Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage welcomes this historic UN resolution. The resolution demonstrates the broad international consensus that urgent action is needed to end child marriage, a practice that hold back 15 million girls a year, or about 41,000 a day, denying them fundamental rights and undermining their future. If there is no reduction in child marriage, 1.2 billion girls will marry as children by 2050 – equivalent to the entire population of India.
“The resolution marks the first time that UN member states have agreed upon substantive recommendations for the steps that countries, international organisations and others must,
take to address the problem. It also situates child marriage firmly within the post-2015 development agenda, recognising the need for a target to end child, early and forced marriage to be included in the final framework.
“The passage of a UN resolution does not mean that we will end child marriage tomorrow, but resolutions are important in setting global norms. This is a firm statement from the international community that we have to act on child marriage if we’re to ensure equality and reduce global poverty.”
The UN Resolution on Child, Early and Forced Marriage was adopted on 21 November with the broad-based, cross-regional co-sponsorship of 116 countries. It was introduced and led by the Governments of Canada and Zambia.
