulTraditional Practices Affecting Women and Girls in Nigeria’ (1998),Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies, Obafemi AwolowoUniversity, Ile-Ife.

13 Barton, Tom and Alfred Mutiti (1998), ‘Northern Uganda PsychosocialNeeds Assessment Report’, The Republic of Uganda and UNICEF;‘AIDS Orphans’ (2000) Information sheet on the HIV/AIDS emergency,UNICEF ESARO, Nairobi.

14 Black, Maggie (1993), Girls and Women: A UNICEF DevelopmentPriority, UNICEF, New York.

15 Somerset, Carron (2000), Early Marriage: Whose Right to Choose?Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Girls, London.

16 Mensch, Barbara S., Judith Bruce and Margaret S. Greene (1998),The Uncharted Passage: Girls’ Adolescence in the DevelopingWorld, The Population Council, New York.

17 ‘Too Many Teen Brides’, in The Progress of Nations 1998, UNICEF,New York.

18 Kabir, R (1998), Adolescent Girls in Bangladesh, UNICEF Dhaka.19 ‘Though Illegal, Child Marriage is Popular in Parts of India’ article by

John F. Burns, New York Times Report, 11 May 1998. 20 Item in The Independent (9/1/1999), quoted in Somerset, Carron

(2000) Early Marriage: Whose Right to Choose? Forum on Marriageand the Rights of Women and Children, London.

21 ‘Final Report on National Baseline Survey of Positive and HarmfulTraditional Practices Affecting Women and Girls in Nigeria’ (1998),Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies, Obafemi AwolowoUniversity, Ile-Ife.

22 Westoff, Charles F. (1992), ‘Age at Marriage, Age at First Birth, andFertility in Africa’, World Bank Technical Paper No. 169, The WorldBank, Washington DC.

23 Alan Guttmacher Institute (1998), Into a New World: Young Women’sSexual and Reproductive Lives, New York.

24 World Marriage Patterns 2000 Wallchart, UN Department ofEconomic and Social Affairs

25 Statistics from UN sources quoted in a UNICEF WCARO Meeting ofGender Focal Points, February 1998.

26 Bledsoe, Caroline H. and Barney Cohen, eds. (1993), SocialDynamics of Adolescent Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa, NationalAcademy Press, Washington DC.

27 World Marriage Patterns 2000 Wallchart, UN Department ofEconomic and Social Affairs

28 UN 1991; quoted in De Silva, W. Indralal (1997), ‘The Ireland of Asia,Trends in Marriage Timing in Sri Lanka’, Asia-Pacific PopulationJournal, Vol. 12, No. 2.

29 Learning from Experience, SCF UK, www.savethechildren.org.uk/development/lfe/girlsrights.pdf

30 ‘Demographers Appeal for Solution to Early Marriage and EarlyChildbearing’ in China Population Today 1991, Oct; 8(5): 3-4.

31 UNICEF Amman (1995), ‘Ending Gender Disparities in the ArabWorld: A Profile on the Situation of Girls in the Region’.

32 El-Hamamsy, Laila Shukry (1994), Early Marriage and Reproductionin Two Egyptian Villages, The Population Council/UNFPA, New York.

33 Westoff, Charles, F., Ann K. Blanc and Laura Nyblade (1994),‘Marriage and Entry into Parenthood’, DHS Comparative Studies No.10, Calverton, M.D.: Macro International Inc.

34 DHS surveys, CESDEM: Poblacion y Sociedad, Ano III, no. 17, Sept-Oct 1997

35 World Marriage Patterns 2000 Wallchart, UN Department ofEconomic and Social Affairs

36 Deprivation and Discrimination: Children of Minorities (1995),Innocenti Insights, UNICEF/ICDC, Florence

37 The Status of Women in Macedonia (1999), UNDP.38 Young People in Changing Societies (2000), Regional Monitoring

Report 7, the MONEE Project for CEE/CIS/Baltics, UNICEF/IRC,Florence.

39 Kyrgyz Republic Demographic and Health Survey 1997, ResearchInstitute of Obstetrics and Paediatrics, Bishkek City, Kyrgyz Republicand Macro International Inc., Calverton, MD, USA.

