Child Marriage as an Human Rights Issue
Tomas
marriage is a violation of human rights. In most cases young girls get
married off to significantly older men when they are still children.
Child marriages must be viewed within a context of force and coercion,
involving pressure and emotional blackmail, and children that lack the
choice or capacity to give their full consent. Child marriage must
therefore always be considered forced marriage because valid consent
is absent - and often considered unnecessary. Child marriage is common
practice in India, Niger, Bangladesh, Pakistan Guinea, Burkina Faso,
Africa and Nepal,where mostly girls are married below the age of 18.
Child marriage has its own worse effect on the young girls, society,
her children and health. Young girls who get married will most likely
be forced into having sexual intercourse with their, usually much
older, husbands. This has severe negative health consequences as the
girl is often not psychologically, physically and sexually mature.
Child brides are likely to become pregnant at an early age and there
is a strong correlation between the age of a mother and maternal
mortality and morbidity. Girls aged 11-13 are five times more likely
to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women aged 20-24 and girls aged
15-19 are
twice as likely to die.
The above is an extract from Arun Kumar essay "Child Marriage as an
Human Rights Issue". This essay was ranked among the top ten essay in
Human Rights Defence's Essay competition 2008. If you would like to
read more, visit: www.humanrightsdefence.org
Yours sincerely,
Tomas Eric Nordlander
HumanRightsDefence