Child Marriage

United States senators this month reintroduced legislation aimed at curbing child marriage worldwide, a move that comes two months after the same bill was blocked in the House of Representatives during the last Congressional session.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) once again is leading the effort to champion the “International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act.” The bill is cosponsored by Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.).

The legislation contains the same provisions that unanimously passed the Senate in 2010. In part, it would require President Obama to create a strategy to reduce child marriage; authorize his administration to integrate child marriage prevention activities into existing development programs, and require the U.S. State Department to report on the issue in its annual report on human rights.

ICRW has advocated for the passage of the child marriage prevention bill since 2006.

“We’ll continue to work with members of Congress -- including those who led the effort to defeat last year’s bill -- to help them understand the importance of addressing child marriage in U.S. foreign assistance programs,” said Dan Martin, ICRW’s senior advocacy specialist.

In a tight budget environment, Martin stressed that addressing child marriage would improve outcomes for existing foreign assistance priorities. Child marriage contributes to higher rates of maternal mortality, infant mortality, HIV infection and domestic violence as well as stymies efforts to educate girls, all of which undermine the intent of many development programs. 

“This bill will help our foreign aid dollars go farther," Martin said. "I have faith that we can find common ground – this issue is too important, and it is good policy."

With concerns about a mounting budget deficit and anticipated cuts to investments in foreign affairs, legislation aimed at international development issues will likely face challenges in the 112^th session of the United States Congress that starts today. This includes efforts geared toward bettering the lives of marginalized women and girls worldwide.

Although the Obama administration has committed to empower women and girls as part of an overall push to improve development programs, officials over the next two years will need to secure stronger Congressional support – through legislation and funding – to turn pledges into programs.

“Investing in women and girls as part of an overall strategy to improve the efficiency of foreign assistance could form the foundation of compromise both within and between Congress and the administration,” said Dan Martin, senior advocacy specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). “Reducing poverty and defending human rights are not partisan issues. We hope Congress can find common ground in these efforts.”

The political landscape transformed on Nov. 2, when Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives with a net gain of 63 seats, and Democrats retained a slim majority in the Senate. While committee leadership in the Senate remains unchanged, House leadership of key foreign affairs committees shifted dramatically.

Meanwhile, the economic crisis of 2008 continues to affect the federal budget, putting foreign assistance accounts at risk for reductions. Senior members of Congress, including incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said they intend to cut funding from the U.S. Department of State and the Agency for International Development (USAID), the two agencies primarily responsible for conducting global development programs.

According to the State Department, foreign aid represents 1 percent of the federal budget. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has prioritized women and girls as part of her larger efforts to improve the effectiveness of U.S. development dollars, saying “investing in the potential of the world’s women and girls is one of the surest ways to achieve global economic progress, political stability and greater prosperity.”

Indeed, leaders from the legislative and executive branches of the government are recognizing that women and girls are integral to activities abroad. But Congress took few concrete legislative actions in 2010 to back up that notion: Legislation aimed at preventing child marriage failed to pass into law. So did a bill meant to help reduce violence against women worldwide. Meanwhile, Congressional action in late December to fund the federal government through March 2011 meant that foreign assistance funding would see no increases in the near future.

In the midst of anticipated challenges ahead, ICRW experts will continue to educate members of Congress and key administration officials about specific actions that can be taken to improve gender equality and fight poverty worldwide. To that end, ICRW will work on the following issues in the 112^th Congress:

Prevention of Child Marriage

Child marriage, most common in poor, rural communities, has devastating consequences for young girls around the world and, as ICRW research has shown, further perpetuates the cycle of poverty. By helping girls to stay in school longer and preventing health risks associated with early childbearing, combating child marriage could increase the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance dollars – and give millions of girls a better chance to live full, healthy lives.

Senators on Dec. 1 unanimously approved the “International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act,” legislation aimed at curbing this harmful traditional practice. However, despite significant bipartisan support, it failed in the House to pass into law.

“We made great progress over the last two years, and ICRW fully intends to use that momentum to bring this issue forward again in 2011,” said ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou. “We need to work with key stakeholders, including those that led the effort to defeat the bill last year, to find the nexus between good policy and good politics.”