40 World Marriage Patterns 2000 Wallchart, UN Department ofEconomic and Social Affairs

41 Boyden, Jo with UNESCO (1993), Families: Celebration and Hope ina World of Change, Gaia Books, UK.

42 Stone, Lawrence (1977) The Family, Sex and Marriage in England1500-1800, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson

43 Rawson Beryl ed., (1991), Marriage, Divorce, and Children in AncientRome, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

44 Caldwell, John C. (1982), Theory of Fertility Decline, Population andSocial Structure: Advances in Historical Demography, AcademicPress, London.

45 Macfarlane, Alan (1986), Marriage and Love in England: Modes ofReproduction 1300-1840, Oxford, Basil Blackwell Ltd.

46 Rwezaura, Bart (1994), ‘The Changing Context of Sub-SaharanAfrica’ in Philip Alston (ed.) The Best Interests of the Child,Clarendon Press, Oxford.

47 ‘Early Marriage in Selected Villages in Giza Governorate’. A studycarried out by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Egypt, and supported byUNICEF Egypt, 1999.

48 Kabir, R (1998), Adolescent Girls in Bangladesh, UNICEF Dhaka. 49 ‘Final Report on National Baseline Survey of Positive and Harmful

Traditional Practices Affecting Women and Girls in Nigeria’ (1998),Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies, Obafemi AwolowoUniversity, Ile-Ife.

50 Assani, Aliou (2000), Etude sur les mariages précoces et grossessesprécoces au Burkina-Faso, Cameroun, Gambie, Liberia, Niger etTchad, UNICEF WCARO, Abidjan.

51 ‘AIDS Orphans’ (2000), Information sheet on the HIV/AIDS emer-gency, UNICEF ESARO, Nairobi.

52 Black, Maggie (2000), Growing Up Alone: The Hidden Cost ofPoverty, UNICEF UK.

53 World Vision International (1996), ‘The Effects of Armed Conflict onGirls’, A Discussion Paper prepared for ‘The Impact of ArmedConflict on Children’, Report of Graça Macel, Expert of theSecretary-General of the United Nations. See also: Black, Maggie

Information sources

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(1998) ‘Girls and War: An Extra Vulnerability’, in People and thePlanet, vol 7, no 3, London.

54 Clearing a Path for Girls (1998), NGOs Report from the Field onProgress since the fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing.NGO Working Group on Girls, New York and Geneva.

55 Pourzand, Niloufar (2000), UNICEF Kabul, personal communication.56 Owen, M (1996), A World of Widows, Zed Books, London; also Kabir,

R (1998) Adolescent Girls in Bangladesh, UNICEF Dhaka. 57 Caldwell, John C. and Pat Caldwell (1977), ‘Role of Marital Sexual

Abstinence in Determining Fertility: A Study of the Yoruba inNigeria’, Journal of Population Studies, Vol 31, 1

58 The Scars of Death: Children Abducted by the Lord’s ResistanceArmy in Uganda (1997), A Human Rights Watch and AmnestyInternational Report.

59 Stockman, Lorne and Catherine Barnes with Mohamed HamusSheikh Mohamed, (1997), Minority Children of Somalia, in War: TheImpact on Minority and Indigenous Children, Minority Rights Group,UK.

60 Richard, J. and P.S.S. Sundar Rao (1999), The Timing of Marriage,Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.

61 Muthengi, Alice, Kenya Tackles Wife Beaters, BBC News Report,http://news.bbc.co.uk, 3 November 2000.

62 ‘Report of the Pakistan Commission on the Status of Women’,Government of Pakistan, 1989; quoted in: Taylor, Debbie (1993),Servile Marriage: A Definition, a Survey, and the Start of aCampaign for Change, Anti-Slavery International, London.

63 Caldwell, John C., (1982), Theory of Fertility Decline, Population andSocial Structure: Advances in Historical Demography, AcademicPress, London.

64 Caldwell, John C., (1982), Theory of Fertility Decline, Population andSocial Structure: Advances in Historical Demography, AcademicPress, London..

