Mobilizing Public Political Will to Address Forced Marriages
Mobilizing Public & Political Will to Address Forced Marriages and Reproductive Rights Kira Di. Clemente Yale School of Public Health June 17, 2016 The views of this paper are solely those of the author, however we would like to thank USAID/Foreign United States Department of Agriculture for funding this work. Grant ID # TA-CA-15 -008
Forced, Child Marriage • Forcing children to have sexual relations and become pregnant is a violation of human rights • Subculture gender violence (Kury, Redo, & Shea, 2016) • 15 million girls under the age of 18 get married each year (UNICEF, 2014) • One third of girls in the developing world are married before the age of 18 and 1 in 9 are married before 15 (ICRW, 2015)
Why is this an issue of Reproductive Rights? • Complications from pregnancy are the leading cause of death amongst girls ages 15 to 19 worldwide (Viegas et al. , 1991) • Increased risk of HIV, as the tissue in young girls’ vaginas is more likely to tear when having intercourse with their with much older partner (ICRW, 2015) • Girls who marry before age 18 are more likely to experience domestic violence (Viegas et al. , 1991)
Why is this an issue of Reproductive Rights? 12, 000 women per year develop Vaginal Fistula due to the small size of the mother’s pelvis during birth, creating a permanent hole through which urine constantly passes through.
The State of Political Will
The State of Public Will
Child Marriage and Civil Rights • Child marriages are arranged out of parents’ desire to not pay a dowry and one less mouth to feed (Post & Oehmke, 2016) • Marriage likely steals any chance for individual foundational life choices, such as education, development, etc. (Osotimehin, 2012) Violating international and country laws depriving females of their civil rights
How do we reach sustainable change? • Threat of the law, threat of death, and violation of civil rights: not enough • Efforts worldwide to end the practice (i. e. ICRW, World Vision, etc. ): not enough
Successful Public & Political Will Campaigns • • Political Will Public Will Allow women land tenure • Make birth control available for women to Allow female inheritance control family size Ensure food security for • Mothers do not allow women and children sons to marry girls under Keep girls in school the age of 18 or even older *Remove obstacles for * Locate and act on females that encourage societal pressure point the practice
Questions? Kira Di. Clemente kira. diclemente@yale. edu
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