Integrating Women into International Agricultural Development Programs

President Obama’s Feed the Future Initiative to increase U.S. investment in agricultural development, particularly through small-scale farmers, strives to help reduce hunger and poverty worldwide. Through this initiative, the administration commits to boosting productivity and incomes by ensuring that women and men farmers have equal access to resources.

Congressional leaders in 2010 provided much-needed funding for international agricultural development. However, in the current budget climate, future funding for these programs will likely face scrutiny.

“The Obama administration must do a better job of communicating to Congress what Feed the Future is, how it serves American interests, and why the requested funding levels are necessary,” said David Kauck, ICRW’s senior gender and agricultural specialist. “Consistent U.S. investment in international agricultural development will enable farmers to increase their income, reduce hunger and malnutrition and contribute to overall economic growth.”

Violence against Women

Nearly one in three women around the world will face violence in her lifetime, and certain regions of the world have even higher rates. The U.S. continues to fund programs to address gender-based violence globally, even increasing investment in some areas, such as to further explore the link between HIV and violence. The “International Violence Against Women Act” (IVAWA) was first introduced in 2008 and reintroduced in 2010 to foster a more comprehensive, coordinated approach that supporters of the legislation, including ICRW, believed would be more effective and fiscally responsible. 

The bill received unprecedented attention as the subject of multiple Congressional hearings and debates. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed IVAWA on Dec. 14, however the Congressional calendar did not allow time for a full Senate vote on the legislation.

ICRW experts say IVAWA provides the U.S. an opportunity to become a worldwide leader in a comprehensive approach to reducing violence against women. “Reducing violence against women will have a double dividend,” said Mary Ellsberg, ICRW’s vice president of research and programs and an expert on in issues related to gender-based violence. “It will help end a gross human rights violation, and give women more opportunities to realize their full educational, economic and social potential, which will ultimately lead to more stable and prosperous societies.”

Foreign Assistance Reform

The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 is the governing document of most U.S. international assistance. However, in the context of today’s development issues, many deem the act to be outdated.

Several attempts by legislators to modernize U.S. foreign assistance in 2010 were met with limited success. The Obama administration, however, is moving forward on two fronts to keep pace with the changing times, especially as it relates to further integrating women into foreign assistance programs:

The first one is through President Obama's “Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development", which was released last year and further clarified his commitment to empowering women and girls as well as integrating gender throughout all development programs. “We’re investing in the health, education and rights of women…” Obama said during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in September 2010, “because when mothers and daughters have access to opportunities, economies grow and governance improves.”

Second, the State Department last month released the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), which pledges to “integrate gender issues into policies and practices at the State Department and USAID.” The QDDR will serve as a blueprint of reforms to be implemented at State and USAID, starting in January 2011, to make foreign assistance more effective.

“In order to make these executive-level commitments permanent, Congress needs to pass legislation to reform the Foreign Assistance Act,” Martin said. “And to do that, administration officials will have to reach out to counterparts on the Hill to find common ground.”

Roxanne Stachowski is ICRW's external relations associate.

My older brother is a huge Chicago Cubs fan, and his mantra, along with many Cubs fans is, “Wait ‘till next year,” usually spoken in mid-August when the Cubs are officially out of playoff contention. It just so happens that Cubs fans have been waiting for more than a century for a World Series championship.

The U.S. House of Representatives sent the same message to child brides on Dec. 16, when it voted against the "International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act (S 987)." I watched on C-SPAN as member after member rejected legislation that would recognize child marriage as a human rights violation and integrate child marriage prevention activities into pre-existing development programs. The bill – bipartisan enough to garner unanimous support to pass the Senate – needed two-thirds of the House to vote yea. It failed by 31 votes.

This child marriage prevention bill offered the most comprehensive response from the U.S. government to this serious global issue. And we blew it. Once again, politics and partisanship got in the way of good policy. Twelve courageous Republicans bucked party leadership and voted for the measure, and deserve sincere thanks and praise. On the other side of the aisle, nine Democrats voted against the measure for reasons beyond my understanding.

If a bill as straightforward as this cannot pass, what does that signal for legislation dealing with women and girls in the coming years?

