Girls’ education campaigners welcome ban on child marriage in Guatemala
Girls' education
Guatemala has raised the minimum age for marriage to 18 国产视频 but women国产视频檚 rights campaigners said enforcing the new law would be a challenge in a country where nearly one-third of girls are currently married by that age.
The law, approved by congress earlier this month by 87 votes to 15, raised the minimum marriage age from 14 for girls and 16 for boys but said 16-year-old girls would still be able to marry with a judge国产视频檚 permission under some circumstances.
Christa Stewart, of women国产视频檚 rights charity Equality Now, hailed the law as 国产视频渁 really important step in recognising the full potential of girls and reframing how girls should be treated in society.
国产视频淚t requires a cultural shift to fully implement the law, the training of judges and reaching remote rural areas.国产视频
Rights campaigners say achieving the cultural change the law envisages will be a particular challenge for Guatemala国产视频檚 Maya indigenous communities, who live in poor rural areas where child marriage is most common.
The United Nations children国产视频檚 agency UNICEF says 7% of Guatemalan girls are married by the age of 15 and 30% by 18. A quarter of Guatemalan births are to teenage mothers 国产视频 one of the highest rates in Latin America 国产视频 and campaigners hope the ban on child marriage will help prevent teenage pregnancy and stop girls dropping out of school.
国产视频淚f a girl is married, there is the presumption there will be child-bearing and they are more likely not to continue with their education,国产视频 Stewart said.
Most Latin American countries ban marriage until 18 and many of them allow children to get married at a younger age with the permission of parents or a judge.
Complications in pregnancy and childbirth are the second highest cause of death for 15- to 19-year-old girls globally and babies born to adolescent mothers face a 国产视频渟ubstantially higher risk国产视频 of dying than those born to women in their early 20s, according to the World Health Organization.
Child marriage, often to a much older man, deprives girls of education and opportunities, keeping them in poverty, and puts them at greater risk of domestic and sexual violence, rights groups say.
Each year more than 15 million girls worldwide are married before they turn 18, according to campaign group Girls not Brides. Ending child marriage by 2030 is among the targets set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals recently adopted by world leaders.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women国产视频檚 rights, corruption and climate change.
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