Cause and Negative Impact of Child Marriage to Young Girls
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Course
Eth101
Institution
Eth101
The Cause and Negative Impact of Child Marriage to Young Girls,
Child marriage is a marriage of a girl or a boy before the age of 18 and refers to both formal and informal union in which children under the age of 18 live with a partner as if married
The Cause and the Negative Impact of Child Marriage to Young Girls
Introduction
Every person has their different traditions but not every person knows the different
tradition of every people. And one of those is child marriage that has become the tradition mostly
in developing countries. According to UNICEF (2013) the most underage spouses in the world is
Africa and particularly in Niger and Chad. Child marriage is a marriage of a girl or a boy before
the age of 18 and refers to both formal and informal union in which children under the age of 18
live with a partner as if married (UNICEF, 2017). World Vision UK mentions that child
marriage may also a form of forced marriage because sometimes the opinions or the free will of
young children ignored by their elders, relatives and families. Moreover young children could
not understand the burden of marriage and its further implications. That’s why sometimes they
just agree to their elders or parents ,indeed, they do not have a choice or right to decide for
themselves. Furthermore, according to girls not brides (2011), every year twelve million girls
marry before the age of 18 this means that they have the greater risk of becoming victims of
violence, especially when the age between her and his husband is large.
(www.girlsnotbrides.org/about-child-marriage/)
The critic disagrees to child marriage; firstly child marriage violates the basic human
rights such as their rights in health, education and right to marry only when they are able and
willing to give their free consent. And yes we have rights, even though you are the parent or the
elder, you should respect the rights of your children or the young ones. Child marriage also
means stealing their childhood and we all know that childhood is the best experiences and
moments in our lives. Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women (2015) says that
, “No girl should be robbed her childhood, her education, health and her aspirations”. In addition,
it may be their tradition but according to AWID (2015) Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action (VDPA) affirms that it is the duty of States regardless their political, economic and
cultural systems to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms. Similarly
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), mentions to protect children from harmful
and traditional practices like child marriage. It only means that not every tradition is right
especially when it violates human rights. Secondly child marriage has great effects especially to
the girls’ physical health such as sexual activity, pregnancy and child birth, mental health such as
anxiety and depression. It also affects the girl education, life opportunities and potential.
Furthermore according to Kant if something is wrong, it is always wrong so basically child
marriage is definitely a wrong action whether it is tradition or practices.
Body
There are things that cause child marriage and one of those is poverty. Ahmed (2015)
mention that poverty is one of the most powerful drivers of the harmful practice in many
countries. Similarly the World Health Organization (2013) argues that one main reason of child
marriage is poverty. According to Girls not brides (2011) more than half of the girls from poor
families in developing countries are married as children. Moreover parents thought that girls are
economic burden and they believe that girls will be more financially secure, once the girls are
married off and out of their responsibility. Families who are poor want also to reduce the number
of children to food, clothe and educate (Girls not brides, 2011). Furthermore, the fact that the
girls family will receive a dowry from the grooms family such as cattle, money, land, gold and
others and often shared amongst the girls extended family.
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