UN session discusses ending child marriage
Child marriage is a human rights violation and the issue is one of the major topics for discussion at the ongoing 60th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) at the UN Headquarters in New York.
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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report on Ending Child Marriage: Progress and Prospects, released in 2014, indicates that globally, each year, 15 million girls marry before their 18th birthday, meaning that, each day, 41,000 girls get married, and every minute, 28 girls below age 18 get married, with a girl getting married every two seconds.
In analysing the data on child marriage across continents, UNICEF identifies South Asia and Africa as regions with the highest prevalence rates of child marriage, describing projections in sub-Saharan Africa as "even particularly alarming, due to rapid population growth" contending that, the devastating consequences of child marriage were likely to affect an even larger number of girls in Africa in the coming years if positive and significant steps were not taken to address the problem.
Early marriage
In Ghana, the report of the 2011 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) indicates that on the average, one out of four girls will be married before her 18th birthday with the Upper Region having the highest prevalence rate of 39.20 per cent, whereas Greater Accra has the lowest rate of 12.2 per cent, being the only region with a rate lower than the national average of 27 per cent.
In line with the country's determination of ending child marriage, and to share it's "Ending Child Marriage Initiative" with development partners, identifiable groups and organisations, as well as gender ministers from some parts of Africa including Ghana held a Breakfast Meeting with the aforementioned individuals and organisations on the topic, "Ending Child Marriage in Ghana and West Africa, at the Ghana Permanent Mission in New York on Thursday, as part of the country's programme at the ongoing nine-day 60 UNCSW.
Elaborating on the issue, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, who is leading Ghana's delegation of parliamentarians, accredited non-governmental organisations and representatives of identifiable bodies to the annual session, said the ministry had developed a resource guide on ending child marriage in Ghana, as part of an existing partnership between the ministry and the United Nations Fund (UNICEF).
She added that the purpose of the guide was to provide information to professionals and service providers whose work brings them in contact with children, particularly where there were cases of child marriage, and that the focus of the initiative, which commenced in September last year, was the establishment of a national strategic framework and coordinating mechanism for eliminating the incidence of child marriage and its related consequences. These include teenage pregnancy, as well as increase preventive action by traditional leaders, religious bodies and communities to promote and protect the rights of children.
She also said the country launched a child-marriage programme in February this year, and identified goodwill ambassadors and celebrities and formed a network of media allies to champion the campaign and to coordinate efforts by various stakeholders. It is also meant to increase social action, improve resources for adolescent girls at risk of, and affected by child marriage, by empowering the girls, to champion the cause.
Laws
The minister explained that Ghana's Criminal Code, 1950 (Act 29), criminalised acts that were directly or indirectly associated with child marriage, while the Children's Act (Act 560) buttressed sections of the Criminal Code and classified it as an offence to force a child to be betrothed, subjected to dowry transactions or to be married, stressing that on the global stage, international conventions and treaties, many of them ratified by countries including Ghana, were in place to promote child rights and protect children from human rights violations.
She also said areas that required further attention were shelters for the affected girls, psycho-social support for child brides and 'escapees', as well as skills training, economic support and business capital for victims, adding that there were plans for the establishment of education funds to support the education of and reentry for child brides who want to attain formal education.
Nana Lithur emphasised that child marriage was a serious human rights issue which had consequences on the education, health, economic opportunities and security of the affected girls. She therefore called for collective action to end child marriage in Ghana in particular and West Africa in general.
In separate remarks, the Director of the Technical Division of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr Benoit Kalasa and Mr Cornel Williams, Associate Director of Child Protection, UNICEF, commended Ghana for its campaign against child marriage, indicating that other countries in West Africa looked up to Ghana to initiate programmes to invest in the growth and development of children and their education, to address the problem of child brides and to implement various national strategic plans to end child marriage.
Ghana’s commitments
The Chairperson of the Gender and Children's Committee in Ghana’s Parliament, Hajia Laadi Ayamba, said the House had made it a point to support the girl-child with various initiatives, but that had been difficult, adding that as Members of Parliament, they would continue to undertake advocacy programmes and counsel parents to understand that, "we need the girl-child".
She also said the problem became more complicated when a mother was labelled as a 'witch' and taken away and when girls as young as eight years, were offered for marriage in the name of religion and tradition, pointing out that, "we should not narrow down the problem in the name of religion or tradition." She called on ministers, parents and communities to come together to play their respective roles to solve the problem.
In her opening remarks, Ghana's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United States, Mrs Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, described the Sixth Session of the COW as "significant", coming after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) last year, and stressed that the subject of child, early and forced marriage, was a complex issue worldwide, but most prevalent in developing countries, due to poverty and social isolation.
She indicated that it required a planned, sustained and multidimensional approach from all angles to be tackled effectively.
In her statement, Baroness Verma, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the United Kingdom, said the UK was ready to support Ghana and other countries to tackle the broader issue of gender violence through meaningful and fruitful collaborations and advised that laws must be promulgated and negative traditions that were harmful to the people modified.