Child Marriage

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 September 2012 14:45 Written by onlinemediaintern Wednesday, 29 August 2012 12:39

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New Partnership: AWEPA with Girls Not Brides

GNBTwo organisations and One mission to End Child Marriage

AWEPA is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Girls Not Brides Campaign. Girls Not Brides (GNB) is a campaign with a mission to end a harmful traditional practice, that of child marriage. Every year approximately 10 million young girls, under age 18, are forced into marriage worldwide. One in seven of these girls is married under 15 years of age and others are as young as eight or nine. This issue not only concerns the physical or emotional aspect of the inability of these young girls to become wives and mothers but the life-threatening risk of experiencing dangerous complications in pregnancy and child birth, along with the possibilities of HIV/AIDS infections and domestic violence.

Initiated by the Elders and AWEPA’s Eminent Advisory Board Honorary Chair, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of over 180 organisations that work together to end child marriage. AWEPA supports the mission of Girls Not Brides. GNB’s aim is to give a voice to girls who are at the risk of child marriage, to defend their rights to proper health support and education, and to provide them with the opportunities to fulfill their true potential without endangering their lives. In addition, GNB aims to support victims of child marriage by increasing awareness of the cause and to mobilise support and resources to end it.

AWEPA is committed to the values of human, women’s and child rights, and their development and prosperity. AWEPA works to strengthen the ties between African and European parliamentary members in addressing these issues and is highly motivated to participate in the Girls Not Brides Campaign. The activities in the framework of the Ending Child Marriage Programme are related to the Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) Programme. Since 2009, AWEPA has been working on the prevention of this other harmful traditional practices in Africa and Europe, and is working closely with UNFPA and UNICEF in their joint programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: “Accelerating Change.
 

Further reading

New updates on activities and information of the new collaboration of AWEPA in the framework of the Girls Not Brides Campaign will be on the AWEPA website.

For more information about the Girls Not Brides Campaign click here.

For more information about AWEPA FGM/C Programme click here.
 

Press

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