UN Commission on the Status of Women: Ending Child, Early and Forced Marriage - What Works and How to Measure it
Salam Kanaan – CARE Country Director in Jordan
I am so proud to have stood with thousands of people from civil society organizations and governments from all corners of the world, as a member of the CARE International delegation at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York. This year, the CSW is a different one. It marks 20 years since Beijing. It also comes as world leaders are negotiating a new Post 2015 Development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals, as well as a new framework on climate change, and holding discussions concerning the World Humanitarian Summit.
Child, Early and Forced Marriage – How do we end it?
On Tuesday 10 March 2015, CARE co-hosted the high-level panel event “Ending Child, Early and Forced Marriage - What Works and How to Measure it” with the governments of Canada, Zambia, and Ethiopia as well as the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), and Plan International.
I had the pleasure of speaking on this panel alongside Sarah Hendriks, Global Gender Equality and Inclusion Advisor - Plan International, Ms. Geeta Rao Gupta - Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, Archana Diwivedi from the Indian NGO Nirantar, Françoise Girard, President, International Women's Health Coalition, and Hope, Girl Advocate, Kenya, Plan International. The session was moderated by the inspiring Princess Mabel van Oranje, CEO of Girls not Brides.
Child marriage ensnares about 10 million girls under the age of 18 every year. The practice is banned in 88% of countries, but nonetheless persists in many parts of the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Awareness of the problem has grown in recent years, as has knowledge about the best strategies to combat it. But the new challenge is to scale up the effort, as mentioned by UNCEF’s Geeta Rao Gupta.
1. Child marriage must be a target within the SDG framework.
One tool in the fight is to ensure that eradicating child marriage is confirmed as a target within the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), expected to be adopted by the U.N. in September. Currently, ending child marriage is listed as a target under the fifth goal, which calls for achieving gender equity and empowering women and girls.
2. We must address gendered constructions of ‘honor’, including in conflict
Conflict also contributes to child marriage. I provided an overview of the situation of early marriage in conflict situations, with a focus on the Syrian refugees in Jordan, and the drivers of early marriage among them. In Jordan, there are more than 630,000 registered refugees. At least 50% of them are under the age of 18. Early marriage is on the rise – from 11% in 2011, to 25% by the end of 2013. One reason families choose early marriage is to protect the girls. Parents see child marriage as a way to protect their daughters – and their family’s honor – from possible sexual assault and other kinds of hardship. This has been exacerbated by the conflict.
However, while child marriage is often arranged in order to ‘protect’ girls, this motivation is often intimately linked to traditional gender roles and inequalities, where a girl’s value is largely determined by her upholding family honor, producing children and remaining within the home.
3. Child marriage and unemployment go hand in hand
Lack of employment and livelihood opportunities for Syrians within Jordan is consistently reported as one of the main factors in early marriage. These issues place a huge strain on the ability of parents to provide for their families. Reducing the economic burden on families – by reducing the number of ‘mouths to feed’ in a household – has been identified as a motivating factor for families to seek marriages for daughters
4. Counter-productive incentives in refugee policies need to be addressed
In Jordan, we found that some Syrian girls were married before they left Syria because a man is more likely to be able to enter some neighboring countries if he is married or part of a family. Also, in Zaatari camp, if a man is married, then the chances of sponsorship to leave the camp are higher.
What is working in Jordan
Interventions by CARE Jordan are at two levels; prevention level including providing information, and ensuring that girls stay in schools. Response which includes prioritizing services to girls including case management, providing psychosocial support, and technical and vocational education. What is working is direct engagement with the refugees and host communities, establishing partnership at different levels, and working at a policy level to legally prevent child marriage. CARE’s approach is a multi-level holistic one which addresses the rights of young girls, and ensures that services are provided to them.
Conclusion
Hope, the articulate 15 year old girl, talked about the importance of community sensitization at different levels. Girls need education and life skills in order to grow and realize their potential. She also talked about the interventions by civil society organizations to raise awareness about this child marriage, and the importance of having enforceable laws to prevent parents from marrying off their children.
The critical factor in ending child marriage is political will. To tackle child marriage, we need to keep working at the political level to encourage that will. At the program level, we must work with the “whole girl” – taking into account the multiple realities of girls’ lives, and the ways they’re valued by their households, families and communities. By taking this approach in Jordan, we are addressing the deep root causes of child marriage and ensuring that our measurement and program interventions are holistic.
Every girl deserves the right to live up to her full potential. Child marriage robs girls of that right. In Jordan, we are working hard to protect it.