I have to wonder, too, if this bill failed because the image of little girls being forced to marry is too far from legislators’ daily routine on Capitol Hill. It’s not happening in their back yards, so why care? Besides, girls impacted by this legislation can’t vote in the next election. But every day around the world, an estimated 25,000 girls, some as young as 8, are forced to marry, pushed to care for a husband and pressured into sexual relationships and childbirth before their bodies are developed. All of this, instead of feeding their minds at school and playing outside with their friends.

On the House floor, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) outlined the reasons for rejecting the legislation that would have helped millions of child brides. He said he supported efforts to stop child marriage and that he has seen girls forced to wed in other countries. Concern over the problem “is not a partisan issue,” he said. However, Burton added that he and many of his colleagues were worried about the possible cost of implementing the Senate-passed bill, which could be up to $67 million over the next five years. “I don’t want anyone to think that we’re not sympathetic to (child marriage),” Burton said. “We are. But our fiscal problems are of paramount concern to all of us.”

I don’t buy that argument. Yes, the nation’s fiscal issues must be taken into account. But the analysis that the bill would add to the deficit is based on an erroneous reading of the legislation. The bill doesn’t authorize one additional cent in appropriations; rather, funding would come from existing appropriations.  In fact, an entire section of the bill, titled, “Authorization for Appropriations,” was stripped out of the bill before it passed the Senate.

ICRW has been a leader in both research and advocacy around the issue of child marriage for almost a decade. Needless to say, the House vote dealt a serious blow to us and our colleagues who are working to prevent child marriage. But heavy on my mind today are those child brides beginning or ending their days in places like Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Nicaragua.

Congress may be able to “wait ‘till next year,” but millions of girls around the world don’t have that option.

Dan Martin is ICRW’s senior advocacy specialist.

Despite unanimous approval by the United States Senate, the House of Representatives on Dec. 16 blocked the "International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act" in a 241-166 vote. To pass, the bill needed to be endorsed by two-thirds of those present; it fell short by 31 votes.

“We came so far – and so close,” said Sarah Degnan Kambou, president of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). “We will continue to educate members of Congress about the causes and consequences of child marriage, work with them to identify solutions and re-double our efforts to pass the bill next year."

Approved by the Senate on Dec. 1, the bill would have required the U.S. State Department to address child marriage in its annual human rights report. It also would have authorized the government to integrate prevention efforts into existing development programs.

However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would cost approximately $67 million over five years to implement. 

“Despite the outcome, the bill garnered the support of 113 co-sponsors,” Kambou said, “and we believe many congressional members continue to care deeply about the issue of child marriage.” Among them were Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) and Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), who championed the effort in the House. "ICRW thanks them for their leadership," Kambou said.

A decade of ICRW research shows that child marriage results in a myriad of problems for girls and young women, such as a higher risk of domestic violence, HIV infection and maternal mortality. But research also shows that well-executed programs can increase the age of marriage for girls – throughout entire communities – in a relatively short period of time.

“We will continue to identify solutions to the issue of child marriage – including those that are best carried out by the U.S. government,” Kambou said.

The U.S. Senate on Dec. 1 unanimously passed the "International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act," marking the first time either chamber of Congress has endorsed legislation related to the issue of child marriage. The bill now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.

The legislation aims to bolster the U.S. government’s role in curbing the harmful practice that forces girls, sometimes as young as 8, to marry. It also would require the U.S. State Department to report on child marriage in its annual human rights report and authorize the government to integrate prevention efforts into existing development programs.

“ICRW applauds Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) for shepherding this important legislation through the Senate,” said Dan Martin, ICRW’s senior policy advocate.  “Our attention now turns to the House of Representatives, encouraging them to follow suit.”

Martin added that ICRW is counting on Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the bill’s lead sponsor in the House, for her continued support.

In order to become law, the child marriage bill must pass both the Senate and House in the same congressional session, and then be signed by President Obama. The current session is scheduled to end in early December. If the House does not act before Congress adjourns, the legislative process must start anew in January. 

“ICRW strongly urges the House to act with all due haste to pass this bill,” Martin said.  “It would be a shame to see this nonpartisan legislation -- which has the potential to improve the lives of millions of girls – come to a halt.”

ICRW is among several organizations advocating for the child marriage prevention bill, including CARE and the International Women’s Health Coalition, among others. Those interested in contacting Congress about the issue, may click here to send an email to your representative.