65 ‘A Choice by Right: The Report of the Working Group on ForcedMarriage’ (2000), UK Government, Home Office; www.homeoffice.gov.uk

66 Caldwell, John C., (1982), Theory of Fertility Decline, Population andSocial Structure: Advances in Historical Demography, AcademicPress, London.

67 Centre pour le droit et les politiques en matière de santé et de repro-duction (CRLP) and Groupe de recherche femmes et lois au Sénégal(GREFELS) (1999), ‘Les femmes à travers le monde: lois et politiquesqui influencent leur vie reproductive, l’Afrique francophone’. NewYork.

68 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of theChild: Suriname. (28/06/2000). CRC/C/15/Add.130.

69 World Marriage Patterns 2000 Wallchart, UN Department ofEconomic and Social Affairs

70 Reproductive Rights 2000 Wallchart, International PlannedParenthood Foundation (IPPF) and International Women’s RightsAction Watch (IWRAW), Minnesota.

71 World Marriage Patterns 2000 Wallchart, UN Department ofEconomic and Social Affairs

72 Whitehead, Judy (1995), ‘Modernizing the Motherhood Archetype:Public Health Models and the Child Marriage Act of 1929’,Contributions to Indian Sociology, 29 (1-2).

73 ‘Crime in India 1996, 1997 and 1998’, National Crime Records Bureau,Ministry of Home Affairs on website: www.hsph.harvard.edu/grhf/Sasia/resources/childmar/statistics.html

74 IAC Newsletter No. 15, December 1993. quoted in Somerset, Carron(2000), Early Marriage: Whose Right to Choose? Forum on Marriageand the Rights of Women and Children, London.

75 UN Centre for Human Rights (1995), ‘Harmful Traditional PracticesAffecting the Health of Women and Children’, Fact Sheet no. 23.Geneva.

76 Reproductive Rights 2000 Wallchart, International PlannedParenthood Foundation (IPPF) and International Women’s RightsAction Watch (IWRAW), Minnesota.

77 Farooq, Omer (1993), ‘Why Arabs Marry Hyderabadi Girls’ in TheChild’s Rights Bulletin, Vol. IV No. 4-5, Oct-Dec 1993, Child LabourAction Network (CLAN), New Delhi.

78 Berhane-Selassie, Tsehai (1993) ‘Early Marriage in Ethiopia’, Reportto the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting theHealth of Women and Children, Addis Abeba.

79 Cited in Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rightsof the Child, UNICEF, 1998, New York-Geneva, p11

80 Cited in Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rightsof the Child, UNICEF, 1998, New York-Geneva, p11

81 These international bodies include: the First Regional Convention onChildren’s Rights; the 1990 African Charter on the Rights andWelfare of the Child (Art. 21); the Committee on the Rights of theChild (CRC/C/58, pp 27-28, para 97, 1996); the 1986 Report of theWorking Group on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health ofWomen and Children; the Subcommission on Prevention ofDiscrimination and Protection of Minorities of the Commission onHuman Rights; the Government of Nigeria in its Initial Report on theConvention on the Rights of the Child; and the Government of Nigerin its 1996 report to the Subcommission on Prevention ofDiscrimination and Protection of Minorities of the Commission onHuman Rights.

82 Change Newsetter (2000), Non-Consensual Sex in MarrageProgramme (NCSM), London

83 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of theChild; Algeria; CRC/C/15/Add.76, 18 June 1997.

84 West Africa: Assani, Aliou (2000), Etude sur les mariages précoces etgrossesses précoces au Burkina-Faso, Cameroun, Gambie, Liberia,Niger et Tchad, UNICEF WCARO, Abidjan; Romania: Women’sRights in Romania: A Shadow Report, Center for Reproductive Lawand Policy and the Society for Feminist Analysis (AnA), Bucharest;other countries: Bruce, Judith (2000), ‘Married Adolescent Girls:Numerous but Unknown’, Presentation for Beijing+5. PopulationCouncil

85 Ayres, B. Drummond (2000), ‘Marriage Advised in Some YouthPregnancies’, article in the New York Times, 9 September, 2000.

