Child, Early and Forced Marriage

Calls upon States, with the participation of relevant stakeholders, including women and girls, men and boys, parents and other family members, teachers, religious, traditional and community leaders, civil society, organizations led by girls, women’s organizations, youth and human rights groups, the media and the private sector, to develop and implement holistic, comprehensive and coordinated age- and gender-responsive, victim-centred and multisectoral responses and strategies that respect human rights to prevent and eliminate child, early and forced marriage, to support girls and women who are affected or at risk, who have fled such a marriage or whose marriage has dissolved, and widowed girls or women who were married as girls, including through the strengthening of child protection systems, social work programmes, protection mechanisms such as safe shelters, mental health and psychosocial support services, empowerment and livelihood support, community sensitization, family reunification, access to justice and the sharing of best practices across borders;

Also calls upon States to develop and implement measures at all levels to end child, early and forced marriage, including national and subnational action plans where appropriate, and to make adequate resources, including financing, available across relevant sectors, including health, nutrition, sanitation, shelter, protection, governance and education;

Urges States to enact, enforce and uphold laws and policies aimed at preventing and ending child, early and forced marriage, protecting those at risk and addressing the needs of those affected, and work towards the coherence of these laws and policies at the local level, to ensure that marriage is entered into only with the informed, free and full consent of the intending spouses;

Calls upon States to enact, enforce and uphold laws concerning a minimum age of marriage, to monitor their application and to progressively amend laws with lower minimum ages of marriage and/or ages of majority to 18 and engage all relevant authorities to ensure that these laws are well known;

Urges States to repeal or amend laws and remove any provisions that enable perpetrators of rape, sexual exploitation and abuse or abduction to escape prosecution and punishment by marrying their victims and that may enable, justify, or lead to child, early and forced marriage, and to engage traditional and religious leaders, among others, to eliminate traditional practices that resolve sexual violence incidents through marriage;

Calls upon States to strengthen their efforts to ensure the timely registration of births and marriages, especially for individuals living in rural and remote areas, including by identifying and removing all physical, administrative, procedural and any other barriers that impede access to registration and by providing, where lacking, mechanisms for the registration of customary and religious marriages, as well as working to ensure that the registration of births and marriages remains accessible in emergencies or is re-established as quickly as possible when affected;

Also calls upon States to promote the full and meaningful participation of and active consultation with children and adolescents, including those who are hardest to reach and already married girls, on all issues affecting them and to raise awareness about their rights, including the negative impact of child, early and forced marriage, through safe spaces, forums and support networks, including in digital spaces, that provide accessible information, life skills, inclusive and equitable quality education, and leadership skills training and opportunities, including catch-up and literacy education, and lifelong learning opportunities, remote learning opportunities and childcare, as needed, to be empowered, to express themselves, to participate meaningfully in all decisions that affect them and to become agents of change within their communities;

Further calls upon States to promote awareness-raising about the harmful effects of child, early and forced marriage on the individual and wider society and the benefits of ending this harmful practice, including through open dialogue with all stakeholders, including girls and boys, women and men, religious, traditional and community leaders, parents, legal guardians and other family members, to work with local communities to combat negative social norms and gender stereotypes that condone child, early and forced marriage, to empower parents and communities to abandon the practice and to empower all women and girls to make informed decisions about their lives;

Urges Governments, while addressing child, early and forced marriage, to confront family poverty and social exclusion through investing in family-oriented policies addressing the multidimensional aspects of poverty, focusing on education, health, employment, social security, livelihoods and social cohesion, paying special attention to gender-sensitive social protection measures, child allowances for parents and pension benefits for older persons and protecting, supporting and empowering children, including girls, in child-headed households;

Also urges Governments, with the collaboration of relevant stakeholders, to tackle poverty, including the feminization of poverty, lack of economic opportunities for women throughout their life course and other entrenched economic incentives that act as drivers of child, early and forced marriage, including by ensuring the rights of all women and girls to inheritance and property, without discrimination of any kind, including in relation to marital status, their equal access with men and boys to social protection, childcare services and direct financial services, to support the right of girls to receive and continue their education, including through their continued enrolment in school during pregnancy and re-enrolment in school after childbirth, to develop livelihood opportunities through access to inclusive and equitable quality education, including technical and vocational education, and training and life skills education, including entrepreneurship and financial and digital literacy, and to promote freedom of movement, women’s equal access to full and productive employment and decent work, including waged and salaried work, as well as equal political participation and rights to inherit and own land;

