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HAVE YOUR SAY-Child marriage: Cultural right or global blight?

Wed, 3 Aug 2011 14:03 GMT

Source: trustlaw

Hemant (R), 16, sits with his 13-year-old newly wed wife Saraswati in a mass marriage outside his village near Kota in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, May 17, 2010. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

This is part of a TrustLaw special report on child marriage

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child considers marriage before the age of 18 as a fundamental human rights violation. Even so, rights groups estimate there are more than 50 million child brides worldwide, and the number is expected to grow to 100 million over the next decade.

Although they vary from country to country, long-standing cultural reasons for early marriage range from cementing strategic alliances between families and protecting the virginity of girls to paying off debts and selling girls into marriage as a means of economic survival.

In a multimedia special report released on Aug. 4, TrustLaw delves deep into the consequences of child marriage.

Do you think child marriage is a cultural right or a global blight? Be part of the discussion by sharing your views below.

We’ve asked some experts to kick-start the discussion:   

Dr Babatunde Osotimehin

Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

Child marriage is a violation of girls’ rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Youth Charter and several other regional agreements covering most parts of the world. It undermines young women’s health, disrupts their education and limits their options. Child marriage also brings high development costs by entrenching girls and their future families in lives of poverty.

In addition, child marriage generally means that girls drop out of school and lose options for further study, better employment or economic empowerment.  They also lack choices in the control of household income and decision-making on many issues, including their own health. Young brides are often married to much older men and have fewer chances of exercising their human right to make informed decisions since they are not treated as peers by their spouses. 

Furthermore, child marriage violates the right of the girl child to choose when and whom to marry when she is mature and to choose when to become pregnant. Girl brides have limited access to information and reproductive health care, including family planning. The majority are exposed to repeated pregnancies and childbirth before they are physically mature and psychologically ready.

Pregnant girls are also at risk of obstetric fistula, which is one of the most devastating consequences, with more than two million girls and women affected by this treatable and preventable injury. Pregnancy-related complications are also the leading causes of death among 15–19-year-old girls, and those aged under 15 years are five times more likely to die than women older than 20. A study in the West African nation of Niger confirmed that pregnant young women from poorer communities were eight times less likely to have access to skilled birth attendants than their age mates in the wealthiest 20 per cent of their communities.

Mabel van Oranje

CEO of The Elders

In the developing world it’s estimated 1 in 7 girls is married before the age of 15 and in many communities, marrying a girl before she turns 18 is a cultural norm. Yet child marriage is a human rights issue, too: young brides rarely choose when and whom they marry, they usually have to leave school, and early pregnancy often endangers their health. By working to end child marriage, are we setting girls’ rights and cultural rights on a collision course?

The Elders see culture as a force for good that binds communities together and often represents humanity’s most impressive achievements. But they have also spoken out firmly against the misuse of cultural and traditional practices to justify discrimination against girls and women. When they visited Ethiopia this year, Desmond Tutu, Gro Brundtland and Mary Robinson met groups who use cultural tools such as community dialogue and storytelling to persuade thousands of parents to delay marrying off their daughters.

Ultimately, culture and tradition are not static – they evolve. As Elder Graça Machel says: “When we talk of tradition – some people call it culture – we talk like it cannot be changed… But tradition is man-made. Yes, we must be respectful, but we must also have the courage to acknowledge when traditions cause harm.” We will not end child marriage by pitting cultural rights against human rights. Instead, we must focus on how culture can help to protect and enhance the rights of millions of girls.

To find out more about The Elders’ work to build a Global Partnership to End Child Marriage visit www.theElders.org

Ann Cotton

 Executive Director of Camfed International

The day of a child’s marriage has an air of anticipation and excitement. The celebrations belie the gravity of her situation – for her wedding day, in fact, marks her passage into a life of child-bearing and domestic servitude. Responsibility for her life is transferred from her father to her husband.

Travelling in the rural areas of Zimbabwe, I posed the question to Melody Jori, a Camfed Zimbabwe staff member.  “We used to have the practice of musenga bere in our country, when a girl would be kidnapped by a young man, locked in a room for some days, and then pressured to marry her kidnapper. Was this traditional practice a cultural right? To marry a child is a violation of her rights and it is against the law. Just because things happen sometimes in our culture does not make them cultural rights.”

Anju Malhotra

Vice President, Research, Innovation and Impact, International Center for Research on Women

Girls who marry as children are deprived of an education, subjected to sexual and physical abuse and are more likely to die during child birth. Most around the globe would not accept such a life; no one would want the "right" to such outcomes for their daughters – or sons. And the fact is, girls themselves don’t want to be child brides. Parents love their daughters. And people worldwide are coming together to help curtail child marriage. This shows that while child marriage may be a traditional practice in some cultures, it by no means is viewed as a cultural right.
 
What’s more, no one desires a right to experience the grave consequences child marriage has on societies as a whole. Nations cannot become more democratic, economically prosperous or cultivate a strong labor force if 40 to 70 percent of young girls have slim chances at staying healthy, finishing their education or contributing to the political or economic fabric of their communities.

The good news is that there are solutions to end child marriage. Parents, community leaders and governments are stepping up and taking responsibility for preventing child marriages. Most important, young people—and girls themselves – are unequivocal about what they want for their lives, and nowhere in the world do they aspire to be child brides."

Gillian Slinger

Technical Specialist, Obstetric Fistula and Coordinator

UNFPA Campaign to End Fistula


One of the strategies to address obstetric fistula -- a life shattering childbirth injury caused by prolonged, obstructed labour, and which leads to chronic incontinence -- is to postpone pregnancy for young girls until they are physically mature. Young girls are more likely to die in childbirth than older women. Many of those who survive obstructed labour, have a stillborn baby and tragically end up with a fistula.

The many dangers associated with early pregnancies are the reason why the Campaign to End Fistula advocates for alternatives to child marriage. Young married girls are often pressured to get pregnant soon after marriage and may face a variety of barriers to accessing voluntary family planning services. We also insist on the importance of midwives, who can play a leading role in monitoring the reproductive health of young women.

For all pregnant women, including teenagers, a trained professional with midwifery skills can carefully monitor the progress of labour, recognizing when it is obstructed and promptly referring the case for emergency obstetric care in time, which greatly helps reduce the incidence of obstetric fistula, as well as to ensure maternal and newborn well-being.

More than ever, we need to invest in midwives. If births were routinely attended by midwives and others with midwifery skills who are well trained, adequately supervised and authorized to practice their life-saving competencies, the vast majority of maternal deaths and disabilities like fistula could be avoided.