86 UNICEF Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, personal communi-cation, October 2000

87 ‘Report of the Pakistan Commission on the Status of Women’,Government of Pakistan, 1989; quoted in: Taylor, Debbie (1993),Servile Marriage: A Definition, a Survey, and the Start of aCampaign for Change, Anti-Slavery International, London.

88 Taylor, Debbie (1993), Servile Marriage: A Definition, a Survey, andthe Start of a Campaign for Change, Anti-Slavery International,London.

89 Mama, A (1989), The Hidden Struggle, London Race and HousingResearch Unit, quoted in: Taylor, Debbie (1993), Servile Marriage: ADefinition, a Survey, and the Start of a Campaign for Change, Anti-Slavery International, London.

90 Berhane-Selassie, Tsehai (1993), ‘Early Marriage in Ethiopia’, Reportto the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting theHealth of Women and Children, Addis Abeba.

91 Saxena, Shobha (1999), ‘Who Cares for Child Marriages?’ Pioneer,29/1/99: www.hsph.harvard.edu/grhf/Sasia/forums/childmar

92 Owen, Margaret, A World of Widows, Zed Books, London, 1996.93 Report of the International Conference on Population and

Development (Cairo, 5-13 September 1994) A/Conf/171/13:Report ofthe ICPD (18/10/94).

94 Berhane-Selassie, Tsehai (1993), ‘Early Marriage in Ethiopia’, Reportto the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting theHealth of Women and Children, Addis Abeba.

95 Centre pour le droit et les politiques en matière de santé et dereproduction (CRLP) and Groupe de recherche femmes et lois auSénégal (GREFELS) (1999), ‘Les femmes à travers le monde: lois etpolitiques qui influencent leur vie reproductive, l’Afrique fran-cophone’. New York.

96 Change Newsetter (2000), Non-Consensual Sex in MarrageProgramme (NCSM), London

97 Mensch, Barbara S., Judith Bruce and Margaret S. Greene (1998),The Uncharted Passage: Girls’ Adolescence in the DevelopingWorld, The Population Council, New York.

98 Sen, P (1997), A Basket of Resources: Women’s Resistance to DomesticViolence in Calcutta, quoted in: Outtara, Mariam, Purna Sen andMarilyn Thomson (1998), ‘Forced Marriage, Forced Sex: the Perils ofChildhood for Girls’, Gender and Development, Vol. 6, No. 3, Oxfam.

99 Adamson, Peter (1996), ‘A Failure of Imagination’, in Progress ofNations 1996, UNICEF, New York.

100 Mensch, Barbara S., Judith Bruce and Margaret S. Greene (1998),The Uncharted Passage: Girls’ Adolescence in the DevelopingWorld, The Population Council, New York.

101 Demographic and Maternal and Child Health Survey 1997: Yemen,Maco International, Inc. reported in In Focus – Reaching Newlywedand Married Adolescents, July 1999.

102 Jones, Gavin W., ‘Population Dynamics and Their Impact onAdolescents in the ESCAP Region’, Asia Pacific Journal Vol. 12 no.3, 1997.

103 Blanc, Ann K. and Ann A. Way, ‘Sexual Behaviour, ContraceptiveKnowledge and Use’, in Studies in Family Planning Vol. 29, No. 2, 1998.

104 Mensch, Barbara S., Judith Bruce and Margaret S. Greene (1998),The Uncharted Passage: Girls’ Adolescence in the DevelopingWorld, The Population Council, New York.

105 UNICEF (1994), Too Old for Toys, Too Young for Motherhood,New York.

106 UNICEF (1994), Too Old for Toys, Too Young for Motherhood,New York.

107 Reproductive Rights 2000 Wallchart, International PlannedParenthood Foundation (IPPF) and International Women’s RightsAction Watch (IWRAW), Minnesota.

108 Senderowitz, Judith (1995), ‘Adolescent Health: Reassessing thePassage to Adulthood’, World Bank Discussion Paper no. 272,Washington DC.

