Child marriage, which steals the innocence of millions of girls worldwide and often condemns them to lives of poverty, ignorance and poor health, is one of the biggest obstacles to development, rights groups say.
A girl under the age of 18 is married every three seconds -- that's 10 million each year -- often without her consent and sometimes to a much older man, according to the children's charity Plan UK. Most of those marriages take place in Africa, the Middle East or South Asia.
"This is one of the biggest development issues of our time and we're committed to raising the voices of millions of girls married against their will," Plan UK head Marie Staunton said in her introduction to "Breaking Vows," a recent global report on child marriage. More...
Don't miss:
- Girls being sold in drought-hit Kenya to buy food...
- Too young to wed: the secret world of child brides...
- Girl in India refuses to marry, father and brother burn her alive...
- She's only 10, but she's already been married, raped, beaten and divorced!!
- Yemen's child brides, the Nujood Ali story...
- Yemen child bride 'bleeds to death'
- 80-year-old Saudi marries 14-year-old girl...
- 44% of India's brides are under-age...
- The 11-year-old Indian girl who said "No" to marriage...
- Poverty and baby brides: this is terribly sad.
No comments:
Post a Comment