Urges Member States to ensure access to services and education for women who were married in childhood and for girls who are married, are pregnant or are mothers;

Encourages States to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of already married girls and women affected by this harmful practice, to promote equality in all aspects of marriage and its dissolution and to address their specific needs, such as through targeted and tailored programmes, including social work programmes, that provide social services to protect them from sexual and gender-based violence, increase their decision-making power, make it easier for them to seek formal employment, increase their economic independence and financial literacy, access quality education, skills development programmes and lifelong learning opportunities, ensure their equal access to health-care services and information and decrease their social isolation, including by establishing or strengthening childcare services and working with communities to change discriminatory social norms;

Calls upon States to promote and protect the right of women and girls to equal access to education through enhanced emphasis on free and quality primary and secondary education, including catch-up and literacy education for those who have not received formal education, have left school early or were forced to leave school, including because of marriage, pregnancy, childbirth and/or childcare responsibilities, which empowers young women and girls to make informed decisions about their lives, employment, economic opportunities and health, including through scientifically accurate and age-appropriate comprehensive education that is relevant to cultural contexts, that provides adolescent girls and boys and young women and men, in and out of school, consistent with their evolving capacities, and with appropriate direction and guidance from parents and legal guardians, with the best interests of the child as their basic concern, information on sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention, gender equality and the empowerment of women, human rights, physical, psychological and pubertal development and power in relationships between women and men, to enable them to build self-esteem and foster informed decision-making, communication and risk reduction skills and to develop respectful relationships, in full partnership with young persons, parents, legal guardians, caregivers, educators and health-care providers, in order to contribute to ending child, early and forced marriage;

Encourages States to mitigate the impact of past and present school closures, particularly for those learners who are among the poorest and in vulnerable situations, especially girls, and to continue to strengthen the protection of schools, making them free from all forms of violence, bearing in mind that special measures to ensure equal access contribute to achieving equal opportunity and combating exclusion by eliminating social, economic and gender disparities in education and ensuring school attendance, in particular for girls, children with disabilities, pregnant adolescent girls, children living in poverty, Indigenous children, children of African descent, children living with HIV/AIDS, persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, migrant children, children living in rural or remote areas and children in vulnerable situations;

Calls upon States to pursue efforts and ensure greater connectivity to bridge the digital divides in access to the Internet, both between and within countries, and the gender digital divide in school and learning opportunities, with greater accessibility for the most affected girls and women, such as those who live in rural and remote areas or refugee camps or those who come from lower-income households and girls with disabilities, and address all forms of violence and discrimination against all women and girls in digital contexts;

Calls upon Member States, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and other health-related global challenges, building on previous experience, to ensure that school closures are a last resort and are proportionate to wider public health restrictions and that girls are protected and supported in returning to school once it is deemed safe to do so, and in this regard calls upon Member States and other relevant stakeholders to take the appropriate measures in order to ensure proper training of teachers and other educational professionals and the availability of and access to learning materials and remote learning platforms during the pandemic, and to bridge the digital divide, including barriers such as poor access to connectivity, lack of affordability of connection and devices, digital illiteracy, limited digital skills, absence of locally relevant digital content, and gender stereotypes and negative social norms, in order to provide distance learning opportunities, inter alia, Internet, television and radio teaching alternatives, especially in developing countries;

Encourages States to adopt, as appropriate, and implement inclusive policies and programmes to promote technical and vocational training and skills development and lifelong learning opportunities, including in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and in information and communications technology, as well as higher educational opportunities for women and girls, including those at risk of or affected by child, early and forced marriage, so as to enable them to gain the knowledge, attitudes and skills that they need to fulfil their full potential;

