{"id":12991,"date":"2022-01-10T02:48:34","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T10:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12991"},"modified":"2022-01-13T18:27:45","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T02:27:45","slug":"message-of-the-day-129","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12991","title":{"rendered":"Message of the Day: Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Child Marriage<\/em>, Politico Magazine, January 9, 2022 and UNICEF<\/span><\/p>\n

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Yesterday, a remarkable story–about child marriage in America and the brave fight to end it led by one woman–was featured in Politico Magazine.<\/p>\n

It follows.<\/p>\n

It speaks for itself–about the one thing we will say:<\/p>\n

Child marriage, an internationally recogized violation of human rights, is despicable–one of many inter-related aspects of child abuse.<\/p>\n

In addition, America still allows the practice in many places, and therefore is also falling down on the issue in global leadership–something few are aware of.<\/p>\n

We salute Politico for the story and the extraordinary woman whom we will let the story introduce.<\/p>\n

In the US, 300,000 minors were married from 2000 to 2018 alone.<\/p>\n

Here’s the link to the study from Unchained At Last<\/a> that produced this horrific information. It begins:<\/p>\n

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The United States has a child marriage problem \u2013 but a simple solution is available.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nearly 300,000 minors, under age 18, were legally married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018, this study found. A few were as young as 10, though nearly all were age 16 or 17. Most were girls wed to adult men an average of four years older.<\/em><\/p>\n

Child marriage \u2013 or marriage before age 18 \u2013 is dangerous. Even at age 16 or 17, regardless of spousal age difference, child marriage:<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Can easily be forced marriage, since minors have limited legal rights with which to escape an unwanted marriage (typically they are not even allowed to file for divorce);<\/em><\/p>\n

2. Is a human rights abuse that produces devastating, lifelong repercussions for American girls, destroying their health, education, economic opportunities and quality of life; and<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Undermines statutory rape laws, often covering up what would otherwise be considered a sex crime. Some 60,000 marriages since 2000 occurred at an age or spousal age difference that should have been considered a sex crime.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Unlike in countries where child marriage is illegal but persists anyway, the problem in the U.S. is the laws themselves. Most U.S. states still allow marriage before 18, and the four states* that banned it did so only in the last three years.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Federal law, too, allows and might even encourage child marriage. Immigration law does not specify a minimum age to petition for a foreign spouse or fianc\u00e9(e) or to be the beneficiary of a spousal or fianc\u00e9(e) visa, which allows for American girls to be trafficked for their citizenship and allows for children around the world to be trafficked to the U.S. under the guise of marriage. The U.S. approved nearly 9,000 petitions involving a minor between 2007 and 2017, and in 95% of them, the younger party was a girl. Further, the federal criminal code prohibits sex with a child age 12 to 15 but specifically exempts those who first marry the child. This incentivizes child marriage and implicitly endorses child rape.<\/em><\/p>\n

Legislation to this effect harms no one except child rapists, costs nothing and protects children from a human rights abuse.<\/em><\/p>\n

And then, the grotesque numbers on the glonal scale:<\/p>\n

One in five girls or women in the world is in a child marriage. One in thirty boys or men are.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the total number married as children was 765 million, with 115 million boys and men and 650 million girls and women.<\/p>\n

Here’s the link to the\u00a0UNICEF site on Child marriage<\/a>. The site also notes UNICEF’s partnership with the\u00a0Global Programme to End Child Marriage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UNICEF states:<\/p>\n

Child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child.<\/em><\/p>\n

Being married as children is, by definition, not an act of consent. Violence of all manner, sexual, physical and psychological, and many other of the most destructive of impacts on children, are involved.<\/p>\n

The UNICEF site on child protection’s introduction<\/a> gives some sense of the convergence of child marriage with other abuses and children’s rights violations:<\/p>\n

Children worldwide suffer insidious forms of violence, exploitation and abuse.<\/em><\/p>\n

