Home / Blog

Blog: Child Marriage

  • Posted by Winnie Byanyima on Friday, October 12, 2012
    Comments (1)
    Luck and Education
    Winnie Byanyima reflects on how education can make a difference in girls' lives

    Former ICRW board member Winnie Byanyima writes about how her mother, a school teacher in Uganda, used what little she had to create opportunities for her children. Today, Byanyima directs the gender team in the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

  • Posted by Sarah Degnan Kambou on Thursday, October 11, 2012
    It Begins with Girls
    ICRW celebrates new government and private sector investments in girls

    In celebration of the first International Day of the Girl, the U.S. government and major corporations made landmark commitments to girls around the world by investing in initiatives to prevent child marriage and to ensure that every girl has a chance to finish school.

  • Posted by Gillian Gaynair on Wednesday, October 10, 2012
    The Gatekeeper
    Why a middle-aged Ethiopian man believes child marriage must end

    It’s hard for me to forget Tesfaye Haile. A tall man with light brown eyes and a salt-and-pepper beard, he was perhaps the most animated person I met during my week in Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

  • Posted by Girls Not Brides on Friday, May 25, 2012
    U.S. Senate Passes Child Marriage Legislation
    Why does it matter?

    Yesterday, 24 May 2012, the United States Senate passed the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act (S.414). The bill was passed unanimously by voice vote, demonstrating strong bipartisan support for an end to child marriage, a practice that denies 10 million girls a year their rights to health, education and security.

  • Posted by Jeffrey Edmeades on Wednesday, April 25, 2012
    A Poignant Reminder
    A researcher is reminded that in the end, it’s about the people

    An ICRW researcher and young married girls in Ethiopia’s Amhara region compare life experiences.

  • Posted by Gillian Gaynair on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
    Comments (1)
    Eyes That Haunt
    Life as seen by an Ethiopian child bride

    She married at 15 and became a mother soon after. ICRW’s senior writer Gillian Gaynair reports from Ethiopia’s remote central highlands on life as seen through the eyes of a child bride.

  • Posted by Roxanne Stachowski and Ann Warner on Friday, November 4, 2011
    Leadership at All Levels
    Congresswoman reintroduces legislation to prevent child marriage

    U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.)  on Nov. 3 on Nov.oon Nov. 3 reintroduced the Child Marriage Violates the Human Rights of Girls Act of 2011. The legislation has been introduced - but not yet passed - in every session of Congress since 2006.

  • Posted by Jeff Edmeades on Monday, June 13, 2011
    Comments (1)
    Transformations
    Young Married Girls Work Toward a Different Future

    After so many visits here, I should no longer by surprised by how young the girls are, but I always am. The girls –  and so many of them really are just girls –  met with me to share their experiences with our project, which aims to improve the social, economic and health status of more than 5,000 recently-married girls in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. 

  • Posted by Roxanne Stachowski on Friday, April 8, 2011
    Comments (2)
    Report: Child Marriage is a Human Rights Violation

    Today, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released the State Department’s Annual Human Rights Report and for the second consecutive year, child marriage is recognized for what it is – a gross human rights violation. This detailed analysis describes the extent to which child marriage is a problem and what actions are being taken to prevent it in 20 countries with the highest prevalence rates.

  • Posted by Sarah Degnan Kambou on Tuesday, March 29, 2011
    Comments (2)
    Why I am Committed to Ending Child Marriage

    Iredjourèma was born in 1935 to a traditional healer in Burkina Faso. She was the third of ten children, and lost her mother when she was 12.

  • Posted by Robin Hayes on Tuesday, December 14, 2010
    Rare Friendships
    Child Brides Revel in Chance to Be Among Peers

    At first glance, each of the 14- to 19-year-old girls looked as if they had arrived by themselves. They gathered for an informal meeting on a hill in Debre Tabor, a town in north central Ethiopia. As I peered closer, however, I noticed that peeking from under the shawls of several of the girls were babies – some as young as three months old.

  • Posted by Ann Warner on Wednesday, November 17, 2010
    Legislation for Women’s Rights
    New Laws Advance Rights, But Sustainable Change Takes Time

    During a recent meeting in Ethiopia with lawyers and advocates working for women’s rights in East Africa, my colleagues and I were inspired to see how countries have made strides in advancing women’s empowerment and gender equality on a policy level.

  • Posted by Jeff Edmeades on Tuesday, October 19, 2010
    Quiet Determination
    A Child Bride Chooses Her Own Path

    She wanted to stay in school, but was forced to marry at 16. After just two days at her husband’s home, she ran away, back to her parents’ doorstep. They refused to take her in.