As a result of decades of civil war, many adults and children in South Sudan did not go to school. Government statistics for 2011 show that only 39 percent of primary school students and 30 percent of secondary students are female. Credit: John Robinson/IPS

By Agnes Odhiambo
NAIROBI, Oct 10 2013 (IPS)

Mary K. loved to study and wanted to be an accountant. However, when she was 16 and in class six (grade eight), her father forced her to leave school to marry a 50-year-old man who paid him 60 cows.

Mary pleaded with her father to keep her in school. But her father was adamant. “He said it is a waste of money to educate a girl and that girls are born so that people can eat,” Mary told me in 2012, when I visited South Sudan to interview girls and women about child and forced marriages. “He said marriage, not education, will bring me respect in the community.”

Recently, I attended the African regional conference of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Beyond 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting was held to review progress, gaps and challenges to carrying out the 20-year action plan for human rights development from the landmark ICPD conference in 1994. At that original conference, 179 governments made a commitment to deliver human rights-based development.

It was encouraging to hear delegates from South Sudan’s government talk about the importance of promoting girls’ access to education in the post-2015 development agenda, and their government’s commitment to ensuring that all girls in South Sudan go to school. Indeed President Salva Kiir has reiterated this message time and again.  A lost opportunity for education not only hurts the girls forced into early marriage, but has far-reaching and long-lasting repercussions for their children and communities.

To its credit, the government of South Sudan has identified education as a priority in its development plan. It has taken various policy and programmatic steps since it gained autonomy from Sudan in 2005 and independence in 2011 to increase school enrolment, including advancing the rights of girls to education. The 2008 Child Act and Transitional Constitution provide for the right to free and compulsory primary education. The Child Act also explicitly states that no girl can be expelled from school due to pregnancy and that young mothers must be allowed to continue their education.

South Sudan has an Alternative Education System that offers people who have not had access to formal education, including pregnant girls and mothers, the opportunity to go to school. In 2011, close to 70,000 girls and women went to school under this programme.

Despite these efforts, providing quality education in South Sudan is not an easy task. Government statistics for 2011 show that only 39 percent of primary school students and 30 percent of secondary students are female. The new country faces substantial development and humanitarian challenges, and education is no exception. As a result of decades of civil war, many adults and children in South Sudan did not go to school. Internal insecurity and conflict continue to disrupt education. School infrastructure is underdeveloped, and the country has few trained teachers.

For girls like Mary, these challenges are often compounded by child marriage. According to government statistics, close to half – 48 percent – of South Sudanese girls ages 15 to 19 are married, with some marrying as young as 12. Many girls in South Sudan do not attend school at all or don’t complete their education as they are married off by their families for a number of reasons – including receiving cows, money and other gifts.

Many of the girls and women I interviewed told me their dreams of continuing school to become accountants, teachers, or doctors were cut short when they married. Despite the government’s initiatives, most of those who had been in school left after three to five years of primary education — when they were hardly literate. Those who dropped out told me they found it difficult to continue after marriage because of financial constraints, domestic chores, childbear­ing and social norms that view marriage and schooling as conflicting.

As South Sudan celebrates the second International Day of the Girl Child –  whose theme is “innovating for girls’ education” – with the rest of the world tomorrow, it should recognise that strengthening girls’ access to education requires positive steps to curb child marriage. This should include enforcing the existing laws on child marriage, and developing and carrying out comprehensive programmes that address the root causes of child marriage. South Sudan needs a national action plan on child marriage to ensure a coordinated and effective response.

A lost opportunity for education not only hurts the girls forced into early marriage, but has far-reaching and long-lasting repercussions for their children and communities.

When I interviewed Mary in 2012 she was 24 years old, had three children and was struggling to meet their basic needs. Neither she nor her husband had any source of income. Her eldest son who was seven and her five-year-old daughter had not started school because, Mary said, she did not have money to get them to school.

I asked Mary what she thought about her father’s comments that marriage, not education, was important for her. She told me: “Now I have grown up and I know that this is not true. I cannot get work to support my children and I see girls who have some education can get jobs. Education is important for women.”

If South Sudan is to realise its vision of education for all, as well as economic development, it should listen to Mary’s words.

* Agnes Odhiambo is the Africa researcher for women’s rights at Human Rights Watch

"Sweet 16" marriages are a cause of controversy in Malawi. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11 2012 (IPS)

The United Nations has launched a global campaign to abolish an anachronistic social practice still prevalent in some communities around the world: child marriages.

