“We have undoubtedly made progress in abandoning the practice of child marriage, especially in the past decade, but this progress is not enough,” Claudia Capa, lead author of the UNICEF report, told AFP.
UNICEF announced in a report on Wednesday that child marriage rates, especially for girls, continued to decline in the last decade in the world, but at a very slow pace, warning that eliminating this phenomenon will take more than 300 years if things remain the same.
“We have undoubtedly made progress in abandoning the practice of child marriage, especially in the past decade, but this progress is not enough,” Claudia Capa, the report’s lead author, told AFP.
In its report, the United Nations Children’s Fund said: “Despite the continuous decline in rates of child marriage in the last decade, there are many crises that threaten to reverse the hard-won gains in this field, including conflicts, climate shocks, and the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic… It is necessary to The global decline is 20 times faster than achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of ending child marriage by 2030.
The report quoted the Executive Director of the United Nations Organization, Katharine Russell, as saying: “The world is mired in crises beyond existing crises that thwart the hopes and dreams of vulnerable children, especially girls who should be students in school and not brides… We must do everything in our power We strive to ensure children’s rights to education and an empowered life.”
False sanctuary
The report warned that “health and economic crises, escalating armed conflicts, and the devastating effects of climate change are forcing families to seek false refuge through child marriage.”
The report pointed out that the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic “have reduced the number of avoidable cases in the field of child marriage by a quarter since 2020.” According to the report, “640 million girls and women living today were married during their childhood, or 12 million girls annually.” He added, “The percentage of young women who married as children has decreased from 21% to 19% since the last estimates were issued five years ago.”
The report warns that “Sub-Saharan Africa – which has the second largest share of the global total of child brides (20%) – will take more than 200 years to end the practice at the current rate of progress.”
“Latin America and the Caribbean is also lagging behind, and is on a trajectory that will make its child marriage rate the second highest regional rate in the world by 2030,” according to the report. As for the regions of the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, “progress has stalled after periods of continuous progress,” according to UNICEF.
UNICEF warned that “girls who marry as children face immediate and lifelong consequences, are less likely to remain in school, and face a greater risk of early pregnancy, which in turn increases the risk of health complications and deaths among children and mothers.”
Likewise, “this practice can isolate girls from their families and friends and exclude them from participating in their communities, causing significant damage to their mental health and well-being.” Russell stressed that “we must focus on keeping girls in school and ensuring that they are provided with economic opportunities.” .