109 ‘Adolescent Sexuality’, Safe Motherhood Fact Sheet (2000), WHOGeneva. (Original source is The World’s Women 1990, UNDepartment of Economic and Social Affairs, New York)

110 Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (1999), ImplementingAdolescent Reproductive Rights through the Convention on theRights of the Child, Washington DC.

111 Zabin, Laurie Schwab and Karungari Kiragu, (1998), ‘The HealthConsequences of Adolescent Sexual and Fertility Behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa’, in Studies in Family Planning, Vol.29 No.2. June1998.

112 The Risks to Women of Pregnancy and Childbearing inAdolescence, Geneva: WHO, Division of Family Health, 1989.

113 1998 study cited by UNICEF Niamey, Niger.114 ‘Adolescent Sexuality’, Safe Motherhood Fact Sheet (2000), WHO

Geneva. (Original source is The World’s Women 1990, UNDepartment of Economic and Social Affairs, New York.)

115 Adamson, Peter (1996), ‘A Failure of Imagination’, in Progress ofNations 1996, UNICEF, New York.

116 Early Marriage in Nigeria, in: ‘Final Report on National BaselineSurvey of Positive and Harmful Traditional Practices AffectingWomen and Girls in Nigeria’ (1998), Centre for Gender and SocialPolicy Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

117 Memo UNFPA/RR/00/104 of 10/10/2000, Nafis Sadik MD, ExecutiveDirector, UNFPA.

118 ‘Final Report on National Baseline Survey of Positive and HarmfulTraditional Practices Affecting Women and Girls in Nigeria’ (1998),Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies, Obafemi AwolowoUniversity, Ile-Ife.

119 Assani, Aliou (2000), Etude sur les mariages précoces et grossessesprécoces au Burkina-Faso, Cameroun, Gambie, Liberia, Niger etTchad, UNICEF WCARO, Abidjan;

120 United Nations (1989), Adolescent Reproductive Behavior: Evidencefrom Developing Countries, Vol. II., UN Population Studies No.109/Add.1., New York.

121 Second World Situation Report (1992), ACC/SCN, Geneva. 122 UNICEF (1994), Too Old for Toys, Too Young for Motherhood,

New York..123 Burns, John, Article in New York Times, 11 May 1998.124 Save the Children UK, Study in Nepal, cited in Somerset, Carron

(2000), Early Marriage: Whose Right to Choose? Forum on Marriageand the Rights of Women and Children, London.

125 Adlakha, Arjun, Mohamed Ayad, and Sushil Kumar (1991), ‘TheRole of Nuptuality in Fertility Decline: A Comparative Analysis’. In:Proceedings of the Demographic and Health Surveys WorldConference, Washington DC, 1991, Vol 2. Columbia, Maryland.

126 UNFPA State of the World’s Population 1990, New York, UNFPA1990.

127 Muhammad Ibrahim, CMES, Bangladesh, personal communica-tion, November 2000.

128 Early Marriage in Nigeria, in ‘Final Report on National BaselineSurvey of Positive and Harmful Traditional Practices AffectingWomen and Girls in Nigeria’ (1998), Centre for Gender and SocialPolicy Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

129 Change Newsetter (2000), Non-Consensual Sex in MarrageProgramme (NCSM), London

130 Rocha, Lola, M.C. Gomes and A. Acosta (1990), ‘ConsolidatingIncome-Generating Projects for Women’, UNICEF ProgrammeDivision, New York; quoted in Maggie Black (1996), Children First,OUP and UNICEF.

131 Weeks, J.R. (1981), Population: An Introduction to Concepts andIssues, Wadsworth, 2nd edition. Portland, Or.

132 King, Elizabeth (1990), Educating Girls and Women: Investing inDevelopment, The World Bank, Washington D.C.

133 ‘A Choice by Right: The Report of the Working Group on ForcedMarriage’ (2000), UK Government, Home Office;www.homeoffice.gov.uk

134 Bruce, Judith (2000), ‘Married Adolescent Girls: Numerous butUnknown’, Presentation for Beijing+5. Population Council

135 Rubeihat, Sabri (1994), ‘A Study on Violence Against Women inJordan’, quoted in UNICEF, Ending Gender Disparities in the ArabWorld.

