Comments on: Tiny Voices Defy Fate of Yemen’s Girls http://maryanncp.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/tiny-voices-defy-fate-of-yemans-girls/ Another world is possible. Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:18:29 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Tomas Eric Nordlander http://maryanncp.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/tiny-voices-defy-fate-of-yemans-girls/#comment-45 Tomas Eric Nordlander Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:47:38 +0000 http://maryanncp.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/tiny-voices-defy-fate-of-yemans-girls/#comment-45 Present time, child marriage is a curse in the global society. Child marriage is a violation of human rights. In most cases young girls get married off to significantly older men when they are still children. Child marriages must be viewed within a context of force and coercion, involving pressure and emotional blackmail, and children that lack the choice or capacity to give their full consent. Child marriage must therefore always be considered forced marriage because valid consent is absent - and often considered unnecessary. Child marriage is common practice in India, Niger, Bangladesh, Pakistan Guinea, Burkina Faso, Africa and Nepal,where mostly girls are married below the age of 18. Child marriage has its own worse effect on the young girls, society, her children and health. Young girls who get married will most likely be forced into having sexual intercourse with their, usually much older, husbands. This has severe negative health consequences as the girl is often not psychologically, physically and sexually mature. Child brides are likely to become pregnant at an early age and there is a strong correlation between the age of a mother and maternal mortality and morbidity. Girls aged 11-13 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women aged 20-24 and girls aged 15-19 are twice as likely to die. The above is an extract from Arun Kumar essay "Child Marriage as an Human Rights Issue". This essay was ranked among the top ten essay in Human Rights Defence's Essay competition 2008. If you would like to read more, visit: www.humanrightsdefence.org Yours sincerely, Tomas Eric Nordlander HumanRightsDefence Present time, child marriage is a curse in the global society. Child marriage is a violation of human rights. In most cases young girls get married off to significantly older men when they are still children. Child marriages must be viewed within a context of force and coercion, involving pressure and emotional blackmail, and children that lack the choice or capacity to give their full consent. Child marriage must therefore always be considered forced marriage because valid consent is absent – and often considered unnecessary. Child marriage is common practice in India, Niger, Bangladesh, Pakistan Guinea, Burkina Faso, Africa and Nepal,where mostly girls are married below the age of 18.
Child marriage has its own worse effect on the young girls, society, her children and health. Young girls who get married will most likely be forced into having sexual intercourse with their, usually much older, husbands. This has severe negative health consequences as the girl is often not psychologically, physically and sexually mature. Child brides are likely to become pregnant at an early age and there is a strong correlation between the age of a mother and maternal mortality and morbidity. Girls aged 11-13 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women aged 20-24 and girls aged 15-19 are
twice as likely to die.

The above is an extract from Arun Kumar essay “Child Marriage as an Human Rights Issue”. This essay was ranked among the top ten essay in Human Rights Defence’s Essay competition 2008. If you would like to read more, visit: http://www.humanrightsdefence.org

Yours sincerely,

Tomas Eric Nordlander
HumanRightsDefence

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