Violence against children knows no boundaries. It happens in every country, and in the places children should be most protected \u2013 their homes, schools and online. It can be physical, emotional or sexual. And in most cases, children experience violence at the hands of the people they trust.<\/em><\/p>\n

Children in humanitarian settings are especially vulnerable. During armed conflict, natural disasters and other emergencies, children may be forced to flee their homes, some torn from their families and exposed to exploitation and abuse along the way. They may be injured or killed by explosive weapons in conflict, or recruited by armed forces. Especially for girls and women, the threat of gender-based violence soars.<\/em><\/p>\n

Harmful cultural practices pose another grave risk to girls and boys worldwide. Hundreds of millions of girls have been subjected to child marriage and female genital mutilation \u2013 even though both are internationally recognized human rights violations.<\/em><\/p>\n

No matter their story or circumstance, all children have the right to be protected from violence, exploitation and abuse. Child protection systems help children access vital social services and fair justice systems \u2013 starting at birth. They reach out to the most vulnerable children, including those with disabilities; girls and boys who have been placed in alternative care; children uprooted by conflict, poverty and disaster; or those who may become victims of child labour or trafficking, or recruited into armed groups. Child protection systems prioritize children\u2019s physical, mental, and psychosocial needs to safeguard their lives and futures.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, here’s yesterday’s article from Politico Magazine:<\/p>\n

“\u2018Why Is Child Marriage Still Legal?\u2019: A Young Lawmaker Tackles a Hidden Problem”<\/a><\/p>\n

Cassie Levesque wants to abolish a centuries-old practice. Even in free-thinking New Hampshire, her campaign is proving a hard sell.<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Erick Trickey,\u00a0<\/span>

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CONCORD, N.H. \u2014 <\/b>One day in the middle of September, Cassie Levesque walked up a carpeted hallway toward a committee room in New Hampshire\u2019s capitol complex. Wearing a navy-blue dress and matching mask, with her thick glasses pushed up atop her head, the 22-year-old state lawmaker was prepared for perhaps the most consequential vote of her young career. The Children and Family Law Committee, which she sits on, was about to consider her bill to ban child marriage.<\/p>\n

Levesque was hopeful but still unsure of her bill\u2019s chances. All the Democrats on the committee had pledged their support for her bill. But the majority of Republicans hadn\u2019t shown their hand.<\/p>\n

Levesque had worked for this day for a long time. In 2017, as a part of a Girl Scout project, she lobbied the New Hampshire legislature to act against child marriage. She was 17, old enough to marry in her state, but not old enough to vote. A year later, Levesque, by then a college freshman, stood next to Gov. Chris Sununu as he signed a law raising New Hampshire\u2019s minimum marriage age to 16 \u2014 up from 13 for girls and 14 for boys. \u201cCassie\u2026 really enlightened, I think, the entire state,\u201d the governor said. But to Levesque, the new law was a disappointing compromise. She wanted New Hampshire to become the first state to raise its minimum marriage age to 18, with no exceptions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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With unfinished business, Levesque won a seat in the state legislature later that same year, becoming the youngest lawmaker in the Capitol \u2014 and also a burgeoning national voice in a movement that was just getting traction.<\/p>\n

In 2017, all 50 states allowed minors to marry in some cases. Since 2018, six states have banned all marriages before 18: Delaware and New Jersey in 2018, Pennsylvania and Minnesota in 2020, Rhode Island and New York in 2021. Other states have recently tightened permissive child marriage laws, raising ages and adding some safeguards. But most states still allow teens to marry at 16 or 17 if parents and a judge consent. Some allow 14- or 15-year-olds to marry. Nine states still have no minimum marriage age at all, including liberal states such as California \u2014 where opponents of ending child marriage include civil libertarians on the left as well as family-first conservatives.<\/p>\n

