{"id":50857,"date":"2012-10-11T12:08:49","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T10:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cesie.org\/in-action\/european-cooperation\/international-day-of-the-girl-child\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T14:54:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:54:25","slug":"international-day-of-the-girl-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cesie.org\/en\/in-action\/european-cooperation\/international-day-of-the-girl-child\/","title":{"rendered":"International Day of the Girl Child"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My Life, My Right, End Child Marriage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today the International Community celebrates the International Day of the Girl Child<\/strong>. Through a Resolution  66\/170 adopted  on December 19, 2011 by the United Nations General Assembly October 11 has been declared as the International Day of the Girl Child with the main objective being \u201c the  recognition of  girls\u2019 rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world\u201d .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purely from a liberal and universal perspective there are some unalienable rights which cannot be infringed. One such is unequivocally the right of freedom and also of free choice. Accordingly,  child marriage appears to be a fundamental human rights violation as it has detrimental repercussions on all aspects of a girl\u2019s life.  The hypothetical root causes for such violation and the susceptibility levels are determined by such risk factors as gender discrimination, low value of girls, poverty, or religious and cultural justifications. The latter unequivocally suggests that governments can and should intervene in order to put to a halt such a detrimental phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Child marriage has many adverse implications on a girl\u2019s life. Firstly,  it denies a girl of her childhood, disrupts her education, limits her opportunities. In addition to this, child marriages substantially increase the girls\u2019 risk to be a victim of violence and abuse, jeopardizing her health. Even more horrendous consequences appear to be the life threatening risks of pregnancy related complications, the increased risks of violence, HIV infections, maternal death and disabilities. The latter unequivocally constitutes an obstacle to the achievement of nearly every Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and the development of healthy communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a purely statistical base worldwide 70 million or one in three young women aged 20-24 years were first married before the age of 18. The prima facie<\/em> fact is that from that figure one third which is approximately 23 million appears to have  entered into marriage before they turned 15. Globally, almost 400 million women aged 20-49, or over 40 per cent, were married while they were children. The latter unequivocally suggests that such tendency not only denies girls from their fundamental universal rights but also demonstrates that governments at local and international level should take certain action in order to break the vicious cycle of girls\u2019 exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The possible solution to the horrifying tendency could be achieved on individual , local, national and international levels. On individual level, mobilizing girls, boys, parents, leaders, and champions to change harmful social norms, promote girls\u2019 rights and create opportunities for them is a mechanism towards bringing awareness if not directly resulting in a reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a local level,  education appears to be a remedy for protecting girls and combating child marriage since girls with low levels of schooling are more likely to be married early, and child marriage has been shown to virtually end a girl\u2019s education. Conversely, girls with secondary schooling are up to six times less likely to marry as children, making education one of the best strategies. Furthermore,  implementing school reforms making attendance obligatory is uncertainly a means towards breaking this vicious cycle of violation of girls\u2019 human rights, a foundation for a better life and a prerequisite for more active participation in the progress of their respective nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a national and international  levels, governments should take urgent action to end the harmful practice of child marriage by enacting and enforcing appropriate legislation to increase the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18 and raise public awareness about child marriage as a violation of girls\u2019 human rights. Furthermore, governments in partnership with civil society actors and the international community are called upon to provide active support to girls who are already married by providing them with options for schooling, sexual and reproductive health services, livelihoods skills, opportunity, and recourse from violence in the home Thus the development and implementation of a national strategy on child marriage which aims to coordinate programmes and policies to address both the causes and the consequences of child marriage appears to be an indispensible prerequisite for combating this horrendous trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To sum up, only  through the means of  global commitments, civil society movements, effective legislation and individual initiatives girls can flourish in a safe and productive environment which would  in turn make them an active participants in the progress  of their respective nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more info follow the links<\/p>\n\n\n\n

un.org\/en\/events\/girlchild<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

unicef.org\/photography\/photo_essays_all.php<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

facebook.com\/UNFPA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Life, My Right, End Child Marriage Today the International Community celebrates the International Day of the Girl Child. Through a Resolution  66\/170 adopted  on December 19, 2011 by the United Nations General Assembly October 11 has been declared as the International Day of the Girl Child with the main objective being \u201c the  recognition of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":58776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26583],"tags":[],"unita":[],"class_list":["post-50857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-european-cooperation"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t