Child Marriage

CHILD MARRIAGE

INTRODUCTION

Child marriage is a violation of human rights and it is prohibited by a number of international conventions and other instruments. Child marriage represents perhaps the most prevalent form of sexual abuse and exploitation of girls. The harmful consequences include separation from family and friends, lack of freedom to interact with peers and participate in community activities, and decreased opportunities for education. Child marriage can also result in bonded labor or enslavement, commercial sexual exploitation and violence against the victims. I will try to show here what international organizations are trying to do in order to resolve this grand problem of 21st century. Child marriage is now widely recognized as a violation of children's rights, a direct form of discrimination against the girl child who as a result of the practice is often deprived of her basic rights to health, education, development and equality. This paper should discover the sources of these issues and also discuss about tradition, religion and poverty that continue to fuel the practice of child marriage, despite its strong association with adverse reproductive health outcomes and the lack of education of girls. There are many tragic facts that support this problem and show reality of child abuse. Here there will be also presented some of examples and statists that are fascinated.

LEGAL BASE

There are many legal basics that provide protection and fights against child abuse. Some of the most famous and influenced are: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Article 16

(1) Men and women of full age … have the right to marry and found a family....