UN Passes Resolution Banning Child Marriages
UN Passes Resolution Banning Child Marriages
The United Nations/UN has resolved that all members should pass and enforce laws for banning child marriages, putting an end to a practice that a Reuters report indicates as affecting nearly 15 million girls per year.
Resolution for Ending Child Marriage
The committee of the 193 nation General Assembly adopted the resolution by consensus urging the different states to take urgent steps to stop "child, early and forced marriage.” Currently more than 700 million women who were married before their 18th birthday exist.Many of these exist in positions of poverty as well as insecurity as per the UN statistics.
Prevalence of Child Marriage
Child marriage is quite a common practice among girls in south Asian nations as well as sub Saharan Africa. The highest rate of child marriage has been observed in Niger, West Africa. Around 77% of the women between 20 to 49 in this nation were married before they attained the age of 18.
Bangladesh has the most number of girls who were married under the age of 15. One third of all child marriages worldwide occur in India.
Christine Kalamwina, the deputy permanent representative of Zambia, which initiated the resolution with Canada, said child marriage was responsible for the impediment of poverty reduction, education, gender equality and women's empowerment, child mortality, maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, according to a Reuters report.
Features of the Resolution
The resolution talks of how early marriage is a serious threat to the physical as well as psychological health of girls who are not physically mature and it "increases the risk of unintended pregnancy, maternal and newborn mortality and sexually transmitted infections."
The resolution was sponsored by 118 countries including Mali, Ethiopia and Central African Republic which have the highest rates of child marriage in the world.
The resolution also urged states to ensure that marriage is entered into only with the full and complete concept of the intending spouses. This resolution was adopted without a vote against it. The resolution will go to the complete General Assembly for formal approval in December this year. "This is a firm statement from the international community that child marriage will not be tolerated," Girls Before Brides, a global partnership of over 400 civil society organizations, said in a statement, according to a Reuters report.
Child marriage is a social evil and it must be combated completely. Entering into marital state without complete consent of both parties amounts to coercion. Marrying girls before they are physically mature is a heinous crime and underage marriages should be vociferously battled. Women should have the right to consider their reproductive and marital decisions 100% on their own, without coercion or interference from others. Hopefully, the UN resolution banning child marriages in India and other nations will go a long way towards combating this social evil.
