Out of the Shadows: Advocating to End Child Marriage during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Each year, 12 million girls are married before they turn 18; that’s 22 girls every minute whose childhood, dreams and education are cut short. Thanks to the efforts of policy makers, civil society, donors, communities and children, significant progress has been made over the last two decades. During this time an estimated 25 million child marriages were prevented, but many gaps remain in regions of the world with high rates of gender inequality and in fragile and humanitarian contexts.

The COVID-19 outbreak is proving to be one of the biggest challenges across all contexts. Since the pandemic, the risks of child marriage have increased due the global interruption in education, erosion of family incomes and economic assets, and decrease in access to basic services. Most recently, UNICEF has predicted 10 million more child marriages over the next 10 years. Combined with pre-pandemic data, this means that 110 million girls will be at risk of child marriage by 2030. The time for action is now. Governments, donors, civil society, community and faith leaders need to accelerate their actions towards ending child marriage and addressing gender inequality one of its main drivers.

The opening of the 76 session of the UN General Assembly, particularly its high-level week is an opportunity to elevate this issue as a one of the global development priorities and to highlight the need to strengthen and accelerate action and implementation of SDG targets related to ending child marriage and violence against girls and boys.