No Child Left a Bride: Successes & Setbacks in the Global Effort to End Child Marriage (CSW69 Side Event).

Child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child.Child marriage is a human rights violation. It refers to any formal marriage or informal union of a child under the age of 18 with an adult or with another child. Despite laws against it, the practice remains widespread. Globally, one in every five girls is formally married or in an informal union before reaching age 18. An estimated 640 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood; each year 12 million adolescent girls are married before the age of 18; every three seconds an adolescent girl gets married somewhere in the world.Child marriage threatens girls’ lives and health, and it limits their future prospects. Girls pressed into child marriage often become pregnant while still adolescents, increasing the risk of complications in pregnancy or childbirth – the leading cause of death among older adolescent girls. They are also more likely to experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence.

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