Child Marriage in Africa
Introduction
Child Marriage is a human rights violation which takes place on a very vast scale in Western and Central Africa. This disappropriately affect girls. There are a lot of girls who marry young who often drop out of school. They face several physical risks, especially during pregnancy, due to social, health and economic impacts of child marriage. This practice is now a huge obstacle to sustainable development.
Six out of world’s ten countries have the world’s highest rates of child marriage in West and Central Africa. The average prevalence across all regions remains high: approx. 41% of girls marry before they turn 18.
The rapid growth rate of the child population in African countries makes it increasingly urgent for countries to accelerate their effort to address child marriage. To end child marriage is important to give several millions adolescent girls an opportunity to realize their potential, while improving their maternal and child health.
The Sustainable Developmental Goals target the elimination of all forms of harmful practices, including child marriage. In West and Central Africa, there is a growing momentum to end child marriage, which includes African Union member states’ endorsement of an ‘African Common Position to End Child Marriage’ and the ‘Campaign to End Child Marriage in Africa’. Several countries have developed and began to develop and implement national strategies and action plans to address child marriage.
Our goal
By 2021, the percentage of girls between the ages of 20–24 married before the age of 18 is reduced from 41% to 37% (an additional 3 million girls who will not be married before the age of 18).By 2021, the percentage of girls between the ages of 20–24 married before the age of 18 is reduced from 41% to 37% (an additional 3 million girls who will not be married before the age of 18).
Change strategies
In West and Central Africa, UNICEF will be carrying out the integrated strategies which will accelerate progress towards change.
· Supporting adolescent girls who are at risk of, or are affected by, child marriage to stay in school through the lower secondary cycle and acquire life skills, enabling them to make choices and exercise their rights.
· Promoting community dialogue as well as social mobilization to ensure that every household demonstrates positive attitudes and behaviors to support girls.
· To support health, education and other relevant systems and deliver quality, cost-effective services to meet the demands of adolescent girls.
· Advocating in favor of national laws, policy framework as well as mechanisms to protect and promote adolescent girls’ rights, and to ensure they are aligned with international standards and adequate resources and are available to carry them out.
· Children marry as young as 7 and 8 years old. The U.N. estimates that every day around 37,000 girls under the age of 18 are married. Of the girls forced into marriage, one in three girls experience child marriage before the age of 18 and one in nine experience it before the age of 15. UNICEF estimates that if no change occurs, the rate of child marriages in Africa alone may double by 2050.
· Girls often experience suppressed education. Most girls who are in a child marriage do not get an education higher than the mandated primary education of grades one through nine. This is due to social stereotypes that categorize girls as domestic wives who stay in the home to cook, clean and bear children. Another reason is that most child marriages take place in poverty-stricken areas and they cannot afford to pay for an education or do not have access to education near them.
· Children involved in child marriages are at greater risk of domestic violence. A high percentage of girls in a child marriage experience domestic and sometimes sexual violence. According to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), girls who marry before the age of 18 are twice as likely to experience domestic violence when compared to girls who marry after the age of 18. Many girls cannot escape this violence because of poverty and the lack of education.
· Having a daughter is seen as a burden in Africa. Most child marriages take place in poverty-stricken areas where families consider daughters to be economic and financial burdens. Many families, wanting to make up for the money they put into raising a daughter, require a dowry for their daughter’s marriage. The high cost of a dowry means that most men will work for years to save up for a wife. As a result, most child marriages are between a young girl and a much older man.
· Child brides have a greater risk of contracting HIV and other STDs. Since men are typically much older when they marry a child bride, they tend to have had multiple partners before they are married. As a result, girls involved in child marriages are more susceptible to contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Additionally, research found that many young people lack the proper knowledge of HIV and other STDs and safe sexual education. Sex education is a mandatory curriculum in Africa, but religious and cultural taboos prevent schools from properly teaching this curriculum. In 2015, the Department of Basic Education began developing lesson plans for grades seven through nine that properly educate children about safe sex and STDs.
· Many child brides face high-risk pregnancies. Since girls marry at such young ages, many girls have high-risk pregnancies due to their underdeveloped bodies. As a result, they often have a difficult childbirth. Additionally, pregnancy lessens the body’s immune system, leaving young girls easily susceptible to illnesses such as malaria. Malaria is harder to treat when one is HIV positive and can lead to death in young pregnant girls.
· Ultimately, child marriage violates human rights. Child marriages involving boys is significantly more rare than those involving girls. The primary difference in a marriage involving young boys is they do not pose the same health risks as girls. However, child marriages between both sexes take away a child’s basic human rights. In 1948, in an attempt to discourage child marriages, the U.N. declared child marriage an act against human rights, as stated in Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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