Though fewer minors marry in the U.S. than in the past, child marriage still happens here. The U.S. Census\u2019 American Community Survey estimated that there were nearly 88,000 married teens ages 15 to 17 nationwide in 2019. An April 2021 study by the activist group Unchained At Last, funded by the Gates Foundation<\/a>, estimated that 297,000 minors were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018, and that 60,000 of them were under their state\u2019s age of sexual consent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\u201cA hundred years ago, women were still getting married young,\u201d said Levesque. \u201cNow we understand that kids need to be kids. They need to be able to grow up, because if they\u2019re thrown right into adulthood, they tend to sink versus swim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levesque and other anti-child-marriage activists argue that too many parents and grooms coerce girls into marriage, for reasons ranging from patriarchal cultural traditions to exploitation. The typical American child marriage isn\u2019t a Romeo-and-Juliet story of teenagers in love, they say; more than 80 percent involve a girl under 18 marrying an adult, often someone several years older. Child marriage, they warn, undermines rape laws. Once child brides are trapped in a coercive marriage, it\u2019s hard for them to escape; minors often find it hard to obtain a divorce, advocates say, and often can\u2019t get into women\u2019s shelters.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not just the 16-, 17-year-old-puppy love,\u201d said Levesque. \u201cIt\u2019s the 16-year-old marrying the 20-something-plus-year-old who is a family friend from a different country, who\u2019s going to take them, and then they\u2019ll be gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout her three years in the legislature, Levesque has advanced arguments like this from her seat on the Children and Family Law Committee. In February 2021, she rallied 13 child-marriage opponents to testify via Zoom, including five child-marriage survivors from states including California, Texas and Maryland (though not New Hampshire), who described their marriages as forced or coercive. \u201cI was 16 when I was forced to marry while living in a cult in California,\u201d testified one witness. \u201cI was forced to marry a 28-year-old after an engagement of three days. \u2026 And then I was taken to the South Pacific for 2 1\/2 years. They took my passport.\u201d One advocate for banning child marriage argued that judicial review of marriage petitions is often ineffective at stopping forced weddings, because teens fearful of familial violence \u201chave to choose between telling the truth and facing repercussion back home or lying to the court.\u201d Another witness noted that a 2020 U.N. report found linkages<\/a> between forced marriage and human trafficking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Levesque and activists who testified in February offered statistics showing that the likelihood of divorce approaches 80 percent<\/a> for those who marry before 18. Married teen mothers are less likely to return to school than unmarried teen mothers, which often means increased poverty later in life. And women who married as girls are much more likely to end up with mental-health struggles.<\/p>\n

But as she walked into the committee room \u2014 the first time since the pandemic began that the group had convened in person \u2014 she wondered whether that testimony had made any impact on her colleagues. The fact that none of the Republican members wore masks was a sign that bipartisanship would be scarce.<\/p>\n

As soon as the chair gaveled the meeting to order, a Republican lawmaker moved to declare Levesque\u2019s bill \u201cinexpedient to legislate,\u201d New Hampshire jargon for recommending that the full House reject the bill. He didn\u2019t offer a reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would definitely like to see this put through,\u201d Levesque responded, quietly but firmly, \u201cbecause even though the [age] 16 bill is helping, still we\u2019re seeing a lot of marriages still happening. And this can lead to further problems down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim Rice, the Republican committee chair, responded. \u201cJust so everyone knows, I did ask the committee researcher to send me data, and in 2019, there were five 17-year-olds who got married. In 2020, there was a total of zero.\u201d It\u2019s the only explanation for what happened next: The committee voted down the bill, 8-7, on party lines.<\/p>\n

After the committee vote, Levesque was disappointed but undaunted. Her bill would have one more chance: a vote by the entire New Hampshire House. \u201cI presented them with numerous facts, and they still didn\u2019t change their minds,\u201d she said of the committee\u2019s Republicans. The child-marriage numbers Rice cited didn\u2019t faze her. \u201cIt\u2019s happening, whether we like it or not,\u201d Levesque said, \u201cand five is way too many.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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