UNTT supports efforts to end child marriage

Welcoming the resurgence of the debate on child marriage, UNTT in a release issued yesterday, reaffirmed its support for all efforts to end this practice.

Ending child marriage, UNTT said, will enhance the well-being of its citizens and advance achievement of its sustainable development vision.

Child marriage as defined by the United Nations Children’s Fund is “a formal or informal marital union engaged in by a person under age 18 (years).” UNTT said that child marriage “violates human rights and threatens the health and prospects of, in particular, young girls. In this way, it slows progress towards gender equality, and towards ending poverty __ in all circumstances and at all levels __ and it undermines all dimensions of sustainable development.” In addition, UNTT said, “It has been shown that child marriage undermines the rights of freedom of expression, protection from all forms of abuse, and protection from harmful traditional practices identified in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.