“International law is clear: No matter who you are, or where you live, your voice counts. On this Day, let us unite to defend your right to make it heard.”
Today is Human Rights Day. This year’s theme is my voice counts, highlighting that far too many groups and individuals face deeply entrenched discrimination that keeps them from exercising their rights. For the millions of already-married children—and for the millions of young girls and boys who live where child marriage is a socially acceptable practice—today (and every day) we aim to ensure that their voices and stories are heard.
Sixty-four years ago on December 10, 1948, the international community signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 16 in the Declaration states that marriage should be “entered only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.”
Child marriage violates the standard of full and free consent: the majority of child marriages occur under intense parental pressure and childhood dependency on adult decision-making leave girls vulnerable to collusion and coercion.
General Recommendation 21in the Convention on the Elimination on All Forms of Discrimination against Women is more explicit. It stipulates 18 years as the minimum age for marriage for males and females; the minimum age when young people attain “full maturity and capacity to act.” When girls marry as children, their rights to education, non-violence, and a life of health and equal opportunity are also violated.
It’s the international community’s responsibility to not only acknowledge children’s right to be heard, but to prioritize action in support of ending child marriage—a human rights violation and form of gender-based violence that the UN estimates will affect 14.2 million girls before the next Human Rights Day.
We should listen. And take action.