136 Somerset, Carron (2000), Early Marriage: Whose Right to Choose?Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Children, SCF,London. See case study no. 1, an interview of Arisma, conducted byWomankind.

137 ‘Domestic Violence against Women and Girls’ (2000), InnocentiDigest No. 6, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence.

138 Bruce, J., C.B. Lloyd and A. Leonard (1995), Families in Focus: NewPerspectives on Mothers, Fathers and Children, The PopulationCouncil, New York.

139 Savitridina, Rini (1997), ‘Determinants and Consequences of EarlyMarriage in Java, Indonesia’, Asia-Pacific Population Journal, Vol.12, No. 2.

140 Outtara, Mariam, Purna Sen and Marilyn Thomson (1998), ‘ForcedMarriage, Forced Sex: The Perils of Childhood for Girls’, Genderand Development, Vol. 6, No. 3, Oxfam.

141 Alatorre Rico, Javier and Lucille C. Atkin (1998), cited in: Mensch,Barbara S., Judith Bruce and Margaret S. Greene (1998), TheUncharted Passage: Girls’ Adolescence in the Developing World,The Population Council, New York.

142 Rao Gupta, Geeta (1998), ‘Claiming the Future’, in The Progress ofNations 1998, UNICEF, New York.

143 Bruce, Judith (2000), ‘Married Adolescent Girls: Numerous butUnknown’, Presentation for Beijing+5. Population Council

144 Project Visit, Kampala, Uganda, September 2000. Maggie Black, 145 Rao Gupta, Geeta (1998), ‘Claiming the Future’, in The Progress of

Nations 1998, UNICEF, New York. 146 Nzomo, Juliana, et al. (2000), ‘Non-formal Education: Alternative

Approaches to Basic Education in Kenya’, report of three-day forumin Samburu District, Kenya.

147 Mensch, Barbara S., Judith Bruce and Margaret S. Greene (1998),The Uncharted Passage: Girls’ Adolescence in the DevelopingWorld, The Population Council, New York.

148 Lone, Pat (1996), ‘Keeping Girls in School’, in The Progress ofNations 1996, UNICEF New York.

149 A Selective Review of Interventions for Adolescent Girls inBangladesh (1999), UNICEF Dhaka.

150 Russell, Rosalind (1999), Kenya School Saves Girls from EarlyMarriage, Reuters feature story 26/01/99, Nairobi.

151 ‘A Choice by Right: The Report of the Working Group on ForcedMarriage’ (2000), UK Government, Home Office;www.homeoffice.gov.uk

152 Somerset, Carron (2000), Early Marriage: Whose Right to Choose?Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Children,London.

153 Amin, Sajeda, Ian Diamond, Ruchira T. Naveld and MargaretNewby (1998), ‘Transition to Adulthood of Female Garment-factoryWorkers in Bangladesh’, Studies in Family Planning, Vol. 29 No. 2.

154 Assad, Marie and Judith Bruce (1997), ‘Empowering the NextGeneration: Girls of the Maqattam Garbage Settlement’, Seeds, No19, New York.

155 Dow, Unity (1998), ‘Birth Registration: The ‘First’ Right’, in TheProgress Of Nations 1998, UNICEF New York.

156 Angarita, Ana and OJ Sikes. ‘Review and Analysis ofPremarital/Newlywed Education Activities in Mexico, Indonesiaand the Philippines’, UNFPA (1990), Review and Analysis ofPremarital/Newlywed Education Activities, The PopulationCouncil, 1987.

157 ‘A Choice by Right: The Report of the Working Group on ForcedMarriage’ (2000), UK Government, Home Office; www.homeof-fice.gov.uk

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THE INNOCENTI DIGESTS

The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy, was established in 1988 tostrengthen the research capability of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) andto support its advocacy for children worldwide. The Centre (formally known as theInternational Child Development Centre) helps to identify and research current and futu-re areas of UNICEF’s work. Its prime objectives are to improve international understandingof issues relating to children’s rights and to help facilitate the full implementaion of theUnited Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in both industrialized and develo-ping countries. The Innocenti Digests are produced by the Centre to provide reliable andaccessible information on specific child rights issues.

