Child marriage in developing countries is violating the Convention of Children Rights. This legislation was set out to protect every child. Child marriage refers to a marriage or union whereby one or both of the partakers are under the age of eighteen (UNICEF, 2001). This essay is focusing on the question of what rights are being violated through child marriage and what are the reasons behind its violation. Poverty, low eduction levels and cultural influences have been found to be the reasons for this ongoing problem. Possible solutions to eradicate child brides are higher education levels for girls and satrengthening the rights system. This is being analysed by looking at the UN Children Rights and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (2006) replacing the Child Marriage Restraint Act (1929). This prohibits marriage of a girl under 18 years and under 21 years for a boy. The issue with child marriage is that young children are being robbed of their childhood, taken away from their safe environment, abused and do not have the right to be educated.
Child marriage is a practice that violates not only the fundamental rights of people, outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also the inherent rights of children, summarised in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is a global issue, particularly prevalent in developing countries, where approximately one in three girls will be married by the time they are 18, where India is high-ranking in its prevalence of child marriage with approximately 47% of the females married by 18 (Girls Not Brides, 2014). Child marriage is in breach of several articles within the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In the UDHR ...
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. (10th December 1948). Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
UNICEF. (2001, March). Child spouses. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. (7), 18. Retrieved from http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/291
UNICEF. (2007, December). Progress for children: A world fit for children statistical review 6. New York: UNICEF. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Progress_for_Children_No_6_revised.pdf
UNICEF. (2012). Child Marriage. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58008.html
United Nations & World Aids Campaign. (2004). Women, girls, HIV and AIDS. Strategies Overview and Background Note. Retrieved from http://www.etarc.org
World Health Organisation. (2013, March 07). Media centre- Child marriages: 39000 every day. Retrieved from http://www.who.int
To help the women in Africa in their struggle with the problems caused by the AIDS pandemic, we must first help the women have a voice and gender equality in the developed countries and the organizations of which these developed countries are a part of.
The good news is that if we act with urgency, we have a great chance to impact the lives of millions of Africans for the better. It seems obvious that, according to Kofi Annan's essay, the best way to do this is by targeting the women of Africa. Through the use of AIDS education, new drought-resistant crops, and international resources it is possible to reduce the spread of AIDS and, in turn, help to lower starvation rates.
According to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, “state parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members”(1). It is generally believed that the fundamental rights of every human being should be respected; but unfortunately that’s not the case with FGM. Children are made to past this ordeal at an early age. A child as young as 10 years or even younger is subjected to this inhuman act without seeking her consent or most times telling flimsy stories to subdue her infant mind. On the other hand, the perpetrators believe that the child is too young to decide and being parents automatically places them in the rightful position to decide her faith. Contrary to that notion, is the provision in article three (3) of the same UN convention which states that “[i]n all actions concerning the ch...
The Stephen Lewis Foundation provides care for women suffering from HIV/AIDS, assists orphans and other children affected by AIDS, supports grandmothers caring for orphaned grandchildren, and supports groups of people living with HIV/AIDS. More specifically, the foundation provides education and counseling about HIV prevention, care and treatment; distributes food, medication and other necessities; provides holistic home-based care for the very sick; helps children orphaned by AIDS gain access to education and cope with their grief; and support the grandmothers, who are overwhelmingly the caregivers for their orphaned grandchildren. The extent of the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is shocking: more than 24.5 million cases of HIV/AIDS, 76% of those newly infected between the ages of 15 and 24 are women, 2 million die of this disease a year, and there are more than 12 million orphans as a result of AIDS. The Stephen Lewis Foundation supports grassroots projects in Africa, such as co-operatives and community gardens run by grandmothers or children in areas where the parent generation is wiped out. These projects run on very small amounts of money but make a big difference to their
It considers the present and future impact of the AIDS epidemic on major demographic measures such as fertility, mortality, life expectancy, gender, age, and family structure. Although the sub-Saharan region accounts for just 10% of the world’s population, 67% (22.5 million) of the 33.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 1998 were residents of one of the 34 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, and of all AIDS deaths since the epidemic started, 83% have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (Gilks, 1999, p. 180). Among children under age 15 living with HIV/AIDS, 90% live in sub-Saharan Africa, as do 95% of all AIDS orphans. In several of the 34 sub-Saharan nations, 1 out of every 4 adults is HIV-positive (UNAIDS, 1998, p. 1). Taxing low-income countries with health care systems inadequate to handle the burden of non-AIDS related illnesses, AIDS has devastated many of the sub-Saharan African economies.
The author mentions a few key take away main points. First of all, solutions must address the underlying causes of HIV risk among women. This mainly includes poverty and disempowerment because women in lower living standar...