Urges States to address the root causes of gender inequality, including gender stereotypes and negative social norms, attitudes and behaviours, the socioeconomic drivers of violence and unequal power relations in which women and girls are viewed as subordinate to men and boys, which perpetuate child, early and forced marriage, by developing and implementing, inter alia, robust and comprehensive interventions addressing the gender inequality and social norms that underlie the practice and awareness-raising programmes that provide accurate information about the negative impact of child, early and forced marriage on women and girls and society at large, including through social media, the Internet and community communication and dissemination tools;

Urges Governments to promote, respect and protect the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health through the development and enforcement of policies and legal frameworks and the strengthening of health systems, including health information systems, that make universally accessible and available quality, gender-responsive, adolescent-friendly health services, sexual and reproductive health-care services, information and commodities, HIV and AIDS prevention, testing, treatment and care, mental health services and nutrition interventions and prevention, treatment of and care for obstetric fistula and other obstetric complications by providing the continuum of services, including family planning, prenatal and postnatal care, skilled birth attendance, emergency obstetric care and post-partum care;

Also urges Governments to promote and protect the human rights of all women and girls, including the right of women, and those girls who have been subjected to child, early and forced marriage, to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence, and to adopt and accelerate the implementation of laws, policies and programmes that protect and enable the enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including reproductive rights, in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences;

Urges States to formulate or review, as needed, appropriate policies, programmes or strategies in order to prevent and eliminate child, early and forced marriage, and address multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence, including domestic violence, which may occur against women and girls subjected to child, early and forced marriage, as well as strengthen child protection systems and social work programmes through gender-responsive and age-sensitive policies and provide targets and timetables for implementation, while paying special attention to girls with disabilities, Indigenous girls and girls in vulnerable situations, including girls facing social and economic exclusion, and those living in rural and remote areas;

Also urges States to uphold the human rights of all women and girls with disabilities, and recognizes that disability can increase the risk of child, early and forced marriage, and the importance of ensuring that services and programmes designed to prevent and eliminate child, early and forced marriage are inclusive of, accessible to and proactively engage with women and girls with disabilities;

Further urges States to ensure access to justice and accountability mechanisms and remedies for the effective implementation and enforcement of laws aimed at preventing and eliminating child, early and forced marriage, including by working towards the elimination of loopholes in customary laws, where they exist, and by informing women, girls and boys about their rights under relevant laws, including in marriage and at its dissolution, improving legal infrastructure, removing all barriers to access to legal counselling, assistance and remedies, training law enforcement officers, the judiciary and professionals working with women and children and ensuring oversight of the handling of cases of child, early and forced marriage;

Calls upon States, with the collaboration of relevant stakeholders, to ensure that COVID-19 response measures and future emergency response and recovery plans are comprehensive, participatory, age- and gender-sensitive and adequately funded, promote inclusive, gender-equal and sustainable economies and societies, and eliminate inequality and exclusion and poverty, which are among the root causes of child, early and forced marriage;

Also calls upon States to mitigate the impact of emergencies and improve on response measures by strengthening the capacity of civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders working at the local and national levels, which are often best placed to reach communities, to continue their essential work with girls, families and local communities to prevent and respond to child, early and forced marriage, particularly those working with communities in vulnerable situations;

Further calls upon States to monitor the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the prevalence of child, early and forced marriage in relation to changes in gender roles, including in domestic work, non-return to school, hindered access to services, rates of early, frequent and unintended pregnancy and the economic situation of families;

Calls upon States to recognize, reduce and redistribute women’s and girls’ disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, including by making efforts to change gender roles in domestic work and care responsibilities, and tackle the feminization of poverty, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to address all forms of discrimination and gender inequality, including gender stereotypes and negative social norms, attitudes and behaviours and unequal power relations in which women and girls are viewed as subordinate to men and boys, that are at the root of these imbalances;

