Over 51 million girls under 18 in the developing world are forced to marry, a practice widely viewed as a violation of their human rights. See the article and table of countries with the highest rate of child marraige. The International Center for Research on Women is launching a week of advocacy to raise awareness about forced marriage. Events include:
Stephanie Sinclair's (winner of the UNICEF Photo of the Year award in 2007) photo exhibit of child brides in Afghanistan in the foyer at Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.
Opening of the 2008 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, which will include on its agenda a report on the forced marriage of child brides by the secretary-general.
In th summer of 207, Rep. Betty McCollum, Democrat of Minnesota and member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations, introduced the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act. Sen. Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, soon followed with the International Child Marriage Prevention and Protection Act. The week long advocacy includes lobbying Congress to push for these bills.
Arguments have been made about the cultural sensitivity of such campaigns and legislation, but "a lot of what the legislation is about is not dictating and telling people what they have to do," argues Harper, McCollum's chief of staff. "It's taking model projects and model interventions, [such as the NGO Tostan] investing in them and allowing them to be expanded in more areas."
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