Some of the main challenges being cost of education, school environment, position of women in their societies as to how they are treated, conflicts and social exclusion. One of the main reasons why parents discriminate against the girl child when it comes to education is the cost when compared to economic returns to the household after the completion of education and also the expenditure of marrying off a daughter is enormous in many societies. It has also been documented that girls in most developing countries start helping in household chores from an early age and being highly educated causes constraints regarding marriage as many grooms don’t prefer a literate wife. Studies have shown that girls are the first to discontinue schooling to provide care to a sick member in the family or take care of younger siblings in case of death of a parent, and this is one of the main reasons why in Sub-Saharan countries there are many child headed families. Social exclusion is another barrier that prevents girls from going to school as they are excluded based on caste, ethnicity and religion (DIFD Report,
Poverty extends out over all continents, making it the most widespread negative factor. Out of the world’s 2.2 billion children, approximately half live in poverty according to UNICEF. Poverty claims approximately 22,000 children’s lives per day. This statistic illustrates the struggle children that live in poverty must face in order to survive. Poverty is a root cause of hunger, disease, and lack of shelter. It is concentrated in pockets in areas such as South Africa and South Asia. Children, who must...
To decrease HIV transmission and to minimise the impact of the epidemic, on children, young people and families, through the growing effectiveness of national action to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the East of Asia and the Pacific regions. They aim to provide practical support and aid at community level, encouraging the full engament of people affected by HIV/AIDS.
Child marriage is a global issue, transpiring in all parts of the world. Abducted from their home and family, young girls - below eighteen - are married off against their own will not only affecting the girls (mentally and physically) but the country as a whole. The organization, Too Young to Wed, says “… marrying them off at such a young age, they are putting the girls at risk and perpetuation the cycle of powerlessness and poverty.” Child marriages occurred throughout history and still an affair today due to society’s tolerance. And the number of young girls forced to wed increased and will continue to increase if society remains tolerant to this sensitive matter.
In the contemporary society, education is a foundational human right. It is essentially an enabling right that creates various avenues for the exercise of other basic human rights. Once it is guaranteed, it facilitates the fulfillment of other freedoms and rights more particularly attached to children. Equally, lack of education provision endangers all fundamental rights associate with the welfare of human beings. Consequently, the role of education and in particular girl child education as a promoter of nation states welfare cannot be overemphasized. As various scholars asserts, the challenges and problems faced by the African girl child, to enjoy her right to education are multifaceted. Such difficulties include sexual abuse, child labor, discrimination, early pregnancies, violence and poverty, culture and religious practices (Julia 219). Across the developing world, millions of young girls lack proper access to basic education. In the contemporary society, this crisis, which is particularly critical in remote and poor region of sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia have fascinated increased public attention. However, almost all global nation states have assured their commitment in addressing various girl child challenges and allowed a declaration to enable each young girl and boy receive education by the year 2015 (Herz and Sperling 17). This target was firmly established and approved in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. However, this study will focus on girls’ education in Africa and its impacts to their livelihood.
The emergence of HIV/AIDS is viewed globally as one of the most serious health and developmental challenges our society faces today. Being a lentivirus, HIV slowly replicates over time, attacking and wearing down the human immune system subsequently leading to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) at which point the affected individual is exposed to life threatening illnesses and eventual death. Despite the fact that a few instances of this disease have been accounted for in all parts of the world, a high rate of the aforementioned living with HIV are situated in either low or medium wage procuring nations. The Sub-Saharan region Africa is recognized as the geographic region most afflicted by the pandemic. In previous years, people living with HIV or at risk of getting infected did not have enough access to prevention, care and treatment neither were they properly sensitized about the disease. These days, awareness and accessibility to all the mentioned (preventive methods, care etc.) has risen dramatically due to several global responses to the epidemic. An estimated half of newly infected people are among those under age 25(The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic). It hits hard as it has no visible symptoms and can go a long time without being diagnosed until one is tested or before it is too late to manage.
“Each year, 15 million girls are married before the age of 18.” (girlsnotbrides.org)Each day there is 28girls every minute being married off while still being children. These are children and should be treated as so, and be protected. At a young age children, should stay children instead of having to worry about what life will bring in child marriage. Child marriage should be banned it, destroys the bright future of a child forever.
While the age of marriage is generally on the rise, in many countries, especially among poor, migrant or displaced communities, early marriage – marriage of children and adolescents below the age of eighteen – is still widely practiced. Tremendous number of couples enters marriage without any chance of exercising their right to choose. Some are forced into marriage, others are simply too young to make an informed decision about their partner or about the implications of marriage itself. Studies have shown that teenage married couples are often less advantageous, may come from broken homes, may have little education and work, low status jobs in comparison to those that marry after adolescence. It could be very encouraging if our community established a prohibition on the early marriages, giving a room for young couples’ relationships to grow. I propose to ban early marriages because they bring a lot of flaws in our society and make the young couples face imposing obstacles during their life path.
At the moment, the active mechanism of enforcement is weak and is limiting the implementation of children’s rights by States Parties. In sum, it lacks teeth. Some of its flaws are imposed by external factors, and others are self-imposed. Even when State Parties take steps to comply with the CRC, by establishing compatible legislation and domestic mechanisms, they will at times inevitably fall short.