Also calls upon States to develop and implement, in consultation with and with the full, effective, equal and meaningful participation of women and, as appropriate, girls, and integrate into humanitarian responses, from the early stages of humanitarian emergencies, measures to address the increased vulnerability of women and girls, particularly adolescent girls, to child, early and forced marriage, and to protect women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence and exploitation during humanitarian emergencies, situations of forced displacement, armed conflict, natural disasters and public health emergencies, including by ensuring their access to such services as health, education and child protection, as well as strengthening follow-up and interventions to prevent and eliminate child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian settings, as well as to address the needs of those affected and to ensure that the provision of essential services during emergencies respects the rights of girls and women and is addressed in national response plans, including life skills education, gender-sensitive mental health and psychosocial support services, as well as health and information services, including sexual and reproductive health-care services;

Urges States to recognize and promote awareness of the disproportionate and distinct effects of climate change, environmental degradation and disasters on women and girls, in particular those with disabilities and those facing violence, discrimination and displacement, harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, and insecurity of land tenure, income and food, and ensure that policies and programmes reflect these impacts, and take targeted action to strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacities of all women and girls, including in cities and tropical, arctic, coastal, mountainous, rural and remote areas;

Calls upon States to take a comprehensive, rights-based, age- and gender-responsive, survivor-centred and multisectoral approach that takes into account linkages with other harmful practices in the prevention of and response to child, early and forced marriage in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and other multidimensional challenges such as humanitarian situations, climate change and natural disasters, and to pay particular attention to the specific needs of all women and girls, in particular those in vulnerable situations and those experiencing various forms of violence, discrimination, stigmatization, exclusion and inequalities, including in humanitarian situations, in terms of, inter alia, access to essential services such as safe spaces and shelters, access to social work services and family reunification, as well as access to other social protection services, health-care services, safe and affordable drinking water and adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, including menstrual hygiene, as well as access to education, including early childhood education and lifelong learning, and to timely registration of births and marriages;

Also calls upon States to pay particular attention to the specific needs of children, especially adolescent girls, who are more likely to be subjected to child, early and forced marriage, in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic at all levels, and promoting their effective and meaningful participation in decisions that affect them, by prioritizing the provision of child- and adolescent-centred services, with a focus on equitable access, particularly in relation to schooling, nutrition programmes, immunization, maternal and newborn care, and child protection programmes;

Further calls upon States to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families and communities by, inter alia, expanding programmes that protect them against economic shocks, including poverty eradication measures, labour policies, public services and gender-responsive social protection programmes;

Calls upon States to ensure uninterrupted access to and funding for essential health-care services, including sexual and reproductive health-care services, and to safe and affordable drinking water and adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, including menstrual hygiene, and including in disadvantaged areas such as rural communities, informal settlements and humanitarian settings;

Encourages relevant United Nations entities and agencies, regional and subregional organizations, within their respective mandates, civil society and other relevant actors and human rights mechanisms to continue to collaborate among themselves and with Member States in developing and implementing strategies and policies at the national, regional and international levels to prevent and eliminate child, early and forced marriage, as well as to support those who were married as children;

Encourages relevant United Nations entities and agencies, regional and subregional organizations, the international financial institutions, civil society and other relevant actors and human rights mechanisms to continue to collaborate with Member States and national statistical agencies in order to assist in strengthening and building capacity for data and reporting systems for analysing, monitoring and publicly reporting on progress to end child, early and forced marriage based on evidence and addressing data gaps, where they may exist, especially on girls with disabilities;

Encourages the international community to fulfil its commitment in supporting developing countries, particularly African countries, least developed countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, in strengthening the capacity of national statistical offices and data systems to ensure access to high-quality, timely, reliable and disaggregated data while ensuring national ownership in supporting and tracking progress, including in the context of child, early and forced marriage;

Encourages Governments to include information on progress towards eliminating child, early and forced marriage, including best practices and implementation efforts, in their national reports to relevant international treaty bodies and the universal periodic review and within the national voluntary reviews conducted through the high-level political forum on sustainable development;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit a comprehensive report to the General Assembly, based on evidence, before the end of its seventy-eighth session, on progress towards ending child, early and forced marriage worldwide as well as best practices for programmes aimed at ending the practice and supporting already married girls and women affected by this practice, including girls’ and women’s empowerment programmes, gaps in funding, research and data collection, using information provided by Member States, United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes, civil society and other relevant stakeholders;