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AFRICAN UNION
UNION AFRICAINE
UNIÃO AFRICANA
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
P. O. Box 3243
Tele: +251-11-5517 700
Website: www.au.int
Fax: +251-11-5517844
DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE
African Girl’s Summit on Ending Child Marriage in
Africa
27 – 28 November 2015
Niamey, Niger
1. INTRODUCTION
Child marriage is a human rights violation that robs girls of their rights to
health, to live in security, and to choose if, when and whom to marry. It is a harmful
practice which severely affects the rights of a child and further deprives the child
from attaining other aspirations like education.
Every year, about 14 million adolescent and teen girls are married, almost
always forced into the arrangement by their parents. Although the proportion of child
brides has generally decreased over the last 30 years, in some regions child
marriage remains common, even among the youngest generations, particularly in
rural areas and among the poorest. Among young women worldwide aged 20-24,
around 1 in 3 (or 70 million) was married as children and around 1 in 9 (or 23 million)
entered into marriage or union before they reached age 15. The largest numbers of
child brides are concentrated in Africa. In Africa, the highest prevalence of child
marriage (Child marriage prevalence is defined as the percentage of women 20-24
years old who were married or in union before age 18) is dominant in at least 19
countries.i
Despite most African countries setting the legal age for marriage at 18 years,
laws are rarely enforced since the practice of marrying young children is upheld by
tradition and social norms. Child marriage is deeply rooted in gender inequality
(gender based violence and gender discrimination), poverty, tradition and culture.
The practice is most common in rural areas, where prospects for girls can be limited.
In many cases, parents arrange these marriages and young girls have no choice.
Consequently, some societies believe that early marriage will protect young girls
from sexual attacks and violence and see it as a way to insure that, their daughters
will not become pregnant out of wedlock and bring dishonour to the family. In effect,
the paradox is that parents and society are often wrong.
Girls and women have the right to live free from violence and discrimination
and achieve their potential but are prevented due to being forced into child marriage
and this harmful practice has devastating effects on the girl-child and the society,
one of the leading causes of maternal mortality and morbidity for girls age 15 to 19 is
pregnancy and childbirth.
As we look at the developmental impact of child marriage on the community
and Africa, we should bear in mind that, it is a serious violation of human rights.
Child marriage as a human rights violation has been included in a number of legal
instruments at the continental and international levels. The African Union (AU)
specifically promotes policies related to young peoples’ rights and is mandated by its
various legal instruments ( more recently, 5th Strategic Priority of AU’s Strategic Plan
2014 –2017 as well as AU’s Agenda 2063) with a bearing on the rights of children
and youth to promote common standards by supporting adaptation and
implementation of the instruments at regional and national level and monitoring of
implementation progress by Member States and ensuring accountability.
In an effort to provide a bright future for millions of women and girls, the AU
together with a range of partners launched the African Union Campaign to End Child
Marriage in Africa on 29 May 2014. The campaign is focused on accelerating
change across the continent by encouraging African governments to develop
strategies to raise awareness of and address the harmful impact of child marriage as
well as expediting and invigorating the movement to end child marriage by: (i)
supporting policy action in the protection and promotion of human rights, especially
with a view to addressing violence against girls and women and promoting gender
equitable social norms (ii) mobilizing continental awareness of and engagement to
end child marriage and (iii) removing barriers and bottlenecks to law enforcement.
III. OBJECTIVES OF THE MEETING:
In recognition of the efforts being made by African Governments and other
stakeholders who have been actively working to discourage the practice by raising
awareness of the adverse consequences for girls, running programs that provide
girls with viable alternatives to marriage, and working towards more effective
enforcement of existing laws that condemn child marriage; the African Union
Commission in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Niger are
planning a two days high level meeting from 24 – 25 November 2015.
The meeting will bring together high level personalities from Member StatesFirst Ladies, high level UN dignitaries, women and girls, civil society organizations
including community and religious leaders and other stakeholders to:
•
Share experiences particularly countries that have already launched
the AUC Campaign - good practices and challenges on ending child
marriage at country, regional and international levels;
•
Secure and/or renew commitments from stakeholders particularly
governments to invest more in order to accelerate an end to child
marriage;
•
Interactive discussions of successes and challenges from community
leaders, traditional, religious leaders, girls affected by child marriage
and youth advocating against child marriage
IV. EXPECTED OUTCOME OF MEETING:
The expected outcomes will be:
•
•
Enhance continental awareness of the effects of child marriage
The end of child marriage in Africa accelerated
V.
VENUE OF THE MEETING AND PARTICIPANTS:
The meeting will be organized by the AU Commission; the meeting will be attended
by Member States- Ministers of dealing with social development-children’s affairs,
Ministers of Finance, Religious and Community Leaders, youth advocates
particularly women and girls affected by child marriage; Development Partners, UN
Agencies, Bilateral and Multi-lateral Agencies and CSOs.
The Meeting will be held over two days from 27 – 28 November 2015, in Niamey
Niger as the host country.
VI.
COSTS
All costs for the meeting will all be covered by the African Union Commission and
supporting partners.
VII.
DOCUMENTATION:
Working documents: TBD
VIII.
WORKING LANGUAGES
Simultaneous interpretation will be available in the four AU working languages and
working documents also will be in the four AU working languages.
IX.
CONTACT
For further information, please contact:
Amb. Olawale Maiyegun,
Director, Dept. of Social Affairs, African Union Commission
P O Box 3243,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: +251 115 51 77 00/ Ext 2210
Email: MaiyegunO@africa-union.org
and CC: StrijdomJ@africa-union.org and
ThunduN@africa-union.org
i
Niger (75%); Chad (68%); Central African Republic (68%); Guinea (63%); Mozambique (56%); Mali
(55%); Burkina Faso (52%); South Sudan (52%); Malawi (50%); Madagascar(48%); Eritrea (47%);
Somalia (45%); Sierra Leone (44%); Zambia (42%); Ethiopia (41%) Source: UNICEF State of the World's Children,
2013 - data from UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)