“International conventions declare that child marriage is a violation of human rights because it denies girls the right to decide when and with whom to marry,” says a new report released Thursday by the U.N.Population Fund (UNFPA).

The launch also marked the first International Day of the Girl Child – Oct. 11 – as designated by the 193-member General Assembly last year in order “to recognize girls’ rights and highlight the unique challenges girls face around the world”.

Over 67 million women, 20 to 24 years old in 2010, had been married as girls. Half were in Asia, one-fifth in Africa, the study said. And in the next decade, 14.2 million girls under 18 will be married every year.

If present trends continue, this will rise to an average of 15.1 million girls a year, starting in 2021 until 2030, according to the study titled “Marrying too Young: End Child Marriage”.

UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, who is highly critical of the practice, says he is determined to help abolish child marriages worldwide.

“No social, cultural or religious rationale for child marriage can possibly justify the damage these marriages do to young girls and their potential,” he said. “A girl should have the right to choose whom she marries and when. Since many parents and communities also want the very best for their daughters, we must work together to end child marriage”.

“It is the only course by which we can avert what otherwise is the human tragedy of child marriage,” he said.

Dr. Osotimehin also said that child marriage is an appalling violation of human rights and robs girls of their education, health and long-term prospects.

“Marriage for girls can lead to complications of pregnancy and childbirth – the main causes of death among 15-19-year-old girls in developing countries,” he added.

Dr. Osotimehin also expressed concern over the 14-year-old Pakistani school girl who was shot Wednesday for being an education rights campaigner in her home country.
The campaign to abolish child marriages has strong support from several U.N. agencies, including UN Women, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, and international human rights organisations such as Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage and Human Rights Watch.

Michelle Bachelet, executive director of UN Women, told IPS that UN Women welcomes the UNFPA report on child marriage.

“The report should be a wake-up call to all of us that we need to take strong action to end child marriage,” she said.

She said no girl should be robbed of her childhood, her education and health, and her aspirations.

“Yet today more than 14 million girls are denied their rights each year when they are married as child brides. UN Women calls on all governments and all people to stop child marriage and protect the rights of girls,” said Bachelet.

Anju Malhotra, of the Gender and Rights Section at UNICEF, said the International Day of the Girl Child readily reflects the need to put girls’ rights at the centre of development.

“The U.N. and partners are coming together to show the incredible progress made and to highlight the ongoing challenges,” she said.

In a statement released Thursday, UNICEF said in India, one of the countries in the world with the largest number of girls being married before their 18th birthday, child marriage has declined nationally and in nearly all states from 54 percent in 1992-1993 to 43 percent in 2007-2008, but the pace of change is slow.

Experiences in contexts as diverse as Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Ethiopia, India, Niger, Senegal and Somalia show how combining legal measures with support to communities, providing viable alternatives – especially schooling – and enabling communities to discuss and reach the explicit, collective decision to end child marriage yield positive results, UNICEF said.

In a report released Thursday, Human Rights Watch said it has documented human rights violations against married girls and boys in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iraq, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, South Sudan, and Yemen.

The testimonies of the children interviewed illustrate the profoundly detrimental impact of child marriage on their physical and mental well-being, education, and children’s ability to live free of violence.

The consequences of child marriage do not end when child brides reach adulthood, but often follow them throughout their lives as they struggle with the health effects of getting pregnant too young and too often, their lack of education and economic independence, domestic violence, and marital rape.

Asked it was fair – or unfair – to say that most child marriages take place in Muslim countries, Liesl Gerntholtz, director of the women’s right’s division at Human Rights Watch, told IPS, “It is very unfair to say this, as child marriage happens in many different communities, including Christian ones.”

To give a few examples, she said, in Burkino Faso, 48 percent of girls now between the ages of 20 and 24 were married before they reached 18; in Cameroon, the figure is 36 percent; in the Central African Republic it is 61 percent; and in the Democratic Republic of Congo is 39 percent.

“These are UNICEF figures, so they are as reliable as it is possible for them to be,” she said.

Meanwhile, the UNFPA announced it will invest an additional 20 million dollars over the next five years to reach “the most marginalized adolescent girls in 12 countries with high rates of child marriage”. The countries include Guatemala, India, Niger and Zambia.

“This investment will allow UNFPA to deliver more systematic and integrated programmes at scale to support married and unmarried girls aged 10-18 years that are at risk of dropping out of school, child marriage, and adolescent pregnancy,” said Dr. Osotimehin, UNFPA’s executive director.

The New York-based Ford Foundation also pitched in with a 25-million-dollar commitment to help end child marriages worldwide.