African
nations this week pledged to eradicate child and forced marriage in the
region at the African Union Summit, according to African Union Goodwill
Ambassador to End Child Marriage Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda.
Goodwill Ambassador
Gumbonzvanda announced this political commitment to
eradicate child, early and forced marriages at a panel event at the
United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday hosted by state
delegations, UN agencies and NGOs including the African Union, the
Center for Reproductive Rights, UNFPA, WHO and the governments of Sierra
Leone, Italy, Belgium, and Uruguay.
In
2013, the U.N. Human Rights Council—principal body at the UN that
promotes and protects human rights for all—adopted a procedural
resolution dedicated to ending child marriage. The event this week
called for the Human Rights Council to adopt a substantive resolution
that recognizes the human rights implications of child, early and forced
marriage, and encourage states to use their national and regional
experience, to influence and promote the strongest possible inclusion of
language addressing CEFM within a comprehensive human rights based
approach.
“The
illegal and unconscionable practice of child and forced marriage has
been ignored by too many governments for far too long, violating the
human rights of countless young girls and women across the globe,” said Rebecca Brown, global advocacy director at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Today’s
action by the African Union echoes the many U.N. resolutions and
regional initiatives developed to end child marriage, and it is an
important and positive step toward change. It’s time governments fulfill
their promises and take the necessary next steps to ensure these
policies are implemented and enforced.”
During
the panel event, Melissa Upreti, regional director for Asia at the
Center, discussed how South Asia is making strides to end child
marriage. Last year the government of Nepal hosted a convening on using
the law to end child marriage, particularly focusing on the need for
legal accountability for child marriage. Ms. Upreti also introduced the
South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children (SAIEVAC), which
has led the development of a regional action plan to end child marriage
that reflects the commitment of all eight South Asian states to take
steps to end child marriage as a matter of human rights from 2015-2018.
In 2013 the Center issued the report Child Marriage in South Asia: Stop the Impunity
examining the consequences of child marriage, which subject girls to
serious crimes, including domestic violence and marital rape, placing
their reproductive health and lives at serious risk. The report
questions the failure of governments to prevent and prosecute cases of
child marriage. Since the launch of the report, the Center has supported
the efforts of SAIEVAC, in building a regional commitment to end child
marriage and applauds the progress being made under the leadership of
SAIEVAC to promote stronger legal accountability to end child marriage
in the region.
The
Center has played a part in some of the most important advances in
reproductive rights worldwide. At the U.N. Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women, the Center secured historic financial
reparations for the family of a young Brazilian woman who died from
preventable pregnancy complications—the first time an international
human rights decision named maternal health a human rights. And at the
European Court of Human Rights, the Center called upon Poland to ensure
adolescents’ reproductive rights after access to a legal abortion for a
rape survivor was repeatedly obstructed.
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