Child Marriages: My Take

Child marriage is a violation of human rights that affects approximately 15 million girls every year. It is often referred to as early and/or forced marriage since children, given their age, are not able to give free, prior and informed consent to their marriage partners or to the timing of their marriage. The practice occurs around the world and cuts across countries, cultures and religions: 45% of girls under 18 are married in South Asia; 42% in West and Central Africa, 39% in sub-Saharan Africa, and 36% in Eastern and South Africa; 23% in Latin America and the Caribbean; and 18% in the Middle East and North Africa.

Despite the international community’s prohibition of this harmful practice as stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Conventions on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and several other international and regional commitments, the practice is perpetuated by entrenched adverse customs and traditional attitudes that discriminate against women and factors such as poverty, religious and social pressure, lack of educational and livelihood opportunities, and a fear of family dishonor if unmarried girls are sexually-active or become pregnant.

On July 2 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a substantive Resolution to strengthen efforts to eliminate child, early and forced marriage. Co-sponsored by over 85 states, the resolution shows international support for ending child marriage and making it a human rights priority. This resolution complements the previous UN Resolution on Child, Early and Forced Marriage adopted in 2014 that recognizes child marriage as impairing the future of girls and their communities.

In September 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), a set of 17 goals with 169 targets that address a large scope of sustainable development issues. Member States committed to this agenda, incorporated in Goal 5 ‘To achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’ target 5.3 calling for the elimination of “all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations.”

Fifteen of the 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage in the world are in the African continent. Therefore, in 2014 the African Union began a Campaign to End Child Marriage and has since launched campaigns in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Chad, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, The Gambia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The campaign seeks to encourage governments to acknowledge the harmful effects of child marriage, specifically the socio-economic impact, and to implement legal and policy tools in the AU to support the elimination of child marriage.

It is important for us as a country to come out with an action plan, a Coincise plan to actually bring this social manace to an end. We have to develop in people strong sentiments against the act and whip up a strong public perception against it.

There is palpable evidence of the ugly act rearing its head again among the three Northern regions. A research I conducted: THE ATTITUDE OF GHANAIANS TOWARDS CHILDREN'S RIGHTS: THE YOROGO case provides substantial evidence on the existence of the ugly act in the upper east region among other violations such as child labour, cultural farming practices and children labelled as witches as a result of some deformities they were born with.

Let us move beyond pen on paper into boots on ground. Child marriages and FGM are an abuse of the child's rights and for that matter their fundamental human Rights and must #STOPNOW.

Salifu Mba Mustapha
Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network
Coordinator Ghana Region
[email protected]