This issue of the Innocenti Digest was prepared principally by Maggie Black, Consultantto the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, with the assistance of researchers VictoriaHaeri, Consultant, and Nicolette Moodie, Consultant, UNICEF New York.

With special thanks to Nafis Sadik, Executive Director, UNFPA. The Centre is particu-larly grateful to the Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Girls for its supportthroughout the preparation of this Digest, and to the many UNICEF Country Offices whoprovided information and advice. Grateful thanks are also due to Srilakshmi Gururaja andMarilen Danguilen of UNICEF New York, Flora Sibander-Mulder of UNICEF Abidjan andOscar Sikes of UNFPA.

This Digest has also benefited from the input of international experts who attended theConsultation on Early Marriage held at the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre inOctober, 2000: Gladys Acosta Vargas, Kiran Bhatia, Wesley H. Clark, Caroline den Dulk,Muhammad Ibrahim, Koto Kanno, Sushma Kapoor, Snehendu Kar, Fatma Khafagy, KateLifanda and Catherine Mbengue.

The Digest Series is prepared under the overall guidance of Nigel Cantwell and MaryamFarzanegan.

Special thanks are also due to Michael Miller, for his overall support, and to ClaireAkehurst, who provides administrative support for the Digests.

Previous Digests have addressed:■ Ombudswork for Children■ Children and Violence■ Juvenile Justice■ Intercountry Adoption■ Child Domestic Work■ Domestic Violence against Women and GirlsFor further information and to download these and other publications, please visit the

website at www.unicef-icdc.org To order publications, contact florence.orders@unicef.org

The Centre’s publications are contributions to a global debate on child rights issues and include a wide range ofopinions. For that reason, the Centre may produce publications that do not necessarily reflect UNICEF policies orapproaches on some topics. The views expressed are those of the authors and are published by the Centre in orderto stimulate further dialogue on child rights.

Extracts from this publication may be freely reproduced, provided that due acknowledgement is given to thesource and to UNICEF. We invite comments on the content and layout of the Digest and suggestions on how itcould be improved as an information tool.

Editor: Angela HawkeCover design: Miller, Craig & Cocking, Oxfordshire - UKLayout and phototypesetting: Bernard & Co, Siena - ItalyFront cover picture: Child bride. W. Nepal © Peter Barker; Panos Pictures, LondonPrinted by Arti Grafiche Ticci, Siena - Italy

March 2001

EARLY

MARRIAGE

CHILD SPOUSES

■ OVERVIEW

■ HOW COMMON IS EARLY MARRIAGE?

■ EARLY MARRIAGE: THE CAUSES AND CONTEXT

■ THE IMPACT OF EARLY MARRIAGE

■ TAKING ACTION

■ THE NEED FOR RESEARCH

■ IN CONCLUSION

■ LINKS

■ REFERENCES

I N N O C E N T I D I G E S T

N o . 7 - M a r c h 2 0 0 1

EARLY MARRIAGE: CHILD SPOUSES

This Digest focuses on early marriage – the marriage of children

and young people under the age of 18 – from a human rights per-

spective. Research into early marriage has tended to concentrate

only on specific aspects of its impact such as the effects on repro-

ductive health and school drop-out. There has been little exami-

nation of the practice as a child rights violation in itself. The

Digest examines the extent of early marriage, its context, causes

and its impact on every aspect of the lives of those affected – par-

ticularly young girls – and on wider society. It outlines strategies to

help those who have been married at an early age, and for the pre-

vention of early marriage through education, advocacy and

alliance-building. The Digest concludes with a call for more rights-

based research on an issue that has far-reaching consequences.

UNICEF Innocenti Research CentrePiazza SS. Annunziata, 1250122 Florence, Italy

Tel.: +39 055 203 30Fax: +39 055 244 817E-mail (general information): florence@unicef.orgE-mail (publication orders): florence.orders@unicef.org

Website: www.unicef-icdc.org

ISSN: 1020-3528