Child marriage unicef

Swedens largest law firm can help. Book an appointment with us today. While the prevalence of child marriage has decreased worldwide – from one in four girls married a decade ago to approximately one in five today – the practice remains widespread.

Many factors interact to place a child at risk of marriage , including poverty, the perception that marriage will provide ‘protection’, family honor, social norms, customary or religious laws that condone the practice, an inadequate legislative framework and the state of a country’s civil registration system. UNICEF seeks to ensure that every child is protected from violence and exploitation, including harmful practices, in both humanitarian and development settings. Still, progress has been uneven, and child marriage is not declining fast enough.

To change this, we must accelerate our actions to end child marriage. UNICEF works in 1countries around the worl protecting the most vulnerable children from dangers like child marriage , forced labour and deadly disease. In Cha we helped run a nationwide campaign to change attitudes about child marriage , and supported the legislation to make the practice illegal.

The UNFPA- UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage is being supported by Canada, the European Union, Italy, Netherlands, and the UK. Each year, million girls are married before the age of 18. That is girls every minute. Nearly every seconds.

While child marriage takes place in practically every region of the worl it occurs at higher rates in South Asia (), sub-Saharan Africa (), and Latin.

UNICEF calls child marriage a harmful practice and a violation of child rights and believes that marriage under age should be prohibited in all circumstances. In fact, there is no minimum age for marriage in states throughout the country. As legislation is introduced across the country banning child marriage, UNICEF mobilizes grassroots efforts to support the bill. Right now, elected officials in Pennsylvania are reviewing legislation that would make Pennsylvania the third state in the country to ban child marriages , with no exceptions.

Given the life-altering impact child marriage has on a young girl’s life, any reduction is welcome news, but we’ve got a long way to go. Worldwide, some 6million women alive today were married when they were just girls. UNICEF reported that the largest decline in child marriage in the last years occurred in South Asia.

Adolescent girls at risk of or affected by child marriage are better able to express and exercise their choices. Read a detailed project description to find out more about this exciting partnership between Zonta International, UNICEF USA and UNFPA. According to information complied by the Pew Research Center, child marriage is generally more common in some of the Southern United States. In both proportions and numbers, most child marriages take place in rural sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

In South Asia, nearly half of young women and in sub-Saharan Africa more than one third of young women are married by their 18th birthday. There's an economic underpinning for these child marriages , says Sunita Menon, a director at Breakthrough, a nonprofit group that has partnered with UNICEF and the state of Bihar to prevent child marriage. The younger the bride, the smaller the dowry, Menon explains. Child marriages are declining, with the largest drop in South Asia, according to UNICEF. Globally, per cent of young women are married before the age of 18.

Ending child marriage is a key priority in the strategic plans of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children ’s Fund ( UNICEF ), and together, these agencies developed the Joint Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage (GPECM).

UNICEF addresses child marriage as part of its broader approach to gender discrimination, which undermines the right of women and children. UNICEF ’s Global Girls’ Education Programme operates in more than countries to ensure that girls have an equal opportunity at education, which is key in postponing marriage and for the overall. According to new data released Friday by Unicef , about 7million people alive today were married as children. Unicef estimates that million child marriages have been prevented in the past decade. One in five girls are now married before they are 1 compared with one in four a decade ago.

South Asian countries have seen the biggest reduction in child marriages , Unicef says. In India this was achieved by better education for girls and by publicising. In the United States, child marriage is still permissible in some states, with parental or judicial consent.